How many allowances should I claim on my W-4 if I am single and have one job?

Question

I have three questions. Should I claim one or two allowances on my W-4 if I am single, and have only one job? If I claim one allowance will I have to pay in? If I claim two allowances will I have to pay in? My goal is to have as little taken out of my paycheck without having to pay in.

Answer 1

Then claim as many allowances as gets your tax to zero (you can calculate that on your W4) Keep in mind that you will owe the tax next April and, under certain conditions, you may owe penalties as well. Best strategy is to have allowances set such that you owe a little bit of additional tax each April.

Answer 2

With two you will very likely get a small refund, although it's possible you'd have to pay a small amount.

Answer 3

You should claim 2 allowances to get the biggest check possible and still not owe at the end of the year.

You can read IRS Publication 15 for more information.

Answer 4

One allowance will be best.  Claiming two is inviting a tax bill.

This answer assumes you do not have large mortgage payments that permit you to itemize your deductions.

Answer 5

I went through the worksheet and am claiming 2 allowances and I'm in pretty much the same situation as you. Last year I had to pay taxes but it was only a relatively small amount, but some other years I've gotten refunds.  It could go either way with 2 allowances and seems like it depends on how much you make and what deductions you can claim.

If you're worried and don't want to have to pay anything out of pocket at the end of the year you might want to go down to 1 allowance or even 0 if you want a big refund and to be absolutely sure.

If you have too much taken out by your employer, though, it means that you're loaning the money to the IRS until you get your tax refund check and they give it back to you.  It also means that they get to earn interest (instead of you) while they hold your money for you.

But of course if you don't want to deal with trying to make sure you've saved a little money for taxes (just in case) then maybe it's better to have them take out more.

You can also try out the IRS withholding calculator from the link below, but I found it confusing and it didn't help me much except to reassure me that my current withholdings are enough.

Answer 6

When I was single I claimed 0 - that way I was guaranteed to get something back and wouldn't have to pay, especially if you have nothing else to claim and help offset how much you are earning!

Good Luck!