I've been reading this blog religiously for the past month and with the new year, I wanted to gather recommendations/thoughts on how to update my DW and my w4 deductions. We just got married in October so we've both kept our w4 deductions for 2014 at 2 (line A and B both =1) on the federal form. Below are some expected details for 2015 and we'll be married filling jointly.
Wages:
Job 1: 85k
Job 2: 58k
Job 1 Bonus: ~7-8k (max 10% if I and company both reach our goals)
P/T (planned) Extra income: ~3k (refereeing sports, consulting gigs, etc...obviously difficult to nail down)
Investment Dividends and Interest (taxable accounts): ~3k
K-1 from partnership: no idea what that's going to look like
Tax Deferred Plans:
Job 1 401k contributions: 18k
Job 2 Simple IRA contributions: 12k
Other:
No dependents
Might buy a house or investment property in 2015
Obviously, we want to minimize our refund for tax year 2015 (actually better if we owe a little).
1) Any secrets on how to set up w4's so we can meet our goal? Do we both stay at 2 deductions on our w4's?
2) Will buying a house / investment property affect the deductions (i.e. if we itemize deductions due to mortgage interest, will we owe less tax and therefore our w4 deductions will be off)? If we buy an investment property and start collecting rent, does that throw off our deductions?
3) If the P/T income were to increase dramatically to say 15k (i'm very optimistic), would that severely screw up our deductions?
Sorry for the barrage of questions, but any help would be greatly appreciated.