# Tax withholding question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-withholding-question/342185 "2006-01-30T07:17:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-withholding-question/342185/1 "2006-01-30T07:17:30Z")
I am not asking for advice in lieu of going to an accountant, but I wonder if anyone else has gone through this. 2005 was my first full year owning a home. It’s in San Francisco, so it’s expensive. Therefore, I had huge deductibles on my income taxes this year, and I am getting a juicy refund. All well and good so far. I want to adjust my withholding so I will withhold enough less per week so that there will be only a small refund next year. I think I can do a better job of saving and investing my money than leaving it at 0% interest with uncle sam. So I hied me to payroll to change my W-4. When I use the worksheet on page 2 of the W-4, it says I should take 10 deductions! :eek: When I looked at the withholding tables available from the gov’t online, it seemed to figure out that I should take 5 deductions. I’m playing it safe with 5, and after my next paycheck I should be able to tell if that was right. But I wish I didn’t have to play this game. Why is it so hard? And does anyone have a reliable way to figure this out (other than the trial and error approach that I’m already using)? Roddy ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-withholding-question/342185/2 "2006-01-30T13:39:16Z")
There is a [federal tax withholding calculator](http://apps.opm.gov/tax_calc/withhold_calc/) online. This is only Federal. California may have something similar. ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-withholding-question/342185/3 "2006-01-30T13:41:04Z")
Of course the calculator above assumes that you know how much you want withheld, which seems to be the case. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-withholding-question/342185/4 "2006-01-30T17:22:02Z")
Same thing, same area. I did some quick calculations to figure out what I thought the withholdings should be and then used the IRS form to calculate what they suggested, numbers matched up. I also wound up with a large number of deductions (something like 12 federal). Made me nervous so I ran my numbers again, looks about right (gives me an additional X dollars on each paycheck, and X is pretty close to last refund/12. Assuming that nothing dramatic changes in my situation that’s pretty close). ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tax-withholding-question/342185/5 "2006-01-30T17:45:23Z")
FWIW, I used the same form last year and came up with 7 or 8 deductions. (I’m in similar position, fairly big mortgage, recent purchase of first home, etc) I got nervous thinking that was a lot of exemptions, so I put 6 and forgot about it. I’m getting another big refund this year. So, my lesson is, the form seems to give a pretty accurate read on what you should claim for exemptions. YMMV.