I am married with one kid NOT born in the US. I'm on H-1B and my wife(not working) and kid are on H-4. I generally get a big refund at the end of every tax year but I want to move towards a zero refund. Apart from having a filing status of Married Filing jointly, how many allowances should I choose so that the govt withholds the optional amount of tax? I heard that non US citizen kids don't have some tax benefit that US born kids have. Does that change the withholding allowances? Any ideas?
Use the IRS Withholding Calculator. It'll tell you what to put to minimize over/under payment
2 for yourself, 1 for each of your dependent. So it should be 3 if you exclude your kid and 4 if u include.
You can go from 4 to 6. It will end up paying a bit at the end depending on how much you get paid throughout the year including bonuses. I rather pay a little upon tax filing than let gov borrow my money for 0 interest.
https://www.irs.gov/paycheck-checkup will give you an interactive tool to check your withholdings for the year and make changes now so you'll have the amount at tax time.
4
Deduction for children with SSN: $2k/child Without SSN: $500/child But the problem is, your W-4 isn't aware of SSN non-availability, therefore your withholding will be for $2k, but come tax filing time, you will owe tax because withholding was lesser. It is convoluted, but that's how it is since last year.
It really does not matter. I put in single 0 all the time. Many here will disgree with me and say I am giving interest free loan to IRS. The higher the deduction lower the tax so you may end up with a surprise bill end of year. I pay highest tax possible and get it back end of year. I am pushed to live with less money monthly and I do not heavily invest in alternate forms so I do not care that I am giving it to IRS for hold. But you may be very good at investing your money wisely so follow the guidelines but be ready for some tax payment back end of the year
2
2 + 1 per kid right?
Read the form. It explains this. Or, ask your CPA. The tax return would be required to calculate an accurate answer.