Tax withholding W4

[droh82]

Sup all,

For the past 5 years or so, I have been lucky to work a full time job and a part time gig but during tax time, I find myself always paying IRS back roughly ~2k-2.5k (fed and state combined) even though for both jobs I claim single, 0 exemptions and 0 allowances.

I wanted to start getting ahead of this and update my W4 withholdings for my part time gig as I get a really high rate and dont mind withholding a little bit each paycheck.

If I take a look at my 2018 tax return and find how much i had to pay back fed/state, then divide that by the number of paychecks (bi-weekly - 26/year) and withhold that much on each paycheck, would that be a good rough estimate to withhold on my W4? I expect my income for 2019 to be roughly the same as last year.

[NotJen]

Have you tried filling out the worksheet on the W4, specifically the section about multiple earners/multiple jobs?

You can also try the IRS withholding calculator, which will take into account what you have already withheld for the year.

Since neither job knows your total income, withholding at Single/0 doesn’t necessarily cut it, as you’ve discovered.

[kanga1622]

If I take a look at my 2018 tax return and find how much i had to pay back fed/state, then divide that by the number of paychecks (bi-weekly - 26/year) and withhold that much on each paycheck, would that be a good rough estimate to withhold on my W4? I expect my income for 2019 to be roughly the same as last year.

This is what we did for years. My side-gig was considered self employment so I took out the extra $600 by having my W2 job take an extra $50 a month. Worked out brilliantly until the income became less predictable from year to year. This is a fantastic example of why the "withhold extra from each paycheck" is perfect to have on the W4 form.

This will of course only change your federal withholding not your state withholding. I don't have state income taxes so cannot provide advice on changing that withholding rate.