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The Kitchen Table

Can anyone decipher the current W4 form?

rob333 (zone 7b)

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

I want to change my withholding and the number of allowances is not a number any more? It's got some weird $ calculations. How do I just up it one number (from 5 to 6, for instance) of withholding? Oy!

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Comments (6)

Elmer J Fudd
4 years ago
It's not something I've ever paid much attention to but it does appear to have changed. No worries

First thing to do is to pose the question to your employer's payroll department. Not every place does it quite the same way. Some have their own practices that may differ from IRS suggestions.

If that doesn't get you to where you want to be, follow the link at Step 2, a, to the online IRS Withholding Estimator. Follow that through and it will give you a "credit" number that gets entered on the W-4 that should accomplish what you want. No, you won't have such a credit on your tax return but it appears that's how the form works now.

Don't try to understand the reasoning, it's a form and they decided to do it a certain way. There's nothing more to know or figure out, just follow the instructions.
rob333 (zone 7b)
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I am not trying to understand their reasoning, just find a shortcut?! What you read in puzzles me sometimes.

I'm really not sure why you posted since "it's [not] something [you] ever paid much attention to". I was hoping someone who does pay attention might be able to help. I work in a place that's the size of a city, and they're working on complicated stuff right now. I will call work, but this is something that should have been simple and I wanted to take it off their plate.
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Elmer J Fudd
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
No, I didn't pay much attention to W-4 forms over my long professional career dealing with much more complicated matters because withholding and the W-4 form are more trivial than trivial. That doesn't mean I don't understand it because there's mostly little or nothing to it. It's IRS procedure that changes sometimes and it appears this is one of those times. Any person can be told in 5 minutes how it works, what the goal is and how to get there and in that time learn everything there is to know.

There's a procedure, my suggestions were a shortcut. I spent time on a day I don't have much extra time to try to help you follow it. If you want to do something else, feel free.
graywings123
4 years ago
I read a few months ago that they eliminated the "person" allowance, and that seems to be what you are seeing. I don't remember what the reasoning is. I will google it and get back to you.
graywings123
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
From Investopedi.com Link to article

The 2020 version of the W-4 form eliminates the ability to claim personal allowances.4

Previously, a W-4 came with a Personal Allowances Worksheet to help you figure out how many allowances
to claim. The more allowances you claimed, the less an employer would
withhold from your paycheck and the fewer you claimed, the more your
employer would withhold. (Although the standard deduction nearly doubled
with the TCJA, personal and dependent exemptions were eliminated.)

The new form aims to make the process of determining how much an
employer should withhold easier. It has five sections to fill out versus
the seven sections that the previous version included.
rob333 (zone 7b)
Original Author
4 years ago
It's not easier. I'll bug my departmental person and find out if it it really is... heh. You know the IRS and "easy" don't go in the same sentence.

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