What is the correct filing status for a married couple with one child and one on the way?

You file your tax return either as Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. You'll normally pay less tax filing jointly. You get one exemption for each of you for a total of 3. The bun in the oven means nothing until he or she pops out. If it's before 12/31, you get another exemption for the year.

As to what to claim on his Form W-4, since he is the only earner, he should file that as Married and 3 at the very least. With only one child, he could claim 4 withholding allowances and you would just about break even with only one child. Once the new one arrives, he can bump that up by 1 and claim either 4 or 5 withholding allowances.

This will significantly increase his paychecks and reduce the size of the refund that you get, which is probably what you really need to do.

If you read the instructions for Form W-4, you get one allowance for yourself, one for your spouse, one for each child or other dependent, as well a one "bonus" allowance if you hold only one job or are married and your spouse doesn't work. Therefore, claiming Married and 4 right now or Married and 5 once the baby is born is quite legal and will just about zero you out at tax time.

When you indicate "married" on your W-4, it means that you will file jointly and take at least the standard deduction of $10,700. The number of allowances is usually the same as the number of exemptions. For you, that will be three exemptions. So, married and three would be a good guess.

Since you have a child, if you make less than $34,000 a year, all from wages, you will owe little (less than $300) or no tax because of the Earned Income Credit and Child Tax Credit. If this is the case, pump up the allowances to reduce your tax withholding to little or nothing. Your payroll department can tell you how many allowances will result in basically no withholding.

If you make substantially less than $34,000, ask your employer about getting an Advance Earned Income Credit in your pay. You will not get that huge refund, but you will get more money to spend during the year -- no withholding, and part of the EIC paid to you each paycheck.

While there is no exact right and wrong way to fill out a W4, married and two should get you a small refund, married and three (one each for your husband, you, and your child) should bring you out very close to even. If you itemize and have large deductions like mortgage interest, you may even be able to claim more and still not owe.

If your husband will earn close to the same this year as last year, compare what has been withheld year to date and multiply the amount currently withhled by how many paychecks he has left this year to estimate the total that will be withheld this year. Compare that to your tax liability from last year. Adjust as needed from there.

Married and three would be more accurate - one for each of you and your husband, plus one for your child. Actually, since you'll get a child tax credit for your child, he could claim more than 3 on his W-4 and still be OK at tax time. Could claim 4 or maybe even 5 depending on his income. If you have any other credits could claim even more than that.

you'll need to file 3 (you, husband, & child). if you want to bring home more $$$ then your husband's exemptions will need to change. see http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf for tax tables & play around with the numbers. i did. i'm divorce; however, i'm claiming married 1. i didn't change my exemptions because at the end of the year, i file single claming 1. with my itemized deductions & refund, my married claiming 1 is equalivant to single claiming 8. why give uncle sam extra $$$ when you can use it at the end of the year. remember you want to break close to even on 4/15

you will no longer get into any worry for submitting one after the different. in certainty whilst many couples have greater effective earning and don't qualify for specific credit like EIC, then it must be greater appropriate to report married submitting one after the different. There are not any effects in case you report Married submitting one after the different. make certain and discern it the two strategies formerly making a decision. the expert ought that can assist you to with this. The state you reside in could additionally help in making it greater appropriate to report one after the different. this is right here in Ohio many situations. Many taxpayers will report at a similar time one 300 and sixty 5 days then one after the different the subsequent, whichever facilitates them to pay much less tax. Laura H – H&R Block – Senior Tax consultant 5 **this suggestion grew to become into arranged in accordance with our information of the tax regulation in result on the time it grew to become into written because it applies to the info which you provided.

It depends on a lot of things - for instance, Married 6 might be more appropriate, if your husband has been claiming Single 1 so far this year.

Here is an IRS withholding calculator to use: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196...

You will need to have your husband's latest paystub, including year to date numbers to fill it out properly.

If you change his withholding significantly this year, just remember to use the calculator to change it back next year, or you could end up with a large tax bill.

File 3, you, hubby and kiddo. That is how many exemptions you want to claim. The more you claim, the more you get back or less you pay. baby # 2 can't be claimed until 1/2009.

Claim 3 with your employer. You can even for short periods of time claim more than that, (I had an employer that would let you claim 99 for short periods of time). the more you claim with your employer the larger your paycheck will be and the smaller your refund will be.

the more you claim the more you get each pay period. so 2 for you is correct.

This website will help

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/Edit/basics/Intro...