: How do I fill my W4 allowances as a foreign student with two internships this year? I'm a foreign student that will be in the US for two internships. I just started one in the summer and will be doing another one in the fall.

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I used the IRS calculator and got results different from yours. Be sure to mark that you itemize your deductions and not using the standard deduction, since you're an international student.

The reason it suggests different withholding for different jobs is because the withholding calculation assumes you start from 0. Since for the second job you don't start from 0, allowances should be adjusted to put it into the right bracket. Essentially, you'll pay through withholding during the second job the tax on both the incomes.

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When the W-4 asks about multiple jobs it is asking about simultaneous jobs.

Assume you make ,000 every two weeks at job A. The default withholding will assume you will make ,000 a year. If you have two jobs at the same time each paying ,000 every two weeks, and you don't address the simultaneous jobs; each withholding will be sized for K of income, not K of income. Due to the nature of taxes (rates go up as income goes up) too little with be withheld.

If you have a job, then you quit and you get a replacement job; the default withholding will be sized as if you make ,000 every two weeks for the whole year. Which is a good estimate.

Each check will be withheld based on making that amount for the entire year. In the higher paying job too much will be withheld because it assumes a much higher total annual income; the lower paying job is harder to guesstimate because it assumes a lower total compensation for the year, but it also is for only a limited number of weeks.

Due to the fact that you are a foreign student your situation is even more complex. I would ask for assistance from the university to better understand the rules as they apply to you.