How to fill out the W-4 - YouTube

today I'm gonna talk about the IRS Form w-4 for 2019 this is gonna be the full

walkthrough it's gonna start with the online version but then I'm gonna show

you how to put it on to the paper version because it's the easiest way to

do it I'm also gonna put a link at the bottom so you can check out our w-4

playlist for other variations of filling out the w-4 if this is your first time

at our channel or you haven't subscribed to click on the subscribe button at the

bottom my name is Travis Sickle CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER with Sickle Hunter Financial Advisors

I'm gonna pull it up on the screen right now we're

gonna jump right into the IRS Form w-4 2019 I'm gonna pull it up on the screen

so here we go so this is exactly where you want to go this is the URL it's

irs.gov forward slash individuals forward slash IRS - withholding -

calculator I know it's a big one I'll put this link at the bottom click on it

and you can get right to the IRS calculator if you scroll right down

you're gonna see the button that says withholdings calculator go ahead and

click on it and it's going to bring you right into this calculator and this is

going to be super simple so we're gonna start out with married filing jointly so

what's your filing status whatever your filing status is go ahead and check it

off start with married filing jointly the next section is going to be can

someone claim you as a dependent on his or her tax return now remember your

spouse is not your dependent this is only if you have qualifying children or

qualifying relatives if you have a question go ahead and click on the

dependents it gives you a brief description what's also really nice is

if you're wondering whether or not you have a dependent you can always go to

the whom may I claim as a dependent and there's this nice little worksheet you

can click on begin and you can go through it it will help on whether or

not you have a qualifying dependent so go through that we're not going to go

through that in this video I'm gonna go right back into the w-4 calculator so we

have married filing jointly let's click off no can someone else

claim you as a dependent no click continue so the first line is select the

total number of jobs which you and your spouse are currently

or will be employed so if you are starting this job are you currently

employed that's what you want to check off here if you have other jobs that you

no longer are employed that's the next checkbox so just go ahead and check off

your current jobs are the ones that you will have so if you're starting a job

and say February and your spouse is a job right now you want to put in two I'm

gonna flip this to two job to show you what that's gonna look like the first

checkbox if you already had a job that you don't no longer employed at again

check that off check it off or don't check it off the next checkbox checkbox

if you or your spouse contributed to a tax-deferred retirement such as a 401k

this year so if it's a step as simple a 401k any of the retirement plans that

are pre-tax that's what you want to check off so we'll go ahead and check

that off to see what it looks like the next one is checkbox if you or your

spouse contributed to a cafeteria or other pre-tax plan such as a health

insurance this year now what this is referring to is these are the ways that

you can lower your taxable income so if that's the case the calculator wants to

account for it so if that's the case go ahead and check it off I'm not going to

check it off we're just going to move forward on that but if you do you're

gonna be able to lower your taxable income and ultimately have more money in

your paycheck the next one is check box if you and your spouse received a

scholarship or fellowship grant this year that must be included in gross

income so again if you receive the scholarship and it is taxable as income

then you have to add it to your overall income and in order to account for that

you'd have to check it off so the next screen if you did check it off you'll be

able to put in the amount that you received if we scroll down and we look

at select the number of dependents you've a claim on your tax return so

let's say I'm gonna put in three I have three kids I'll just put in three their

next one is if you or your spouse is over 65 or blind go ahead and check off

the appropriate boxes now the next one a lot of people get confused on the child

and dependent Care Credit so the first line is if you're putting your child in

daycare because you're either of look for work or you already have a job

that's a qualifying expense this isn't piano lessons swimming

lessons that that's not going to qualify it has to be a daycare now you also want

to note that this is child and dependent so you if you have an elderly parent for

