How to lower my income taxes in VA?

Question

I think I am getting a lot of money out of my paycheck every month for taxes. How can I find out if they are taking the right amount every month? My check usually is $960 every two weeks and taxes add up to $224.

Is that normal?? I am a student and this is a lot of money for me... :(

Is there any way I can lower the amount that I pay in taxes? or any alternative option?

Answer 1

What you need to do is do a projection of what your tax return will be when you actually file your taxes in 2009.

Go to the IRS website and look up tax rate schedules to see what tax bracket you will be.

Use your pay stub to project your total income and tax withholding for the year.

Use last years tax return as a guide for your total deductions.  Since you are a student, are going to claim the standard deduction or itemize?  Are your parents going to claim you as a dependent?  You need to know the answers to these questions so your projections will be accurate.

Once you determine if you are getting a refund or are going to owe.  Read IRS Publication 15 to see how much tax is going to be withheld from your paycheck based upon your W-4 filing.  You can read the similar publication for Virginia too.  Adjust your W-4 as needed.

Answer 2

Vote Republican. Democrats believe that many services should be provided by the gov't and therefore they need to collect more taxes to pay for them. Republicans believe people should be able to choose to get these services privately or choose whether to have them or not and therefore, require less taxes to be collected.