Married, filing jointly filling out 2018 W4

[masonb09]

My wife and I were married at the end of last year, and now we are filing jointly (possibly itemizing deductions for mortgage interest, student loans, etc). Without doing all of that, we are assuming the standard deduction. I think for the time being, we are only claiming two allowances, her and me. I make roughly 20,000 more than her. We are filling out our 2018 W4s. Should I mark 2 allowances on mine, and 0 allowances on hers? I've read some places that we should each take 1 allowance, some say the higher salary take all allowances and lower salary take none, and some places say the w4 should be identical. I don't care about a refund, I just do not want to owe taxes this time next year. Thank you.

[MichaelL1]

If you want to be sure not to pay next year, then have her list the 2 allowances and you list 0 allowances.

The higher income earner will then have more taxes taken out during the tax year.  The more allowances the less tax is withheld. 

Also remember the standard deduction for married goes to $24,000 so you may not be itemizing for 2018, as the mortgage interest, taxes, contributions, state taxes, etc, have to exceed this amount before it impacts the taxes.