Starting a new job can be stressful in itself. With so many new things to learn, one of the dreadful things that you have to start getting used to is learning to pay your taxes. The W-4 form that is the Employee withholding allowance certificate, that your employer will give you to fill will be a documentation that your employer will withhold a specified amount from your paycheck which will be paid as income tax. The form filling is pretty straightforward that is until you come upon section five, which will ask the total number of allowances you will be claiming.

The W-4 form that is the Employee withholding allowance certificate, that your employer will give you to fill will be a documentation that your employer will withhold a specified amount from your paycheck which will be paid as income tax.
To fill this you will have to look at the upper part of the form where you will find the Personal allowances worksheet. Each allowance that you will claim will reduce the amount that your employer will withhold from your paycheck. Now stop before you claim as many as allowances that are allowed, because obviously that is not allowed. Go through the following steps:
If no claims you as a dependent, then you must claim one allowance. Like if you are young and applying for a par time job or an internship where you are required to fill out the W4 form, you cannot claim an allowance as, your parents or guardians probably have you claimed as their dependent.
In case you are single and have one job or if you are married with a spouse who is not currently working, you can claim second allowance. If your wages from a second job or if your spouse earns less than One thousand and five hundred dollars or equal to that amount you can claim second allowance. Basically if there is only one source of stable income, you can claim second allowance.
You can claim one allowance if you have a spouse, however if you have a second job that pays good or a spouse with a stable income, you might not claim any allowance.
If you have a dependent other than that your spouse like a child or a relative that is dependent on you financially, you can claim one allowance. It must be noted that any pets you may keep may take up your expense, but are not allowed to claim allowance on them.
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