r2i forum

Hi All,
I filed my 2017 taxes where I had to pay 2K + to uncle Sam. :(

I went to IRS.GOV website to use the witholding calculator, located: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/irs-withholding-calculator
Keeping all the major items same for 2018 (as in 2017) such as salary, taxes paid in 2018 so far, 401k deduction, pretax plan such as health insurance, dependents claimed, dependent day care expenses , I estimated the tax liability for 2018. To my utter surprise keeping all the things same, I would overpay IRS by about 15K +. IRS calculator suggested that I should bump up my allowances to atleast 6 in order to come out even at the end of the year compared to current allowance of 3.

Did anyone use the calculator? Any suggestions on changing the allowances in W4 for 2018 based on the calculator?
I know each situation will be different, but wanted to check if anybody had a similar experience?

You really don't need any online calculator for you to figure out your taxes. If you are on W2, you would be able to calculate your W2 income. If you are married and your wife works you can get to the combined W2 income. For 2018, most probably you will take the Std deduction as there is a cap of Itemized deduction of 10,000.00
Total Income => W2 (Spouse1) + W2 (Spouse2)
Std Deduction = 24,000
Taxable Income = Total Income - Std Deduction
Calculate the tax using the Tax tables from IRS
If you have kids then the tax would be Calculated Tax - # of kids * 2000
Once you figure out you can divide the tax over # of paychecks.
All you need to do is at the end of the day you should deduct right amount tax
If you owe you should be happy that Uncle Sam gave you interest free loan.

For me generally I calculate right in January and adjust my paycheck such that I get no refund

Check this link: https://taxfoundation.org/2018-tax-reform-calculator/
You can choose one of the existing profile or create a custom profile to find the difference between current tax amount and to-be tax amount.