W-4 calculator 2026: what to put on your W-4

What goes in each step of the W-4?

• Step 1(c), filing status. It picks the table your employer uses: single, married filing jointly or head of household.
• Step 2, two jobs or a working spouse. Each employer sees only its own pay, so without Step 2 each one withholds as if it were your only income. Tick the box on both W-4s only when there are two jobs and they pay about the same (the form says: when the lower pay is more than 50% of the higher). Otherwise put the extra in Step 4(c). The calculator checks both ways.
• Step 3, dependents and other credits. $2,200 for each child under 17 and $500 for each other dependent, if total income is $200,000 or less ($400,000 married filing jointly).
• Step 4(a), other income with no tax withheld, such as interest. Step 4(b), deductions beyond the standard deduction, from the form’s Deductions Worksheet: the new deductions for tips, overtime, car loan interest and people 65 or over, and itemized deductions over the standard deduction. Step 4(c), extra tax taken from each paycheck.

Your employer turns these into the tax on each paycheck with IRS Publication 15-T: it adds up a year of pay, takes off $8,600 ($12,900 married filing jointly) when the Step 2 box is not ticked, reads the tax from a table and divides it back across the year’s paychecks. That is the arithmetic in “The working” above.

A worked example, by hand

Fill in Step 2 if you have two jobs or your spouse works, Step 3 for children ($2,200 for each one under 17) and put any extra tax in Step 4(c). A married couple earning $75,000 and $45,000 with two children, paid every two weeks, should leave the Step 2 box empty, enter $4,400 in Step 3 and $159 in Step 4(c), for a $14.00 refund in April 2027.

1. The year’s tax: $75,000 + $45,000 = $120,000 of wages, less the $32,200 standard deduction: $87,800 taxable. 10% of $24,800 is $2,480, 12% of $63,000 is $7,560: $10,040. Less the child tax credit (2 × $2,200): $5,640 for 2026.
2. Step 3: two children under 17 × $2,200 = $4,400. The couple’s income is under $400,000, so the form’s own sum applies.
3. Step 2, the box: $45,000 is more than half of $75,000, so the form says the box suits. But with it ticked on both W-4s, the two jobs would withhold $3,270 + $3,220 = $6,490 a year, $850 more than the tax. So leave it empty.
4. Without the box (Publication 15-T, the STANDARD table): your job: $75,000 − $12,900 = $62,100, which withholds $4,640 a year, less Step 3’s $4,400: $240. Your spouse’s job: $45,000 − $12,900 = $32,100, which withholds $1,280. Together $1,520: $4,120 short.
5. Step 4(c): $4,120 ÷ 26 paychecks = $158.46, rounded up to $159 a paycheck. The year then withholds $1,520 + 26 × $159 = $5,654: a $14.00 refund in April 2027.
6. Your paycheck: federal income tax of $178.46 a paycheck with a W-4 that has only the filing status, $168.23 with the new one: $10.23 more take-home pay every two weeks.

The result panel above starts on this example.

When should I change my W-4?

Whenever something changes your tax: a new job, a second job, marriage or divorce, a child, or your spouse starting or stopping work. Then check it again each January, when the new year’s tables start. Started a job in the middle of the year? Open “Part way through 2026?” in the calculator: the tax still to pay is spread over the paydays left, not the whole year.

Already filing? The tax return calculator works out your refund for 2026, and the W-4 guide explains the form step by step.

What does this calculator leave out?

• It is an estimate for wages, not tax advice. Federal income tax only: most states with an income tax have their own withholding form.
• Self-employment income and tax, the Additional Medicare Tax, and three or more jobs at once. For those, the IRS’s own Tax Withholding Estimator is the better tool.
• Credits other than the child tax credit and the credit for other dependents (education, child care, the earned income credit). You can add an estimate of them to Step 3 yourself.
• Bonuses and pay that changes from paycheck to paycheck: many employers withhold a flat 22% on a bonus.
• The other job’s W-4 is taken to have only the filing status, and the Step 2 box where we say so, for the whole year.
• Payroll systems that round each paycheck’s tax to the dollar, and the 37% bracket’s trim of itemized deductions in the year’s tax.

For anything here, the IRS’s own Tax Withholding Estimator is the official tool.