Update to the below content: tax allowances reflected ‘tax exemptions’, which were removed with the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (tax reform) that went into effect in 2018 in favor of higher standard deductions. As a result, the IRS launched a new W4-Form that should be used by taxpayers looking to change their tax withholdings. See that article for more info on tax withholding and the below content covers tax allowances for historical reference and has some withholding tax tools that are applicable to today.
Tax Allowances Are Key to More Income
Tax allowances are the key to more income throughout the year. Unfortunately very few people know how they work. It’s that time of year when many people start to get giddy about getting that fat tax refund they’ve been waiting for. According to the IRS, the average tax refund in recent years has hovered around $3,150 per filed return. What many of us, particularly younger professionals, don’t realize or don’t want to accept, is that getting that huge refund is really a poor financial strategy.
The reason why anyone would be able to receive a huge refund is mostly going to be due to the fact that they were paying the government too much withholding tax on their income throughout the year in the first place. A lot of people realize this, but don’t seem to know how to take action. Personally speaking, I have fallen into that psychological trap as well, where you think by getting a large refund you are somehow better off financially for it. Getting that large check in the mail feels like a huge blessing. Quite the opposite is true.
The Drawbacks to getting a Large Refund
1. You are loaning your money for a negative return. Getting a large refund means you are paying more in taxes throughout the year. This money could easily be going into your bank account and earning interest throughout the year. Let’s say that you invest the extra income in mutual funds and you earn the stock market historical average, in effect you’re loaning the government your cash and in return for your kind offer you are giving them a good chunk of cash. Even if you just put the money into a low-interest checking account that returned 1% a year, consider it a 1% loss on the amount of your refund.
2. You are binging and purging your cash. Getting more of your true income delivered to you on a consistent basis allows you to work it into your budget. If you direct deposit this income into your savings, you don’t miss it at all. The urge for many, when they receive a big refund, is to go out and spend it because they feel that they deserve it. They do, after all, it’s their hard earned cash! If you set yourself up to not get that big refund, there’s no urge to purge.
3. You are not able to distribute investment risk evenly over time. Part of any good investment strategy is to distribute risk of loss by adding investment contributions over time. Even if you wisely invest your refund versus spending it all, you would most likely be making one large contribution versus spreading out risk over the year. This is a bad investment practice.
The Basics of Withholding Tax Allowance Exemptions
A withholding tax allowance is simply a number than you can claim on your W4 form that will change the amount of your income that your employer will withhold from you throughout the year. The number of allowances can vary, but is most likely 0, 1, or 2. The higher the allowance number, the less tax will be withheld from you with each paycheck. A W4 is filled out by an employee when they start employment.
Allowances on a W4 can be updated at any time by filling out a new one. Most employers will allow you to do this whenever you desire (and as often as you desire), and your withholding tax amounts should take effect in your next full pay period (this may differ by employer, so ask yours).
Don’t Take Tax Allowances Too Far
On the other end of things, you don’t want to end up owing the IRS significant money and possible penalties. Just be careful.
Your End Goal with Withholding Taxes
Ideally, at the end of the year, you will benefit the most if you receive a very small refund (close to nothing) or end up paying a very slight amount that you will be able to easily pay. One caveat when changing allowances: the last thing you want to do is end up with too high of an allowance that results in you owing a high amount that you are unable to pay.
How can I Figure out what my Tax Allowance should be?
Fortunately, there are at least three free resources available to you, which are cited below. If you still are having trouble figuring out what your allowance should be, you may want to speak with your employer’s payroll department or a qualified tax professional.
- IRS Withholding Tax Calculator
- IRS Withholding Tax publication 505: this includes the official withholding allowance worksheet and instructions.
- Intuit Turbotax W-4 calculator – includes tax estimator and withholding allowance calculator.
- H&R Block withholding tax calculator
Will you be changing your allowances in the coming year?
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Great insight G.E. I’ve always received a tax return and placed it directly into savings or an investment vehicle. It never clicked that I could be using the added income over the year to better take advantage of dollar cost averaging. I do, however, eat Vizios for breakfast.
Thanks Dan. You know what they say – “A Vizio a day keeps the doctors away”.
Ahahahahahaha! Great, great.
Being my first year employed I had no idea what I was picking when I did the allowances. I ended up going with 3. I guess that was a good move!
Three is pretty high, how much did you end up owing? The one thing that should be avoided is owing so much that you actually incur an interest penalty.
Federal tax I didn’t owe anything. Got $400 back. State tax I owed $181.
Excellent, that’s right where you want to be. Unless you significantly change your 401K contributions or change jobs, you probably don’t want to change a thing.
I am married with 1 child and I am the only one working. I brought in about 48K last year and received close to 6k in my refund. I used the IRS calculator and it told me to change my withholdings to 8! Is that correct? It stated that I would get about $75 back next year if my financial situation did not change. 8 just seems like too much…
Wow, I’ve seen 3 or 4, but never seen an 8! Pretty impressive, Freddie. I’m surprised with only one child it suggested you to claim that high. Do you have other dependents (other than your wife)? $6K is a huge refund, and in supporting your wife and a child, I’m sure that money distributed throughout the year more evenly to you may come in handy. My suggestions would be to try out a few different allowance calculators, and if they all come back with an 8, then go with it. Receiving a $75 return is a good scenario. If you’re still feeling a little weird about it after that, then you may want to consult with a CPA.
