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Withholding tax on unemp benefit question

1K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  happymomof4 
#1 ·
Hi there - my husband is on layoff again - it's been an on again/off again thing as his compnay struggles to regain footing (masonry construction). we've been doing this dance now since Oct 2009. at the time he was getting the max weekly benefit amount of $560 after taxes and with lots of cutting back and trimming expenses we've been able to manage - actually a LOT better than i thought!

well because he did work during 2010 when his first claim ran out they did that recalculation thing and.....reduced his weekly benefit. after taxes that $430, 130 LESS than what we had to work with prior. that hurts.....i'm game but it would a challenge to find another 130 to simply whack out of the budget. so here is my question......

as it is now a new tax year should we stop having the taxes withheld from his checks for now and then compensate later in the year? it's not huge but it IS another $48, which means now i'm looking at shoring up $82. gas prices are climbing and i still have to get to work etc (somebody has to right???). with him at home there will be more energy consumption at the house during the day (i'm not going to make the man use a flashlight and wear a coat and mittens to keep the heat off!).
we also have no indication at this time of when he might be called back to work. his sense is this probably won't be a short layoff.
 
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#4 ·
I would continue having taxes withheld I know several people that got into hot water with the IRS because they could NOT come up with the taxes due at tax time. TIGHTEN you belt, look for things to sell around the house, odd jobs for cash, etc.
 
#5 ·
My husband has been on unemployment alot the last 3 yrs. He doesn't get taxes with held. I work fulltime and we have 2 kids and a mortgage. For 2009 taxes he was unemployed the whole year. I had no problem with the taxes coming out of our income tax. It just really lowered what we got back by around $4,000.00.

Depending on if you get a nice income tax return every year or not I would really think about changing the taxes coming out or not.

We do ok with it. Because we have alot to claim on our income tax that will give us money. I also claim 1 single so I have alot of taxes taken out of my check on weekly basis.
 
#6 ·
really appreciate the input! we decided to wait and see what the first run at our 2010 taxes looks like before making any jumps. like happy mom, i do work full time as well and we have a mortgage, just need to see how all that balanced out.....well, see IF it did balance out! i have turbo tax fired up and ready to go!
 
#7 ·
I use Turbo Tax also. Love it. Good luck with the taxes. Just remember everyone's tax issues are different. Every state is different. We don't pay state or local tax on unemployment in PA just federal. Not sure if this is the same in every state.
 
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