Currently I have 9 allowances. I just had another child and now I have 4. Can I claim 11 allowances instead of 9? Last year I had a refund of 3500.

[crzy18dsy]

I currently make 100,000 a year before taxes and wanted to raise my pay as we are thinking of buying a house.  My wife does not work and I have 4 children.  Currently I am claiming 9 allowances.  Am I able to claim 11?  I normally get a refund of 3500 a year.

[Carl]

What are you calling an "allowance"? From what I see, you have a total of 6 "exemptions" - one for each child and the self-exemption for you and the wife. Where is this 9 and 11 coming from?

[crzy18dsy]

On the personal allowances worksheet I am entering 1 in A, 1 in B, 1 in C, 2 in D (I had 2 kids at the time), and 4 in G.  Which is a total of 9 exemptions.  I plan on updating my W-4 to reflect the fact that I have 4 kids now so on line D it would be 4, which means my exemptions would be 11.  I wanted to know if was able to do that or not.

[Carl]

I've just conducted a search through my entire 247 page 2015 return (PDF file) and find no worksheet called "personal allowance" Care to elaborate more so I have a clue what each letter you reference, refers to? Also, I have no clue what flavor of the program you're using, and weather you're online or desktop.

[VolvoGirl]

The personal allowances worksheet is part of the W4
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf</a>

[VolvoGirl]

You can claim anything you want on the W4.  It doesn't have to match your tax return.  The W4 is not reported to the IRS.

[VolvoGirl]

Turbo Tax can help you fill out the W4. You can just type w-4 or W4 in the search box at the top of your return , click on Find. Then Click on Jump To w-4

Or go to
Federal Taxes Tab or Personal (for H&B version)
Other Tax Situations
Other Tax Forms
Form W-4 and Estimated Taxes - Click the Start or Update button

[Carl]

I'm still curious where 9 and 11 are coming from.

[Critter]

6 + 1 for non working spouse + 4 for CTC on the kids = 11

[VolvoGirl]

Read line G.  Looks like you get 2 more (less 1), etc.

[crzy18dsy]

Ok thanks everyone.  I heard that the max exemptions you can claim is 10.  My old W4 was based on me having 2 kids.  I was thinking if I updated it to reflect the fact that I now I have 4 it would then be 11.  Since I currently get a refund of around 3500 a year I am assuming that having new exemptions at 11 would increase my take home pay, but of course not have a refund at the end of the year.

[Critter]

You are not limited to 10 any longer.

[crzy18dsy]

Thanks Critter #2, did not know that.  I will adjust my W4 today.

[SweetieJean]

Try this tool:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/