How many should my husband claim to get more $ on his paycheck???

Question

I am trying to find out how many ppl my husband should claim in order to get a bigger check on payday instead of them giving a bigger income tax back at the end of the year??? He supports 3 kids and myself? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Just don't get carried away with the exemptions - I tried doing 10 exemptions when I had only 1 and virtually everbody I spoke to said that the IRS would flag that and would either audit me, or would disallow that and subsequently find that I had under-withheld and possibly levy a penalty.

Answer 2

Find out what he is claiming on his current W-4 and add one more.  

So - if he is claiming married with 5 exemptions, then change it to married with 6 exemptions.

If he is claiming zero or one, then change it to married with four or five exemptions.

Answer 3

To answer your question, the more exemptions he claims on his W-4, the less money his empoyer will take out of his check. This will give the family more money to use during the year. As you mentioned, the trade off is that you will get a smaller tax refund at the end of the year if you get any money at all. The real question you should be concerned with is will you owe the government any money at tax time if you do not have enough money taken out of his check due to claiming more dependents. One thing you can do is to take a look at his income and see if it is low enough to get the earned income credit. This is also based upon having eligible children to get the EIC. This will help to get some money back in a refund. Also depending upon his income, there may be NO TAX LIABILITY because of the combination of your filing status, (probably married filing joint, and the number of exemptions, (6) times about $3400 or $20,400 being subtracted offof his taxable income, there may be little or no taxes that you would have to pay. So take all of these things into consideration before you decide how may exemptions to claim.

I hope this helps you out.

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Answer 4

Go to www.irs.gov, and use the W-4 calculator there.  You should claim 1 each for you and your husband, 1 more allowance since you do not work, and 2-3 allowances for each child under age 17.  That will work out to 9 allowances (or 12) in all.  We have 4 children, I am also a stay at home mom, and we claim 15 allowances and still get a large refund due to the $1000 per child child tax credit, but be careful and do not withhold too little.  What does he have on his W-4 now?  You can check your total federal tax paid last year and see his current pay stub withheld and see how close you are and if it is safe to up his allowances.  Did you get a big refund each year?  As a general rule, each allowance you increase will decrease his withholding by $10 per week, so increasing it by 2 allowances should give you $20 more per week in his check ($1000 per year).  If you had a $3000 refund last year then increasing by 2 allowances is sensible.

Answer 5

Sounds like 5 people, or 5 allowances, and he could probably claim even more if you aren't working, and some or all of the kids are under age 17, one or even two extra allowances for each kid under age 17.

Answer 6

Before you make changes make sure that you are not going to owe money when the year ends