gollum

pretty sure that’s what I said about finding ways to withhold less, except that personal exemptions don’t get you anything these days with the new withholding calculators since they are no longer a deduction on your taxes. Much harder to make up the difference now since it doesn’t matter if you claim 2 exemptions or 10

https://www.hrblock.com/w-4-calculator/

Thor

Yes!, box 4b of the new form W4 is a beautiful thing. A little planning will maximize cash flow.

CaptGringo

Where do you go to elect to send your profit sharing to the retirement plan and is it too late to do so? Can’t find it on Flying Together.

desertFlyer2015

you’ve already missed the date to make that election

rvfanatic

plus local township tax that could put it at 5% total easily

dr650

How do you change this with UAL? My info tab and w4? Just claim more exemptions?

Andy

Flyingtogether
Employee Services
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W-4


They changed it a bit for exemptions; now need to put a dollar amount. As Thor stated, box 4b works good, lasts long time.
I adjust my tax withholding throughout the year, having little taken out early in the year and pay a bunch in the second half of the year. I almost always make a 15 Jan estimated tax payment to make sure I don't get penalized for underpayment. This year, I computed that I'll only need to write a ~$1500 check so I didn't bother making an estimated tax payment.
I use the extra cash early in the year to invest. If you're not real savvy with taxes and managing your money, I don't recommend doing what I do.

iahflyr

Made roughly 200k gross. After benefits and ~5% additional 401k contribution, my federal taxable gross is ~185k.

Itemize deductions for mortgage interest, property tax, state income tax, and charity. My actual federal AGI comes to ~155k.

California’s state income tax is highly progressive. Your first 56k only gets taxed at just 4.4%. Everyone seems to forget that. The rest gets taxed at 9.3%. So take 4.4% of 56k, and 9.3% of the remainder (155k-56k=99k), you get a total CA tax liability of ~11.6k, or roughly 5.8%. That amount does not bother me one bit.

It used to be even lower before the GOP tax bill capped the SALT deduction at 10k. I was closer to 5.3% the year before last at almost the exact same income.

I still usually tell people the taxes are ridiculously high and the traffic is really bad (also a lie) so that people will want to stay away from California so I can have more of it to myself

RJDio

Taxes are high when compared to other states (context). Being unbothered by your tax bill/liability is subjective. It’s when you look at the aggregate (PG&E, tolls, water bill, gas prices, registration fees, fees on just about everything) compared to the state of the state , things not compute: High crime, poor schools for the most part, high property taxes (due high real estate prices and never ending special assessments) crumbling roads, government services that make you want to set yourself on fire.

regarding traffic, unless you live in Red bluff or Los banos and never have to drive to SFO or LAX, you sir are telling a lie. Traffic is horrendous (I grew up in La and still have family there and I live in the Bay Area).

Galaxy5

Gotcha, have a wife who doesn’t work as well? Mine makes what I do, so that certainly doesn’t help our rate.

On traffic: taking 4.5 hours to drive home to Sac twice in one week at different times or leaving for work at 9a on a Tuesday and taking almost 3 hours to go the 103 miles means I’m not going to be convinced. If you don’t have to cross a bridge, though, it’s a totally different story.

Agree with RJ that your tolerance is subjective. For now, it's worth it for us, but it’s getting to be less and less that way...especially now that I only work when everyone else works and can skiing when everyone else wants to go.