My son was just talking to me about his LES and he said they aren't taking out Federal. Do they not take that out? I think they should. He said on his first check which was a large one they did take out a little federal but ever since nothing has came out. He said well maybe because I am military..but I don't think it's right. Should he be paying into federal?
Unless they are deployed to a designated combat zone, military members are subject to federal income taxes on their base pay just like everybody else. Assuming he's not deployed, he'll need to talk to finance, he's probably claiming too many exemptions on his W-4.
Each state, by the way, has their own rule, some tax active military pay, some don't.
I told him that he needs to check into that before he gets through the year and doesn't have any Federal taking out. He keeps saying he talked to someone and they said in the military you don't pay Federal Taxes it's like paying yourself. I told him to go talk to someone with authority and get it straightened out. Having his home of record as Delaware, i would think that would just be for the state taxes it wouldn't affect the Federal portion of it. I may be wrong!
Um yeah. We have at least 10 exemptions on dh's W-4 and still get $36 in Federal taxes taken out each month.
If your son is single or does not have children, he definitely needs to check on that.
He'd have to be making very little money as a single person to get no federal tax taken out. While its possible, it would be a shame if he found out at the end of the year his exemptions on his W4 were off and he owed and owed a penalty for overclaiming.
mmt4, thank you. That's what I'm saying he's married now and although he does have 2 sons he isn't going to be claiming them as their mother is so he definately either did his w-4 wrong like i'm thinking maybe single 3 since he was single when he went in..so he needs to change it..thanks again.
It would also be a good idea to use last year's income tax tables and, after projecting out how much he will earn this year, figure out approximately how much taxes he will owe at the end of the year. If he is getting deployed this year then he will need to factor in that the income for that time will not be taxed (non-reportable is the actual term). Once he figures out how much he will owe this year, not forgetting his wife's income and the taxes she will have withheld this year, he then needs to find out what he should be claiming on his W-4 in order to meet that tax obligation. This may include having extra money withheld in addition to what is being held out at, possibly, S-0. I had to do that last year for a couple of checks to make sure that I had enough coming out.
The goal of tax planning at this point, other than avoiding any penalties or fines, is to have enough money withheld to be +/- $100 by the end of the year and not to have some huge refund as the only purpose of the huge refund is to give the government an interest-free loan. They won't give you one, why should you give them one?
