Marriage!!! How does it work?

brandongriffin

Hi FreeTaxUSA team, I just got married a month ago and my wife and I are a little confused on what taxes will look like for the year. I also just started a new job so I took the opportunity to update my W-4 to married and filing jointly, but my wife has not updated hers yet.

My question relates to the extra withholding I am doing on my W4 following the calculations on the form to get our taxes right. (I make 2.5x my wife’s expected income). If my wife converts her W4 to married filing jointly; does she also need to enter any extra withholding or is mine supposed to cover it? And What happens if a job I had earlier in the year sends an individual W4 now that we are married?

DennisR

Hi - Congrats on your wedding!

Even though updating your W-4 after marriage is helpful, the W-4 won't limit what filing status you can use come filing time. Even if you and your spouse both have individual W-4s, you can still use either of the Married filing statuses.

For more individualized tax planning advice, it's easier to message us from within your account. However, in general when preparing a W-4 after a marriage, you'll want to figure what to adjust your withholding to based on your combined total income rather than just each other's individual incomes. How the total withholding is split up is ultimately up to how you decide to divide it between your two jobs - as long as the correct withholding amount based on your income and filing status is met, the getting there can be more flexible.