Federal Tax deduction due to claimed dependents

[michellemanoy]

Hello, we had our third child just this January and my husband had to update everything with his work and that includes claiming a total of 3 kids now and himself. We noticed that since he update the number of claims his payslip shows that they no longer take out federal tax on his paycheck. Why is that and how is it going to affect our tax filing next year?

[Nick-K-EA]

It is impossible to know your exact tax situation based upon the limited information you can give in a public forum. However, there are a few things we know for certain:

1. An additional child means an additional child tax credit.

2. Lack of withholding means a smaller refund, or you may end up owing.

Unless your income is relatively low, it is unlikely that the additional credit will be sufficient to prevent you from owing. To be safe, discuss the specific details with your human resources department, and if necessary, make an adjustment by filing a new form W-4.

[rjs]

You should use the Tax Withholding Estimator on the IRS web site to check your husband's withholding. It will give you an estimate of how your tax return will come out at the end of the year. If he is not having enough withheld, it will show you how to adjust his W-4 to get the approximate refund amount that you want.