You're probably talking about the W-4.
That depends on which form you are claiming it on. If you are talking about Form 1040, that means just yourself. If you are not eligible to claim yourself, then you are not eligible to claim anyone else either. If you are talking about Form W-4 (the withholding form that you give to your employer), stop and read the form more carefully. It does NOT ask you to fill in the number of people (dependents) you are claiming. It asks you to fill in the number of withholding allowances you are claiming. Most people have way too much tax taken out of their paychecks because they mistakenly believe that the number of withholding allowances they claim on their W-4 should be the same as the number of exemptions they claim on their 1040. Most people should claim MORE withholding allowances. To calculate the number of withholding allowances you should claim, either use the worksheet in the Form W-4 instructions or use the IRS withholding calculator here: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html
Withholding means that employer is taking funds out of the check for taxes.
Form W-4 is Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate. It's an IRS form that your employer gives you to complete, along with a Personal Allowances Worksheet. You keep the Personal Allowances Worksheet for your records, and you return the completed Form W-4 to your employer. The information on the W-4 guides the employer in withholding Social Security, Medicare, state/local/federal income taxes from your earnings.
If you mean how long can you claim them on the tax return (Form 1040) you file at the end of the year: You can do it until you get caught. Once you get caught, they will go back as far as they have records and charge you tax and penalties. There is no statute of limitations on tax fraud. If you mean on the Form W-4 that you give to your employer: There is a misunderstanding here. You do not claim dependents on your W-4. You claim withholding allowances. Withholding allowances are not the same as dependents. Most people think they are and so they end up massively overpaying their taxes and then getting big refunds at the end of the year. Most people, particularly if the job is their only real source of income, can claim far more withholding allowances than dependents and this is completely legitimate. Please use the following calculator from the IRS to get an estimate of how many withholding allowances you can claim: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html Calculating the number of withholding allowances you can claim is not an exact science. You should aim to claim enough allowances so that you neither owe any money nor get any refund at the end of the year. You will not pay any underpayment penalty if you owe less than $1000 at the end of the year. The IRS will not bother you about the number of allowances you claim as long as your withholding turns out to be reasonably close to the amount of tax you owe. There can be a penalty (separate from the underpayment penalty) if you don't have a reasonable basis for the number of withholding allowances you chose. So use the calculator or fill out the worksheet that come with your W-4 to show how you arrived at the number. Note: The IRS used to require employers to send in W-4 forms that showed more than 10 withholding allowances. They stopped doing this several years ago.
Yes. Form W-4 (Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate) gives the information that your employer needs to calculate the correct amount of taxes (income, Medicare, Social Security) to withhold from your earnings. If you don't fill out a W-4 form, then the IRS requires your employer to withhold taxes at the highest rate, which is Single with no dependent allowances.
That depends on which form you are claiming it on. If you are talking about Form 1040, that means just yourself. If you are not eligible to claim yourself, then you are not eligible to claim anyone else either. If you are talking about Form W-4 (the withholding form that you give to your employer), stop and read the form more carefully. It does NOT ask you to fill in the number of people (dependents) you are claiming. It asks you to fill in the number of withholding allowances you are claiming. Most people have way too much tax taken out of their paychecks because they mistakenly believe that the number of withholding allowances they claim on their W-4 should be the same as the number of exemptions they claim on their 1040. Most people should claim MORE withholding allowances. To calculate the number of withholding allowances you should claim, either use the worksheet in the Form W-4 instructions or use the IRS withholding calculator here: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html
Withholding means that employer is taking funds out of the check for taxes.
Form W-4 is Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate. It's an IRS form that your employer gives you to complete, along with a Personal Allowances Worksheet. You keep the Personal Allowances Worksheet for your records, and you return the completed Form W-4 to your employer. The information on the W-4 guides the employer in withholding Social Security, Medicare, state/local/federal income taxes from your earnings.
If you mean how long can you claim them on the tax return (Form 1040) you file at the end of the year: You can do it until you get caught. Once you get caught, they will go back as far as they have records and charge you tax and penalties. There is no statute of limitations on tax fraud. If you mean on the Form W-4 that you give to your employer: There is a misunderstanding here. You do not claim dependents on your W-4. You claim withholding allowances. Withholding allowances are not the same as dependents. Most people think they are and so they end up massively overpaying their taxes and then getting big refunds at the end of the year. Most people, particularly if the job is their only real source of income, can claim far more withholding allowances than dependents and this is completely legitimate. Please use the following calculator from the IRS to get an estimate of how many withholding allowances you can claim: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html Calculating the number of withholding allowances you can claim is not an exact science. You should aim to claim enough allowances so that you neither owe any money nor get any refund at the end of the year. You will not pay any underpayment penalty if you owe less than $1000 at the end of the year. The IRS will not bother you about the number of allowances you claim as long as your withholding turns out to be reasonably close to the amount of tax you owe. There can be a penalty (separate from the underpayment penalty) if you don't have a reasonable basis for the number of withholding allowances you chose. So use the calculator or fill out the worksheet that come with your W-4 to show how you arrived at the number. Note: The IRS used to require employers to send in W-4 forms that showed more than 10 withholding allowances. They stopped doing this several years ago.
One would think that you could claim as many allowances as are legitimate.
Yes. Form W-4 (Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate) gives the information that your employer needs to calculate the correct amount of taxes (income, Medicare, Social Security) to withhold from your earnings. If you don't fill out a W-4 form, then the IRS requires your employer to withhold taxes at the highest rate, which is Single with no dependent allowances.
It is not recommended. If you W2 form is lost the employer can change your withholding to single with no deductions. The employee should be notified so an adjustment can be made. An employer that knows that an error is made may have to change something. For example if an employee claims that last year he did not make enough to pay taxes and predicts that this year he will not have to pay taxes and starts making enough that he WILL have to pay taxes then the employer must start withholding taxes.
You file taxes just as you normally would. The only problem is that you may end up having to pay the IRS a large tax bill after you file. When you're entering the information from your W-2 or 1099, you will just leave blank the sections where it asks you for the amount of tax that was withheld from your wages, as those boxes will be blank on the forms you receive from your employer. Unless you are exempt from withholding, it's a good idea to have money withheld from your paychecks. Your withholding for the year should more or less equal your tax liability. You can adjust your withholding by adjusting the number of allowances you claim.
I assume that you mean the employer is withholding taxes from your paychecks but then not turning over this taxes to the IRS. If you have any evidence of support these alligations you should report such to the IRS so that they can investigate the matter.
You get them back if you have overpaid your taxes. You get them back after you file a tax return. Of course, you can avoid overpaying your taxes in the first place. Then you wouldn't have to wait to get them back. Get a new Form W-4 from your employer's payroll or HR department and claim more allowances. Claim enough allowances to wipe out your overpayment. You will get back more in your paycheck every week instead of having to wait a whole year to get your money back.
An employer matches the amount of FICA (Social Security) and Medicare taxes which are 6.2% and 1.45% of your gross income respectively. The same amount is paid by the employer and the employee toward these two taxes. Only the employee pays their Federal, State, and/or Local Income tax withholding but the employer is responsible for withholding these taxes and remitting all of them to the IRS on a timely basis.
An exemption basically is something you use to lower your taxes, or something you do not have to pay taxes on, such as a child or student loan interest. A withholding allowance is how much the employer withholds from your check in taxes after exemptions are calculated.