I agree with Dan – thank you so much for #3! I have received my refunds back, but stuck them in a savings account to deal with later, intending to put them in my Roth IRA when I get around to it. Now I’m thinking maybe I’ll just increase my Roth contribution to spread that out over time instead of making a lump sum contribution – I definitely would not have thought about that before reading this article.
Also, I have known for a few years that letting the government keep your money interest-free all year is not beneficial, but this past year is, I think, the first year I’ve ever had where I actually would have invested or saved it had I been paying less in taxes. So how do I change my withholding for the rest of this year to try to get more of my money for the rest of the year? Or I guess maybe I should just contact my Human Resources Department and ask them. . . lol.
Hi Stephanie, yes, I’d recommend trying out the calculators to see what they recommend, and then speaking with your H.R. department – they’ll be able to help you with changing your allowances, which you should be able to do at any time throughout the year.
ppl tend to blow their tax refunds
but, ppl tend to blow pay checks too
amen brother!
Question: Can I claim a really high amount of allowances in order to more closely estimate my final tax liability? I will only be working for a few months and don’t want to pay taxes every 2 weeks where the withholding is based on an estimate of what I would make if I worked for the rest of the year. I used a tax calculator and figued out that if I claim 14 allowances my bi-weekly withholding will be just slightly over my end-of-the-year tax liability (giving me a very small return), which is exactly what I want. My only concern is that the IRS is going to take notice of my claiming 14 allowances…
This is between you and payroll, not you and the IRS. The IRS will only get involved if, when you file your return, you owe more than $1000 and 10% of total tax owed. Look at the rules for underpayment penalties. The IRS doesn’t know or care how many exemptions you told payroll to do. Some companies require that you make the request in person if you are claiming a large number of exemptions. I’m sure if you show payroll your numbers they will cooperate.
@ J.D. – it looks like you’ve run the math, but as to whether or not the IRS will take notice of 14 allowances, I’m not quite sure. If it’s something you’re concerned with you may want to consult a tax professional, I’d hate to lead you astray.
I agree with Andrew…
I think that most people will not save with weekly or biweekly checks, instead prefer geting a thousand or so check in march or April over $40 dollars extra a week…
If you are already leaving on that budget or schedule, I suggest keeping it that way, because it is more likely that you are going to spend it as it comes in… consider it a savings account.. (by the way the amount the government makes on that money over the span of a year is minimal – consider that the first couple of months there isn’t much earned on that account)… Enjoy that that free money in april..
@ William – The problem is that people tend to view a refund as ‘bonus’ money that should be spent as a reward. If they were to get an extra $40 per week I would think that they would tend to value it more as hard earned income and work it into their monthly cash inflow/outflow. Anyone have data on the percentage of people that spend all of their refund?
receiving a tax refund is better than owing money to the government. most people don’t have $2K to just pony up at any given amount of time. this eventually leads to fees, debt and what not.
We’ve always gotten a large tax return, have never owed taxes, and we’d like to start having that money coming in during the year, but the numbers I get off the IRS calculator seem pretty unbelievable.
After plugging in my cottage-industry income (less than $1000/year), my husband’s salary (about 75k), kids, mortgage interest, FSA, 401k, ect… the IRS wants us to take *20* allowances!
Now, I know they’d much rather us pay, then them owe us money, but that seems pretty crazy. How can I find out where a safe line is? How much money will end up in our checks per allowance anyhow?
Just completed our joint tax filing and ended up owing the Feds about $1700. I was claiming 2 and my husband was claiming zero and we still had to pay. We have a daughter in college and are filing for divorce this year. My income is about $80-$85k. Any suggestions on what I should set my tax allowance for this year??
Means if not to do overpayment that return it is unnecessary better really this money to invest
With Obama’s announced work credit for 2009, I read somewhere that a person who receives a pension and also works might wind up paying more taxes. So, on the consul of my accountant, I changed my allowance from 1 for both state and federal to o. My pension check reflected the change. Bottom line payroll check to me reflected the difference. But, payroll check very confusing. Less tax taken for the year??? Wound up owing more money!! Shouldn’t amount of paycheck reflect change??? I have two check stubs..one when the allowance were 1…and one when they were changed to 0 and net amount to me was the same!! I think payroll people somehow goofed but it is a payroll service (ADP) and, I am given the impression by my employer that there is no one I can talk with!! HELP!!
I’m getting divorced and we have one child. I make about 80k more than my wife and our mediator told us that I should declare single on my taxes, claim 2 for me and my son, and claim 20 withholding allowances to boost my salary and pay the child support and spousal support. Does anyone know if this seems right? THe mediator claims that I still will not owe any taxes at the end of the year. She says my wife should claim head of household, and let me claim our son, and that it will work because I can deduct sopusal support.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
We must play on our duty, the citizen must response to pay tax, in order to develop their country. Also if they have a right to refund their tax, the action must be done too (get money back or give it to gov are choices). Avoiding tax is not the option for good people to do.
