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I have a base salary of 75,000 a year with a $12,500 bonus each year. My wife works part time (16 hours a week) and makes $940 a month gross income. How many allowances?

Base salary 75,000
Annual bonus 12,500
Wife job 940 gross income each month
Paid monthly. My first paycheck withheld 28% of my gross income for taxes?
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1 Reply
DanielV01
Expert Alumni

I have a base salary of 75,000 a year with a $12,500 bonus each year. My wife works part time (16 hours a week) and makes $940 a month gross income. How many allowances?

It depends.  The number of allowances you choose will have an impact on how much tax is withheld, which will in turn affect how much refund you receive (or tax you must still pay in).  Here is the situation:

Your total salary is 87,500.  Your wife's income is roughly 11,000, which brings your total to 98,500.  I'm going to assume no credits or itemized deductions, which does impact the final result a bit.  At that income, with the standard deduction, you would have a taxable income amount of just under 78,000 (about 77,800).  According to this year's tax table, the amount of tax is 10,999 on that amount for Married Filing Joint.  (Your tax is reduced by deductions and credits for which you qualify)

The number on your paycheck you want to pay attention to is the Federal Taxes Withheld amount.  Social Security (FICA), Medicare, and State and Local Taxes are fixed amounts that do not affect your Federal Return.  Of your $6250 salary, you will want to see close to $800 of Federal Tax withheld.  This way, by the end of the year, you should have contributed around $9600 not including your bonus.  With the bonus you will have close to the $11000 yourself.  

This is important because they may not withhold much tax from your wife's job, which would have a negative impact on your return because you are in a higher tax bracket, and the amount withheld from your wife's job does not assume that you have a much higher-paying job.  

This IRS tool may be of assistance:  https://www.irs.gov/individuals/irs-withholding-calculator.  Bear in mind, however, that what you want to see is the actual amount of tax being withheld, not simply what the system suggests is the right number of allowances.  Hopefully, this gives you an idea of what to expect next year.

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