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In general, the new government withholdings based on your W4 form are designed to withhold less taxes than in previous years. It also depends on which option you choose, which we have outlined below. Reliant is not allowed to tell employees on how to fill out their W4 form, but we can educate them on what happens with the options that they can choose. If you have questions, please seek the advice of a tax consultant.

Below is a list of possible options to choose when submitting a W4: 

REMINDER: Married couples where both spouses are employed are treated as two separate employees. Even though spouses share a fund number, they are paid on separate checks and have taxes withheld on their individual paychecks unrelated to what their spouse chooses for tax settings. (For example, if both spouses were to choose option 1 below (married filling jointly) the system will calculate taxes for each individual spouse using the standard deduction for a married couple (essentially quadrupling the standard deduction amount), which will result in very little taxes (if any) being withheld, potentially leaving a married couple with taxes due at the end of the year.)

• Option 1) - select married filing jointly. This option assumes that the other spouse is not working and gives the full amount of the standard deduction for 2 people and typically withholds a lower amount of taxes because there is a higher threshold before taxes will begin to be deducted.

For married couples, these options below will, in most cases, ensure a higher amount is withheld: 

• Option 2) -select married filing jointly and also check the box “multiple jobs/spouse works”. This has the same effect as option 3, in that it gives you the standard deduction for 1 person. It assumes two working people filing taxes with 2 incomes. 
• Option 3) -select the first box single/married filing separately. This does not affect how you will file your taxes at the end of the year, it is merely for the software to know how much taxes to withhold, which in this case would be based on the standard deduction for 1 person.
• Option 4) - select an option above (single/married filing jointly/multiple jobs) and then under section 4C add a specific monthly amount of extra withholding for federal taxes that you want to be deducted from each paycheck. The amount added here will be an additional amount withheld on top of whatever amount is taken out by the system each month based on the standard deduction you chose, which helps ensure a specific amount is withheld monthly. However, please note that with this option, this tax amount will be deducted from every payment that is sent from Reliant, including separate backpay checks.