instance that you're taking care of and during the day you bring that parent to

a dependent care facility that would qualify but you want to verify that it

is a qualifying event so if that's the case you can go ahead and check it off

on how many will qualify for it you don't have to worry about income limits

at this point in a calculator because the calculator is gonna do it for you

that's the really nice thing about this calculator and then you're gonna go

ahead and put those expenses right down in this box right here how much expenses

you do have now if you're not aware on those child cared expenses it can only

be up to three thousand or six thousand if you have two or more children and

it's only a credit of up to thirty five percent of that amount so if you have an

exorbitant amount of child or dependent care expenses they may or may not be

totally covered so you want to make sure that you understand those limits so

you're not overspending thinking that you're gonna get a bigger tax refund the

next section is going to look specifically for the child tax credit

and remember it's now two thousand not one thousand so if you do qualify for

the child tax credit that is a huge opportunity to reduce your taxes so I'm

gonna go ahead and put excuse me I'm gonna go ahead and put three because I

have three kids the Earned Income Tax Credit if you have qualifying children

go ahead and mark it off again if you qualify the calculator will do it for

you so let's say we go ahead and put three or more cuz I have three or more

kids in 2017 to qualify for the child tax credit your income had to be as a

single below seventy five thousand but that is increased to two hundred

thousand if you're married filing jointly as in this instance it's

increased from one hundred and ten thousand to four hundred thousand so if

you're going over this don't breathe over the child tax credit because the

income limits have increased significantly so you might qualify for

it so if that's the case be sure to check

it off now this last one down here is a little tricky the other credits and if

you click on the length of tax credits there's a list of

some of the tax credits that you can look at one that I'll point one that I

will point out is the retirement savers credit so if you do meet certain income

it's right here the retirement savings contributions credit which is also known

as the savers credit and it's one of the big ones that if you do make under a

certain amount you can actually reduce your taxes further with an additional

credit so you want to take a look at that but make sure you understand what

the income limits are on each one of those credits because if you take it and

you don't qualify for it you might end up owing more taxes at the end of the

year so we're going to click continue here now on this page we can take a look

and see jobs 1 and jobs two because if you recall from the previous page we put

that we have two jobs the first line that you're gonna look at is enter the

gross wages salaries and tips that you can expect to receive in 2019 then

remember if you're starting your job in February March or April and not January

1st then whatever you're going to earn for

an annualized basis so let's say that you have a job that you're making

$50,000 per year but you're gonna start it in February if that's the case you

need to do the math because you're not gonna make $50,000 in 2019 you're gonna

make only 11 months worth of $50,000 if that makes any sense so basically the

math looks like this if you have $50,000 and you divide that by 12 that's gonna

give you four thousand one hundred and sixty six dollars and sixty six cents

that is the amount of money that you're making on a monthly basis and again if

you start and fit on February first that means you only have 11 months earning

that amount so you'd multiply that by 11 which gives you forty-five thousand

eight hundred and thirty three dollars so again while you might be making fifty

thousand dollars on any 12-month basis if you only worked 11 months of the year

you have to do the math and that's what the most important part is here so if

that's the case and we say January 1st or right right away let's say we do

$50,000 and thirty thousand dollars if you're going to get any bonuses I'm

gonna put zero but if you think you're gonna get any bonuses and you put them

in here again it'll help you with your tax liability and figure out what your

withholding should be so because we checked off on the

previous page that we have a 401k it's going to populate this line that says

enter your total 2019 contributions such as your 401k you know if you didn't

check that box off you're not gonna see that on this page it won't be there but

since we did it will appear there so let's say that we want to save $5,000

into our 401ks and we'll put two thousand into this 401k the numbers I'm

putting in here or arbitrary it's really didn't depend on how much you're

contributing now again if you make $50,000 a year and you're contributing

3% you can do that math just do 50 thousand times point zero three is

fifteen hundred dollars your employer match doesn't count on this page it

doesn't matter it's just going to go into your plan so don't worry about that

just multiply the percentage that you contribute from your own paycheck into

your plan so if that's fifteen hundred you could put it in there if it's more

than that obviously adjust it now the next two boxes are gonna be a little bit

more relevant if you're already working throughout the year and you're going

back and making an adjustment why is that because you're gonna have to look

back at your pay stub to see how much was already withheld if you don't have

any withholdings then you would put zero on that same pay stub you're also gonna

have how much you withheld from your last paycheck so also go ahead and put

that in there so we're just going to put zero because we're early in the year and

we haven't withheld anything in the next section how frequently you are paid so

if you are paid weekly every two weeks twice a month or monthly that's going to

vary the difference between every two weeks and twice a month twice a month

would be 24 pay periods for the year and every two weeks would be 26 it's gonna

vary slightly but you want to make sure that you're doing it correctly if you

get paid on the same date twice a month of course it's going to be twice a month

if you get paid every other week then that is going to be every two weeks so

let's go ahead and put twice a month twice a month put what is relevant in

your situation and then pick the closest date that you

started this job this is going to help you do the adjustment now again let's

say we put February first here but we left that $50,000 it's going to assume

that we're gonna make $50,000 between February 1st and December 31st and if

that's the case then obviously leave that but here's where you can make the

mistake if you don't have those numbers correct so I'm gonna flip it back to

January 1st because that's what we're gonna make throughout the course of the

year if you have any non wage income go ahead and put it in that section this is

just adjusting your additional taxable income now the last section on this page

the adjustments it's actually kind of important because if you don't in 401k

and you want to use a traditional IRA this is exactly what you would look so

you want to look at here and say enter an estimate of your 2019 adjustments to

income including deductible IRA deductible IRA is your traditional IRA

so it's pre-tax dollars that's lowering your taxable income so for this year

it's going to be up to $6,000 now if you have a 401 K through work you're not

eligible for a traditional IRA so if you do qualify you want to put it in here or