JP, or anyone in this situation, you deduct alimony paid from your income come tax time, but not child support. So be very clear about what you are paying for each.
For example, you have 80k income and you are paying 30k in support, but only 10k is alimony. You should probably claim single with 3 or 4 exemptions. The standard exemption is currently $3650 so for each $3650 that you are paying in *alimony* you should increase your withholding by one exemption.
To rightfully claim 20 exemptions, you would have to be paying 73k per year just for alimony. If this is the case, do it.
I think these figures are a little skewed by EIC. I see people all the time with low income who have 2 or three kids and get 6k back on their taxes. (Yes I’m a tax preparer). They certainly didn’t pay in that much, but with 3 alternative child tax credits and EIC it adds up quickly. These people use the money to survive. They are usually late on rent and bills and this is their only opportunity to catch up. The high figure is generally not coming from young professionals who pay in too much.
this is an oversimplification of the trade-offs involved. I save 40% of my income so I would use this approach. However, most Americans do not. As a rule they spend 113% of what they earn in their paychecks. If it were not for this financial babysitting many people would be further in debt, than they already are.
Question:
I’m recently divorced and paying significant alimony and child support and have quite a bit of charitable deductions. That being the case, can I legally claim W-4 exemptions for being married? I changed them to Single and my taxes jumped about 30-50%,but I’m SURE I’m overpaying and will just get a big tax refund — I’d rather have the money now.
Jim
My strategy is a bit unorthodox, but takes all the guessing out of tax withholding. I claim 99 exemptions (which basically means that my company does not withhold anything) and then in the box on the W-4 form that asks if you want any additional withheld, I put in the exact amount that I want withheld. I determine this exact amount by basically doing my taxes in advance. I determine what the yearly tax rate is on my income, and adjust for deductions. Once I know what my liability will be for the year, I just divide that by 24 (I’m paid bi-monthly) and I’m done. Works out nearly perfect every year. Of course, if you get a raise or something, you have to recalculate, but otherwise, you are set. This means you are maximizing take-home pay, but ensuring that you don’t owe anything at the end of the year either.
That’s exactly what I do too!
So, how do you do this without having your W-2 to go off of at the end of the year? Seems like a pretty good idea to me. :) Thanks in advance for an answer!
I have a bonus coming up soon. I want to change my tax deductions this one time only to get the full bonus amount & have little to no taxes taken out. Can someone tell me how I can do this? Thanks, J.
I make 47,000. per year. Can I claim 9 allowances and still not owe at end of year??? Went on IRS website and said I would still get back 125.00. Seems strange…I owe this year for the first time ever! I will claim single with no dependents and I rent. So, no deductions to claim really. I just want to have as much in my paycheck that I can without owing at end of year. Thank you.
I have 2 kids , what should be Number of Allowances Instructions ?
i dont make very much money, and im young in this world. trying to figure it out. i always been terrible with math… my mind shuts down whenever i see numbers (ive tried all kinds of things to improve this in my life but overtime came to the conclusion that i just suck at it). anyways… because of my bad numbers skills ive really messed myself up taxwise… im looking at my w2 seeing that i have three exemptions/allowances. I couldve sworn when i filled out my w4 that i didnt claim anything!!! last year i claimed (again because i just dont know what i am doing) and i ended up owing the govt 500 bucks… i dont make very much money so 500 was really really freaky. im trying not to stress and really figure this out… with the three exemptions im seeing on my w4 for 2015 does that mean im going to end up owing again? is there anything i can do to change this. please help me. and please dont think im stupid entirely… i just really need some help.
re-file your w4
If you are single and have one job, claim 1 or 2 allowances on your W-4. If you claim 1, you will likely end up with a refund. If 2, you will break even, receive a small refund, or owe a little amount.
I recently married in march of 2016 and plan on filing jointly next year. I have been claiming 2 and received about $1300 from federal last year. My wife makes less than half what i do and is claiming 1. I would like to get our refund in the happy range of little owe or receive and invest the extra money from my pay check into my 401k. My current check increased around $200 while still claiming 2. Should I change it to 1 or leave it be? I don’t want a huge tax bill next year. Thank you!
My income is of 80k getting divorce my child will staying with me
Can i claim 3 allowance Me +Head of house hold +Child
or
should i claim 2
Single Me + Child
My taxes were deducted a lot when i claim 2
My income is 65,000 with typically capitol gains. Ended up owing the government 1300 this year with allowances being 2. Should I continue or change to 1?
What about claiming 99 for the last couple months of the year? I’ve claimed 1 all year and was told that claiming 99 would be a good idea for the remainder of the year.
I only made $6,000 this year do I still get the standard deduction $6,350 for single will I get a refund
I have kept the same allowances for the last 3 years and consistently get about $800 federal return and $400 state return. Looking at my finances closer this year and wondering if I should increase my withhold to put a little more in my paycheck each month, or am I about right and just leave it where it is? Thanks!