Question about w-4

[Jacob1395]

Hello I always filed head of house hold, this year I filled as married filing jointly but my wife does not work should I make the change on my w-4 to married  filing jointly? Would i benefit from this?  She is also a stay at home mom 

[KanchanM]

Hello, you can change your status to married filing jointly even when your wife is not working, this will benefit you in a way that you will have slightly higher income every paycheck because with married filing jointly you have higher standard deduction, but at the same time your refund, if any, at the end of the year may go down.

[Scooter1768]

Hi! Jacob1395,

Thank you for your question. Changing your W-4 status to MFJ will will likely have the effect of decreasing your withholdings from your paycheck. If you filed as MFJ this past year, and the result was that you did not have to pay tax nor did you get a really large refund you were not expecting, you do not have to change your W-4 because your return has a different filing status. 

The W-4 is estimating your taxes due and calculating payroll withholdings accordingly. Your tax return and the W-4 do not need to have the same filing status. 

However, feel free to take a look at the W-4 estimator and see how the change could affect you.https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/

[Jacob1395]

I would like to keep the same on this w-4 as head of house hold would this be ok? 

[KanchanM]

Yes that is okay, your W4 status doesn't have to be the same as when you actually file your return.