'married' on W2 form if in a domestic partnership?

Question

hi there, i have a short question: if somebody is i a domestic relationship, what would be reported on the W2 form (in california)?

married or something else?

thank you !

Answer 1

The "married" or "single" tax deduction status on your W-4 (which shows up on your W-2) has nothing to do with whether you're actually married or not. It's just a guideline for figuring out how much taxes you should withhold, depending on your filing status and deductions.

A married couple pays about half the taxes that a single person pays on a given annual income. That's because a married couple is seen as a single entity for the purpose of taxation. So, if you put down on the W-4 that you want your deductions to be for the single rate instead of the married rate, you get a lot more taxes taken out of your paycheck.

The number after the relationship status is the number of deductions you can claim, according to the worksheet that comes with the W-4. The bigger the number, the less they take out on your taxes, because this indicates that you have some deductions that will get you more taxes back (you need to withhold less).

Now, the worksheets are not an exact science and can get you in trouble. I'm married, and one year,I had a withholding status of married-4 or something like that. Turns out they withheld too little taxes (maybe I got a raise or something and we went into a higher tax bracket). So, I switched to M-0 for the next year. Still, the same thing happened. So, I finally switched to single-0, so they would take more taxes out and I would get a refund or break even (the ideal situation) instead of paying taxes the next year.

Answer 2

There is nothing on the W2 about marriage. It only shows what was paid to you, and what taxes you paid.

The W4 does mention marriage. But. Its only used by your employer to figure out how much taxes to charge you. It's never sent to the IRS. Almost never.

Answer 3

The federal government does not recognize a domestic relationship so you can not file "married filing jointly" on your federal income taxes.  California will have a provision for this on the state income tax form.

Answer 4

I assume you are asking about your W-4.  For federal puposes, you'd still put "single" since domestic partnerships aren't recognized at the federal level, and joint filing isn't allowed for domestic partners.