Withholding after several life changes

Aacampbell17 — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 05:28:16 GMT

Hi, my husband and I have undergone several life changes which have made calculating withholding and filling out W-4s difficult.

We have filed jointly once before for 2021, but at that time we were both working several part time jobs and were getting significant tax credits for being fulltime students.

This year is the first year we will both have a fulltime job and not be students. I began my job at the beginning of the year (basically 1st of January) and make $27,000. At the time, my husband did not have a consistent job, but would occasionally bring in money from odd jobs, so I couldn't really predict extra withholding, and so didn't do any extra withholding.

He recently got a fulltime job (June) and brings in about $32,000 yearly. He is withholding $117 a month, per the calculations on the W-4 form.

My question is, should I also be withholding that amount? Should I withhold anything to account for his occasional work earlier in the year? Trying to not get hit by a big surprise tax bill later on.

Re: Withholding after several life changes

OpeA1 — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 17:46:03 GMT

Hello Aacampbell17!

Yes, life changes do make for reconsidering your taxes. You are one of the few who plan ahead, great job!

Yes, since you are both no longer full time students, you will lose all the education credits you had previously qualified for. So, your taxes will be different this year!

The best way to determine if you are withholding enough, is to use a tax estimator to calculate how much taxes you'll owe and adjust accordingly. Here is a link to our free tax calculator https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/ and another to the IRS W4 calculator http://www.irs.gov/W4App
You can also use the tax tables to determine how much you may be owing according to your tax filing status. As you know the most advantageous filing status is Married Filing joint (MFJ). Here is the link to the IRS tax tables: https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/income-taxes/federal-tax-rates-2021/L5IzYLix5_US_en_US?uid=l63ux3tu
Once you figure out the estimated amount owing, you can adjust your W-4 accordingly.
Step 4(c) on the W-4 allows you to put in extra (additional) tax you want withheld each pay period.

I hope this helps.

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Withholding after several life changes

Re: Withholding after several life changes