Tax withholding

[DDABM]

My husband works full time and has an annuity income.  I work part time and have an annuity income.  We have two teenagers and investment income.  How do we fill out our W-4’s to have the most amount of tax taken out?   We always seem to have to pay the IRS at tax time.

[Critter-3]

Have all W-4 and W-4P forms set to SINGLE as the filing status  and leave the rest of the form blank.  

If that is not enough simply figure out how much more is needed and divide that by the number of payments you get on one of those things then add that amount to line 4C of one of those W-4 forms.  

[OpeA1]

Hello DDABM!

You will fill out your W-4 by taking care to fill out the following:

• Step 1 must have the correct tax filing status MFJ, in your case
• Step 2 should indicate the household has multiple incomes, by checking to box in (c)
• Step 3 should have the dependents accounted for in the first line
• Step 4 is optional, but (c) is useful if you feel you should have extra withholdings withheld each pay period.

Here is a link to our free estimator to better assist you in calculating how much you may owe in your specific situation: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/ 

I hope this helps.

Thank you for using TurboTax Live!

[DDABM]

So would I fill out all W-4’s the same way?  I feel like we tried that last year and my husbands job had NO tax taken out.  

[kdevere]

Each W-2 should indicate the correct filing status, in your case MFJ, then to ensure the maximum with holding use zero for Step 3 under dependents.  If you feel like you didn't have enough with held last year, make sure no one is checking the box in Step 2 (c), checking that box will result in less with holding.

[Faith C]

Hi DDABM,

Thank you for asking. Yes, you may fill out all W-4's the same way with reduced the number of dependents you claim and/ or add an extra amount on W-4 line 4(c) to increase your withholding amount. If you think those withholding amount is still lower than expected, you may make estimated tax payment directly to IRS at https://www.irs.gov/payments

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/estimated-taxes

[Critter-3]

Have all W-4 and W-4P forms set to SINGLE as the filing status  and leave the rest of the form blank.  

If that is not enough simply figure out how much more is needed and divide that by the number of payments you get on one of those things then add that amount to line 4C of one of those W-4 forms.  

Even if you file jointly you can choose the SINGLE option on the NEW  W-4 form ... that is allowed and legal.  On the old W-4 form there was actually an option called "Married but withhold at the higher single rate"  which was removed in the newly designed form.