Claiming dependent - put 1 or 500 in step 3
In Federal tax form W4, I am trying to figure out what to put in the following section so that my w4 is correct. I changed my status from single to married since I got married recently at the following location on my employer's website:
In the Claim Dependents section, I selected 1 since my spouse is dependent on me. However, when I selected 1 here, the step 3 in automatically generated W4 for me looks like the following on my employer's website:
However, the W-4 instructions says I should multiply other dependents by 500. But for me it's showing . So should I put 500 in the sections for Claim Dependents so that in the automatically generated W4 it would show 0 instead of ?
another question, can I also select Head of Household for filing status since I'm the only person earning in my family? Is it better than selecting Married filing jointly?
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W-4s recently changed from using a "number of exemptions" to a deduction amount per dependent. It looks like your employer's website hasn't been updated for that change yet. I would first talk to your payroll department to see what they recommend, but at worst you could enter in whatever numbers make the resulting generated W-4 correct.
can I also select Head of Household for filing status since I'm the only person earning in my family?
No - you have to be "unmarried" to file as head of household.
If you are filing your taxes jointly, you may not claim your spouse as a dependent, so the number you actually want to put there is 0. In general, though, you should enter whatever numbers your employer's website requires to complete the form correctly.
As for your filing status, married filing jointly will be better than head of household as the tax brackets are set to higher income levels and you have to be unmarried to file as head of household anyway. The head of household status is generally used by unmarried people with dependents.
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