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W4 Form Tax Withholding Amount Based on Your Paycheck

The 2025 Form W-4 is a planning tool - unlike a tax return - to determine your IRS tax withholding amount per paystub or per pay period. What matters is that you determine the "right" tax withholding amount that preferably results in a $1 tax refund on your next return - why not a large refund?

Create Form W-4 based on your actual or estimated paycheck - contact a Taxpert® with questions. Once you have created your W-4 and see the actual tax withholding amount on your paystub, use the tax return estimator to plan your next tax return.

Paycheck and W-4 Creator Help
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A
Filling Status and Number of Jobs
B
Job Payment Period and Payment Type
C
Pre-Tax Health and Retirement
D
Dependents and Deductions
E
Paycheck and Form W4
A1: Select Your Filing Status

You can use the filing status to increase or decrease your tax withholding. For example, if you select married filing jointly, it will decrease your tax withholding amount while selecting single would increase it.

A2: Do You and Your Spouse Together Have more than One Job?

Start with the job with the highest annual income.
When done, create the next W-4 for the lower paying job.
See more details about W-4s for multiple jobs.

A3: How many jobs do you and your spouse have now?
Enter the Annual Gross Pay for the job you are completing this W-4 Form for, or job 1
Enter the Annual Gross Pay of job 2
Enter the Annual Gross Pay of job 3
If more than one job has annual wages of more than $120,000 or there are more than three jobs, see IRS Publication 505 for additional tables; or, you can use the online withholding estimator at www.irs.gov/W4App.
B1: Select Your Pay Period for this Job

The selected pay period does not impact
whether your tax withholding will increase or decrease.
Contact us for free Taxpert® support.

Annual
B2: Select Your Payment Type

The selected payment type does not impact
whether your tax withholding will increase or decrease.

B3: Enter Your Gross $ Paycheck Amount per Pay Period

Enter the correct pay period gross paycheck amount
including FICA, federal taxes, state taxes, and deductions.
Contact us for free Taxpert® support.

Amount
+ Add
B3: Enter Hours, Rate per Pay Period

Enter the correct pay period gross paycheck amount
including FICA, federal taxes, state taxes, and deductions.
Contact us for free Taxpert® support.

Hours
$ Rate per hour
+ Add
C1: Select a Pre-Tax Health Insurance Type and Enter the Amount

Enter the exact pre-tax health plan contribution amount here as shown on your pay stub; enter 0 if none.

Insurance Type
Amount
+ Add
C2: Select a Pre-or After-Tax Retirement Plan and Enter the Amount

Enter the exact pre-tax retirement plan contribution amount here as shown on your pay stub; enter 0 if none.

Contribution
Type
Amount
+ Add
D1: Enter the Number of Dependents or Estimated Child Tax Credit

Generally, more dependents will decrease the tax withholding amount and less dependents increases it. Since this is a planning tool, you could add/subtract dependent(s) here to manage your withholding. Tip: Enter a number and monitor the results on the right side.

Dependents
D2: Enter the Number of Other Dependents or Estimated Other Dependent Credit Amount

See above; the same applies here.

Other Dependents
D3: Enter an Amount for Other Tax Credits

If you think or know that you will qualify for other tax credits on your next tax return, enter the per pay period tax credit amount here. See details on tax credits.
Generally, a tax credit amount here will decrease your pay period tax withholding.

D4: Total Tax Credits
0.00
Important Form W-4 Entries

The entries below can have a significant impact on whether you will increase or decrease your tax withholding per pay period, thus they will have an impact on your next tax return results (refund or taxes owed).
Contact us for free Taxpert® support.

D5: Enter an Amount for Additional Deductions

These are deductions you would enter on your tax return on Schedule A. Do not enter your standard deduction here as it is already applied by this tool.
Since the W-4 is a planning tool, you can decrease your pay period tax withholding by entering a dollar amount here and seeing on the right side how your tax withholding would change. Learn more about deductions or adjustments to income: deduction details.

D6: Enter an Amount for Other Income

If you have additional income that would show on your tax return (1099-based income, self-employment, retirement, etc.) and are currently not withholding federal income taxes for it, you can enter the per pay period income here (divide the annual income by the number of pay periods for your W-2 job).
Since the W-4 is a planning tool, you can increase your pay period tax withholding by entering an amount here and see on the right side how your tax withholding would change. Learn more about additional deductions or adjustments to income: taxable income.

D7: Enter an Amount for Extra Federal Tax Withholding

If you know an approximate or exact actual dollar amount you wish to withhold in addition to your current W-4 based withholding amount, enter that amount here. Unfortunately, the W-4 does not allow you to enter a total fixed tax withholding dollar amount per pay period.
Since the W-4 is a planning tool, you can increase your pay period tax withholding by entering an amount here and see on the right side how your tax withholding would change.
Alternatively, you could make one or more estimated tax payments on the IRS site instead of withholding additional taxes here.

Your Federal Tax Withholding Calculated Amount is:
D8: Exemption from Withholding

Since the W-4 is a planning tool, you may consider decreasing your pay period tax withholding amount by temporarily exempting yourself from tax withholdings. Just make sure you do not owe too much in taxes on your tax return as it might result in a penalty for not withholding enough taxes throughout the year.

E1: Email Address
Optional: receive your paycheck and W-4 results via email.
Skip Email Paycheck Estimate

Continue and Create Your W4 PDF Form
Based on these Estimated Paycheck Results

Tax Withholding and Form W4 Video

E2: Enter the W-4 Form date.
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E3: Name and Address
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E4: Social Security Number: Why is this needed?
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E5: Signature Type or draw your signature
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E6: Email Address Enter your or your employer's email
Create and Email Form W-4
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Take Home Pay

$0
 per Pay Period
Earnings
$0
Salary
$0
Hourly
$0
Other Income
$0
Benefits
$0
Medical
$0
Retirement
$0
Dependent
$0
Deduction
$0
Taxes
$0
Federal Income Tax
$0
Medicare Tax
$0
Social Security Tax
$0
Disclaimer: eFile.com makes no warranty as to the accuracy of the results of this estimator or calculator tool. The results are estimates and for informational purposes only, and should not be relied on for tax advice.

W-4 Video Overview

An overview on when and who to best complete a Form W-4.

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