W4 married filing jointly- abnormally high allowances per IRS Calculator

[rob-c-rees]

Hi there,

I used the IRS withholding calculator located at https://www.irs.gov/individuals/irs-withholding-calculator which is advising that I claim 8 allowances (based on 2016 taxes to date entered).

Does this seem abnormally high to anyone else?  For reference I had been claiming 1 allowance before.

I am worried this is flat out wrong, but I did enter all info accuratly into IRS calculator (attached results as image).

[bluedeb · Accepted solution]

I believe the program is assuming you are changing the amount for the last 2 months of the year. 

Make sure you have put in your full year's income and tax payments, from what you already received and taxes paid plus what you will receive and pay for the last 2 months of 2016.  The IRS calculates it so you don't get a refund when you file your taxes.  It is hard to say how it work out when you file your taxes but the IRS usually is pretty close. 

You can also use TurboTax's W4 calculator, to see what that comes up to

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/

[dmertz]

TurboTax's W4 calculator has not been updated to work for 2016.  You might be able to get a reasonable result by pretending the current year is 2015, not 2016, when entering the date of your next paycheck, and enter your ages as of 12/31/2016, not 2015.

[TaxGuyBill]

If I understand that calculator correctly, it is already taken into account the withholding payment you have made for the last 10 months.  It is suggesting that to 'break even' for 2016, that is what you could claim for the next TWO MONTHS.

As it says on that page, check at the beginning of the year to see what you should claim for the full year.