Summary of W-4 Tax Form

"In conclusion, we've worked through two W4 forms. One for James Smith and one for his wife, Mary Smith. In James' case, if you remember, he had his job first so when he filled out his personal allowance worksheet he claimed himself, he did not claim Mary, he did claim his two children and he did claim two child tax credits so his total deductions, personal allowances were five and that's what he entered on his form. When Mary got her job, she entered one for herself but note she didn't enter anything else because that had already been taken on her husband's personal allowance worksheet. So she claimed one here, that's because she had a situation where she was married, she went through the two earners multiple jobs worksheet and the end result of that was that she ended up not claiming any allowances and had an extra hundred and eighteen dollars per pay period deducted from her pay so that she would not end up owing money to the government. So the main thing here is to remember that if you are a married couple and have two jobs within the family to make sure that you do complete all the forms and make sure that you don't mess things up by either not having enough tax withheld or having too much withheld. If for example you're just one person and you have two jobs, make sure on your second job that you do not claim any withholding allowances."