if you're taking advantage of one then put it in here so if you are using a

traditional IRA that's where you would want to put it and of course educational

loan interest so let's click continue we're gonna skip that now here is the

itemized deductions this is the only page I'm not going to get into because

the itemized deductions get a little bit more complicated if you're trying to

reduce your overall tax liability and for most people this deductions page has

basically been phased out so the deductions page has been phased out for

most people and the reason it's been phased out is because the standard

deduction is increased significantly so the standard deduction for married

filing jointly is 24,000 dollars you can see that right up there at the top now

that means if you don't have itemized if you don't have itemized deductions that

are greater than 24,000 then you're just going to take the standard deduction so

I'm gonna go ahead and click continue now this is our answer page and if we

look right in the middle here we're going to see that job 1 earner

put in for allowances and job to earner should put in nine allowances and it

also is going to help you understand what your total anticipated tax

liabilities for the year and in this case I adjusted the numbers on the

income levels to a hundred thousand dollars so based on the information you

previously entered your anticipated income for tax year 2019 is one thousand

five hundred and forty two dollars so based so according to these results and

it says it right there in the first line based on the information you previously

entered your anticipated income tax for 2019 is one thousand five hundred and

forty two dollars now if you put in these allowances it's going to adjust

your paycheck now on this page it's going to give you the allowances and you

can see right below job one and two it gives you the link to the form w-4 so if

you don't have it just click on the link and it will pop right up scroll straight

down this is the only part that you need to fill out so that's what we're gonna

do next so here's where we could take the answers from the online version and

put it on to the paper version and this is exactly what you want to do so let's

go ahead and fill out this section together now this part right here is

what you need to give to your employer and it says it right here separate here

and give form w-4 to your employer so just cut it straight off rip it it

doesn't matter they only need this part they don't need the worksheet the

worksheet is for your records now if you've done the online version that last

page is what you can print out and save if you just want to know how you got to

the calculations that you did so let's go ahead and fill out this paper version

right here so your first name goes right in there

I'll put Travis sickle your social security so we'll put one two three -

four or five - six seven eight nine of course put whatever your social security

is your home address so put one two three this street and you're married

filing jointly so put in married filing jointly of course if you're single or

married but you want to do single then you can do it

here but married filing jointly if that's what you checked off put your

city state and zip down here now the real important part is line five total

number of allowances you're claiming so on job one and two we had four and nine

so we can either do four or put nine whatever yours is now if it says a

different number go ahead and put it in there line five line six is additional

amount if any you want it withheld from each paycheck now if you need it to put

say zero allowances and still withhold additional dollars then the calculator

will tell you that beyond that there wouldn't be any number here so either

just put a dash or put zero it doesn't matter but line six is only if you need

to withhold additional dollars in the same thing for line seven if you are

exempt from withholding stacks then you can write the word exempt as it says

here if you meet both conditions right exempt here and you write exempt here

now since our calculator doesn't say exempt then we're not going to put

anything there either now go ahead and sign it right there and then put today's

date so January 1st 2019 whatever the today's date is you can go ahead and put

it in there now these last three boxes you can either fill them out or just

give it to your employer and they'll be able to fill it out all they need to do

is put in their their own address and if it's a home office address or whatever

it doesn't matter just go ahead and put it in there and then box nine first date

of employment if you know it if you don't ask your HR department ask your

boss to ask your manager they'll be able to find this information for you and of

course there ìin which is the tax number of the business again

your employer HR or manager is going to know that information so you can put

that in there or have them do it for you but again all you need is this bottom

part so if we literally rip it off so if we just cut it off there bend it rip it

this is all you need that is it this page right here that's all you're going

to get to your employer everything else is for your own records of course you

can make a copy of this take a picture of it keep it for your own records but

this is the only thing that you're going and to your employer so that does it for

the IRS Form w-4 for 2019 now if you change jobs or want to go back and look

at it later if you don't think it's correct go through it again and make

sure that your answers are correct it's perfectly fine to update it as often as

necessary if you do have questions concerns comments put them in the bottom

in the comment section and again check out our playlist for our other w-4

videos that I'll do more variations if you don't see the variation that you're

looking for go ahead and send me a message and I will be happy to walk

through it if you've enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe and leave your

comments down at the bottom