Married Filing Jointly - Withholdings?

[xnelligatorx]

My husband and I were married at the end of 2021. We plan to file married/filing jointly.  Our taxes are fairly simple.  Should we change our withholdings on our W-4s for the upcoming tax year?  If so, how do we decide who withholds what?

[AliciaP1]

It is a good practice to review your W-4 each year anyway, especially with a life change like this - congratulations!.  The 2022 W-4 form has specific instructions to help with calculating your withholdings.    

You can find a blank form for each of you to complete and turn in to your employers here Form W-4.

Under Step 1 (c) you'll want to mark Married filing jointly then you will want to complete Step 2 utilizing pages 3 and 4 to determine if you need any additional amounts withheld.  

[xnelligatorx]

Thank you so much, Alicia.  🙂

[Opus 17]

If you do nothing, you will likely have more tax taken out than needed and get a larger refund, which is another way of saying you are giving an interest-free loan to the government.  

The IRS also has a calculator to help with your W-4 but it is temporarily out of service.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

If filing new W-4s, be sure to review all 4 pages of worksheets and instructions, not just page 1 with your signature that you give to your employer.  And you will want to do the calculations once, but submit new forms  to both jobs based on those calculations.