Help with Withholding

[teamShaleen]

Apologies if this exact scenario has been covered.

The short version:
I just started a new job in a new state and I'm worried I'm not filing/withholding appropriately on my taxes.  I kept my filing the same as it was for my previous job/state to establish a baseline, and after looking at my initial pay I think I may be withholding too much, but am having a hard time calculating to determine if that is actually the case.

Some background:
I am married, however, for the past (?) years I've been filing as separate from my wife, as she has a large student loan in an Income Based Repayment plan.  It would appear that the monthly loan amount would far exceed any kind of marriage credit and so we've been keeping my income out of that equation.  Additionally I have been claiming 0, and filing as "Married but withhold at the higher single rate" because I want to be sure I'm not paying in at the end of the year if I can help it.

Based on my research, with my new salary I fall into the 24% bracket, which indicates I owe a base $14089 + 24% of the amount earned over $82500 (another $7560), so $21649.  If I subtract the standard $12k deduction, it comes down to $9649. With my current claiming and filing status I'm paying the fed $401 per weekly pay period, multiplied by 52 weeks would be $20852 (not including SS, Medicare, etc, as I'm not sure how and if those amounts factor into federal payments).  This math puts me at a return of $11203.  Does that check out?

This is understandably more complicated based on the fact that these calculations are for an entire year, and I've only just started my new job.  I'm getting close to paying a tax professional at this point but figured it was worth a shot on the forums.

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read or offer suggestions/advice.  I'll gladly provide additional context if needed or helpful.

[Lucky Recardito]

The standard deduction comes off your taxable income, not the tax itself.

SS and Medicare don't factor into federal tax payments -- they're totally separate systems.

Suggestions for you:

- If you want to get really nerdy about your withholding and taxes (which it sounds like you might!), I suggest studying the 1040 to get comfortable with how your AGI and taxable income are calculated (for example, make sure you're excluding any traditional 401k contributions, health insurance payments, and HSA/FSA contributions from your base salary when considering what part of your income is taxable)... then reading up on how withholding works (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf, and/or try playing around with a paycheck calculator like https://www.paycheckcity.com/calculator/hourly/ to see if you can re-create the math yourself and get it to match your paystub). Once you understand those pieces, you can look more accurately at what you expect to actually owe in taxes for 2018, and compare that with what you've already withheld (including your previous job), and what you're on track to withhold for the rest of the year, and adjust accordingly.

- If you don't want to get really nerdy about it, check out the IRS's withholding calculator (https://apps.irs.gov/app/withholdingcalculator/) -- have records from your old job handy, as well as your most recent current paystub, and this will help you re-set your withholding for the rest of the year.