IRS Publication 17 — Your Federal Income Tax (Individuals)

Note: You can’t give your employer a payment to cover withholding on salaries and wages for past pay periods or a payment for estimated tax. Completing Form W-4 and Worksheets Form W-4 has worksheets to help you figure the correct amount of withholding you can claim. The worksheets are for your own records. Don’t give them to your employer.

Multiple Jobs Worksheet. If you have income from more than one job at the same time, or are married filing jointly and you and your spouse both work, complete the Multiple Jobs Worksheet on the Form W-4. If you and your spouse expect to file separate returns, figure your withholding using separate worksheets based on your own individual income, adjustments, deductions, and credits. Deductions Worksheet. Use the Deductions Worksheet on Form W -4 if you plan to itemize deductions or claim certain adjustments to income and you want to reduce your withholding. Also complete this worksheet when you have changes to these items to see if you need to change your withholding.

Getting the Right Amount of Tax Withheld In most situations, the tax withheld from your pay will be close to the tax you figure on your return if you follow these two rules.

• You accurately complete all the Form W-4 worksheets that apply to you.

• You give your employer a new Form W-4 when changes occur.

But, because the worksheets and withholding methods don’t account for all possible situations, you may not be getting the right amount withheld. This is most likely to happen in the following situations.

• You are married and both you and your spouse work.

• You have more than one job at a time.

• You have nonwage income, such as interest, dividends, alimony, unemployment compensation, or self-employment income.

• You will owe additional amounts with your return, such as self-employment tax.

• Your withholding is based on obsolete Form W-4 information for a substantial part of the year.

• You work only part of the year.

• You change the amount of your withholding during the year.

• You are subject to Additional Medicare Tax or Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT). If you anticipate liability for Additional Medicare Tax or NIIT , you may request that your employer withhold an additional amount of income tax withholding on Form W-4. Cumulative wage method. If you change the amount of your withholding during the year, too much or too little tax may have been withheld for the period before you made the change. You may be able to compensate for this if your employer agrees to use the cumulative wage withholding method for the rest of the year. You must ask your employer in writing to use this method.

To be eligible, you must have been paid for the same kind of payroll period (weekly, biweekly, etc.) since the beginning of the year. Publication 505 To make sure you are getting the right amount of tax withheld, see Pub. 505. It will help you compare the total tax to be withheld during the year with the tax you can expect to figure on your return. It will also help you determine how much, if any, additional withholding is needed each payday to avoid owing tax when you file your return. If you don’t have enough tax withheld, you may have to pay estimated tax, as explained under Estimated Tax for 2026, later.