AboutHelen P. O`Planick, EA Expertise I am a tax professional, with experience in individual taxation. I would prefer not to answer questions about non-resident aliens or corporate taxation. Please do not ask me state related questions, unless the state is Pennsylvania. There are 42 taxing states and 42 TOTALLY different sets of state tax law.
Experience I have been preparing tax returns almost all my life. I have been in professional practice for 25 years and I am enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service.
Organizations National Association of Enrolled Agents
Publications I am a prior Money Magazine Tax Test taker and have been quoted extensively in all media including monthly periodicals and books by tax authorities.
Question My wife and I are soon to be moving to another state for her new job. She has not been employed for the past three years as she finished school after getting out of the military. The job she is going to will be paying her 75K per year and is a huge boost in our joint income. I currently earn around 35K per year and claim 0 on my W-4. We have deductions every year ranging from 14K-18K. My question is how will this boost in our income affect our tax status and should she claim 1 or 0 on her W-4?
Answer You are going to be hitting the high 20% tax bracket, so for this year, I would suggest she file her W-4 as -0- just to see what is going to happen for you. Then after you do the 2008 return, you can adjust up or down depending on the refund and how much you want to get back (or even pay in).
