How to Fill Out the W-4 Form 2024

If you’re filling out a Form W-4, you probably just started a new job. The W-4 also called the Employee’s Withholding Certificate, tells your employer how much federal income tax to withhold from your paycheck. The biggest change is that it no longer talks about “allowances,” which many people found confusing. Instead, if you want an additional amount withheld, you simply state the amount per pay period. Employers use the IRS Form W-4 for 2024 version of the form to determine the amount of federal income tax to withhold from an employee’s paycheck. The IRS released a new form in 2020 and later versions with minor changes.

How to Fill Out a W-4 Tax Form for a New Job

You no longer need to calculate how many allowances to claim to increase or decrease your withholding. The new form instead asks you to indicate whether you have more than one job or if your spouse works. In simple words, a W-4 helps employers understand the amount of tax that needs to be withheld from an employee’s paycheck. On the other hand, a W-2 form is responsible for reporting the annual earnings of an employee to the IRS. Let’s say you work more than one job or file jointly with your spouse, who works too.

What Is a W-4 Form?

• The amount withheld is noted by the IRS to determine your tax liability and your tax due or tax refund will then be calculated accordingly during tax time.
• Self-employed workers, independent contractors, small business owners and others without an employer pay quarterly estimated taxes.
• In this article, you will learn about the 2024 W-4 for dummies and unlock the power to take control of your financial destiny.
• Whenever you run into any major life changes, you’ll want to update this form, too.
• You only want to pay the IRS exactly what you owe them throughout the year.
• When you’re a Pro, you’re able to pick up tax filing, consultation, and bookkeeping jobs on our platform while maintaining your flexibility.
• Because of a large increase to the standard deduction, there is no longer a need for personal exemptions on a W-4 form.

Putting money into a 529 plan for your kids’ college education can also help reduce your tax liability, but only for state taxes, not federal taxes. Whenever you start a new job, whether full time, part time, or seasonal, you should fill out a Form W-4. The W-4 helps your employer calculate the amount of taxes to deduct from your salary. If you don’t pay enough in taxes, you could get a high tax bill and could even have to pay a penalty.

• This will bring you close to paying how much you owe in annual income taxes so you don’t owe extra.
• You can choose what additional amount, if any, you want withheld from each paycheck on line 4(c) of the W-4 form.
• The information listed on the form is used to complete your tax return and must be submitted to the IRS.
• If you have other earnings, such as from bonuses, commissions or gambling, you likely need to increase your withholding.

You’ve had a major life-change.

Whatever your scenario, if you find yourself filling out a W-4 for the first time, you may be a touch confused by all the fields, worksheets, and forms. Depending on how you complete the W-4, you may find yourself with a tax refund or with unpaid taxes at the end of the year. So, that brings us to the question, how do we fill out the W-4 form in 2024? If you forget to submit your W-4 in time for the end of the year, the IRS will treat your income like that of a single person without any withholding allowances. Depending on your situation, this could be problematic, so be sure to submit the form as soon as possible while it is still fresh in your mind.

How to Check and Change Your W-4

For the first time, it allows you to indicate whether you have income from a second job or expect to have tax deductions that you will itemize in your tax return. All you have to do is request a new W-4 form from your employer (or download one from the IRS website for free), complete the form with accurate information, and resubmit it to your payroll or HR department. While withholding affects the amount of tax deducted throughout the year, reporting ensures that income is accurately reported to the IRS. Make sure to review your withholding and reporting practices annually to avoid any discrepancies. Consider consulting with a tax professional for accurate guidance tailored to your situation. Learn more about the 2024 W-4 form and how it affects your taxes.

• Before you get cracking, there’s some stuff to get done—aka your onboarding paperwork.
• Form W-4 is for telling your employer how much money to withhold from your paycheck to pay federal income taxes, called federal tax withholding.
• Before you begin filling out the W-4 form, plan to sit down with your spouse to determine whether or not you will be filing a joint tax return together for the current year.
• Now there are only five steps, three of which you can skip if you are the only breadwinner in your family, have only one job and have no dependents.
• Understanding the difference between tax withholding and reporting is important to ensure accurate tax payments and avoid penalties.
• Next, you’ll need to add the wages from your two highest-paying jobs together.

You’ll need to enter the number of pay periods in a year at the highest-paying job on line 3 of the Multiple Jobs Worksheet—for example, 12 for monthly, 26 for biweekly, or 52 for weekly. Divide the annual amount on line 1 (for two jobs) or line 2c (for three or more jobs) by the number of pay periods. Enter this figure on line 4 of the Multiple Jobs Worksheet and line 4c of Form W-4. It also asks whether your circumstances warrant a larger or smaller amount of withholding.

Blueprint is an independent, advertising-supported comparison service focused on helping readers make smarter decisions. We receive compensation from the companies that advertise on Blueprint which may impact how and where products appear on this site. The compensation we receive from advertisers does not influence the recommendations or advice our how to fill out a w4 for dummies editorial team provides in our articles or otherwise impact any of the editorial content on Blueprint. Blueprint does not include all companies, products or offers that may be available to you within the market. Fill out the Multiple Jobs Worksheet, which is provided on page three of Form W-4, and enter the result in step 4(c), as explained below.

There have been no major changes to the document in 2024, but the IRS has made a few small adjustments to make filling it out accurately even easier than it was before. Whatever your reasoning, you can reduce the amount of income tax withheld by reducing the number on line 4(a) or 4(c) or increasing the number on 4(b). If you’re an https://www.bookstime.com/ employer running a US-based business, FreshBooks Payroll software can help you onboard new employees, automatically run payroll, and make sure you stay compliant with tax and labor laws. Increase your desired income on your desired schedule by using Taxfyle’s platform to pick up tax filing, consultation, and bookkeeping jobs.

• He earned his undergraduate degree from New York University, and married his college sweetheart with whom he raises three kids in Dripping Springs, TX.
• Find a more comprehensive guide to filling out your W-4 here.
• For example, the information you’ve provided in the previous sections might result in your employer withholding too little tax over the course of the year.
• Spouse A would enter $3,890 on line 2a (the intersection of the $50,000–$59,999 row from the left-hand column and the $40,000–$49,999 column from the top row).
• Imagine driving without knowing how to read road signs or navigate intersections.
• But how long exactly before your paycheck reflects the changes largely depends on your payroll system.
• Using form W-2, individuals report their income and taxes paid to the IRS each year.