Just married, W-4 questions

Hi all,

I have a few questions about tax withholding and hope someone can help.

1  :  Do I have to claim a withholding allowance for my husband on my W-4?

2 : Even if I don't HAVE to claim a withholding allowance, should I? I understand that this would lead to less withholding from my paychecks, but could that result in a tax underpayment?

3 : Does it make any difference that my husband is not a US citizen or permanent resident?

4  : Should I be filing married/joint on my 2013 1040? Even if my husband had no income in the US?

5  : I'm fairly clueless about taxes in general (despite paying them for years!) so I really appreciate any advice. I will also try to get in touch with an accountant at my company. 

Answer : 

1 : it is up to you. You may be wondering if you need to change it since you started a new job, just got married or had your first child. There are many different reasons to change your paycheck withholdings. It is important to realize that the withholdings do help you to not pay taxes at the end of the year.yu may claim as many exemptions as you want on your W4, however, as you started a new job. If you are making significantly more money, you may not want to claim as many exemptions. This depends on your family size. Generally, if you are single you should continue to claim one. This number ensures that they withhold enough so that you do not owe at the end of the year. You can claim as many expressions as you want. If too little tax is withheld from your paycheck, then,there could be penalties imposed by the IRS

2 : It depends as mentioned above, more exemptions, less tax w/h while less exemptions , more tax w/h.

3 : Not at all; as you got married; he is treated as a US resident as you are a US citizen/a US resident read below.

4 : It depends; as long as you are a U.S. citizen or resident but your spouse is not, you can use the MFJ status on your U.S. federal income tax return if you elect to treat your spouse as a resident for tax purposes. By filing a joint return you would pay a lower tax rate than if you use the married filing separately status. Whether you should make this election depends on your income and your nonresident spouse's income.According to the IRS, if you elect to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident for tax purposes, you would both be subject to U.S. income tax on your worldwide income. Usually a nonresident is subject to U.S. income tax only on U.S. source income.To determine whether it is to your advantage to treat your spouse as a resident for tax purposes, you could calculate your taxes both ways before you file your return: married filing separately including only your income, and married filing jointly including both your worldwide incomes. If your spouse has considerable income outside the U.S., it may not be to your advantage to file jointly, even though the rates are lower.To make the choice to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident for tax purposes, you attach a statement to the joint tax return you file. The statement must be signed by both spouses and must indicate that on the last day of the tax year, one spouse is a nonresident and the other is a U.S. citizen or resident and that you choose to be treated as residents for the entire year. And you must indicate your names, addresses, and identification numbers. When you make this choice and file a joint return, you would need to request an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) for your nonresident spouse, unless your spouse has a social security number.

So, as on August 31 , 2013, you got married, you can file your return either as MFS or MFJ whatever you want. I mean as your husband has no reportable/taxable US income for 2013 (since he did work in the UK for the first half of the year), you can file your return as MFS since your husband doesn’t need to file his US return(but perhaps he must file his UK return on his UK income). Another option is to file your return as MFJ with your husband, then, he must report his UK income on the joint return and can claim his UK tax(es) that pays to UK taxing authority(ies) on his US return(joint return).I guess in this case, he must have lived in UK for the whole year of 2013.

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