W-4 Withholding Planner

Will you owe in April, or get a refund — and exactly what to put on your W-4 to land where you want? Grab your latest pay stubs (1–3 household jobs), and this projects your 2026 federal balance the same way the IRS Withholding Estimator does — then writes each job's W-4 for you, down to the dollar on line 4(c). Includes 2026's new deductions: overtime, tips, and the 65+ bonus deduction.
🔓 Private by design: no ads, no signup, no server — your pay never leaves your device. And unlike the IRS's own estimator, this one remembers: everything auto-saves, so next January's re-check takes thirty seconds, not twenty re-typed numbers.
Your data:
ℹ️ How saving, downloading & updating work — click to expand
  • Auto-save — everything you type is remembered in this browser automatically. Nothing is ever uploaded; clearing your browser data erases it.
  • ⬇ Download file / ⬆ Load file — save your numbers as a small portable file you can back up or move to another device, then load it back later.
  • 🗓️ New year: zero the YTDs — the January ritual, automated: your jobs and settings stay, the year-to-date fields reset, and you just paste two numbers off the first stub of the year.
  • 📥 Download this tool — saves the entire planner as one HTML file. Open it any time with no internet — it makes no network calls at all, so it's fully private and works forever.
  • 🔄 Get latest version — refreshes to the newest published version. Your saved data is not erased (but hit ⬇ Download file first if you want to be extra safe).

Your household required

⚙️ Other income, adjustments, tips, estimated payments
🧒 Kids under 17 = the $2,200-each child tax credit; other dependents = $500 each (both phase out above $400k joint / $200k single income — handled automatically). This planner covers W-2 households: if you'll claim the Earned Income Credit, education credits, or have big self-employment income, use the IRS estimator for those — this tool deliberately skips them to stay simple and exact.

Your April 2027 projection tax year 2026

—
Your projected 2026 federal tax
—
Withholding you're on track for
—
Household marginal rate
—
Effective federal rate
—
📋 The full arithmetic, line by line

Your new W-4s — copy these onto the form the fix

Good-to-know

  • Re-check every January. Mid-year 4(c) numbers are a blend of the permanent fix plus a catch-up for the months already run — come January the catch-up part is stale. That's the point of this tool remembering your setup: 🗓️ New year up top zeroes the YTDs, you paste two numbers off the first stub, done in thirty seconds.
  • The 4(c) money doesn't care whose check it rides on. On a joint return withholding is pooled at filing time — that's why the "one paycheck" toggle works. Just convert through dollars per year: $100 on 24 semimonthly checks ≠ $100 on 26 biweekly checks.
  • Why not just check the Step 2(c) box on both jobs? That's the classic full-year fix, and in January it's often right. Mid-year, exact 4(c) dollars beat the checkbox because they account for what's already been withheld.
  • Overtime and tips got new deductions for 2025–2028. Only the premium half of time-and-a-half overtime is deductible (a third of each OT dollar), capped and phased out at higher incomes — this planner does that math from your OT field.
  • A W-4 is not a contract. You can change it any payday, as many times as you want — HR portals usually apply it within a check or two.
  • Withholding is judged annually. A big correction late in the year still counts as if withheld evenly — unlike estimated payments. That's why fixing the W-4 beats mailing the IRS a check.
  • Planning the paycheck itself? The companion Take-Home Paycheck Calculator shows exactly what your new W-4 does to each check — federal, FICA, and all 50 states.