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 one small PrivateCalcs data file that works across all the calculators in this family, each tool fills in what it recognizes (basics like filing status and state carry over automatically), keeps its own section, and leaves the other tools' sections untouched. Back it up or move it between devices freely; older single-tool files still load.
  • 🗓️ 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

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Your projected 2026 federal tax
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Withholding you're on track for
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Household marginal rate
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Effective federal rate
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📋 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.