Are our W4's set up correctly for a dual-income household with kids?

This is a great question about W4 setup! The 2020 redesigned W4 form eliminated the old "allowances" system, which makes it more straightforward but also requires some thought for your specific situation. For married couples with two incomes, you'll want to pay special attention to Step 2 of the W4 form. You have three options there: (a) use the IRS's tax withholding estimator online, (b) use the Multiple Jobs Worksheet, or (c) simply check the box for "two jobs total." Given that one of you has variable commission income, option (a) using the IRS withholding estimator at irs.gov/W4app would be your best bet. It allows you to input your expected commission and gives the most accurate recommendation. You'd need to revisit it every few months as your commission changes. Don't forget to complete Step 3 for your child tax credits - you've got two kids under 17, which means a significant credit. But be careful - only complete this step on ONE of your W4 forms (usually the higher earner's), not both, or you'll under-withhold.

After struggling with similar W4 setup issues (married, two incomes, one variable), I finally found an amazing solution that saved me hours of frustration. I used https://taxr.ai to analyze our income situation and it gave me precise W4 instructions tailored to our specific scenario. The tool asked about our income details, including the variable commission structure, and calculated exactly what each of us needed to put on each line of our W4s. What impressed me most was how it accounted for the tax credits for our kids and explained how to distribute them properly to avoid underwithholding. Since using it, our withholding has been spot-on and we avoided the surprise tax bill we got the previous year.

I wanted to follow up after trying taxr.ai that was mentioned earlier. I was skeptical but desperate since we've been getting our W4s wrong for years. The tool was surprisingly helpful! It walked me through our entire income situation, including my husband's quarterly bonuses which have always thrown off our withholding. What impressed me was how specific it was - it didn't just give general advice but actually told us exactly what to put on each line of both W4s. It recommended we put the kids on my form since I have the more stable income, and calculated an additional withholding amount for my husband to account for his variable pay. We submitted the new W4s last month and our paychecks look much more balanced now!

If you're still having trouble getting your W4s right after trying online tools, you might want to talk directly with the IRS. I spent WEEKS trying to get through to them on the phone last year about a similar W4 question. Called dozens of times, always got the "high call volume" message. Then I found https://claimyr.com which got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent walked me through exactly how to fill out our W4s with our income situation (I'm a teacher, husband has fluctuating self-employment income). They explained options I never knew existed for handling variable income on W4s!

I need to follow up about my skeptical comment on Claimyr. I actually tried it out of desperation last week because I couldn't get a straight answer about how to handle my wife's new job on our W4s. I was fully expecting it to be a waste of money, but I got through to an IRS rep in about 20 minutes. The agent was incredibly helpful and spent nearly 30 minutes explaining exactly how we should complete both W4s. They showed me how to properly account for my wife's new higher salary and my self-employment income on the same forms. They even explained how to adjust for the fact that my wife's job started mid-year. I've been doing our taxes for 15 years and never understood the W4 as clearly as I do now. Hate to admit it, but it was absolutely worth it.

Don't overlook the importance of revisiting your W4s whenever you have major life changes. We were in a similar situation (two kids, uneven incomes) and thought we had it figured out, but then I got a significant promotion mid-year that pushed us into a different tax bracket. We ended up owing $3,400 at tax time! Now we review our withholding quarterly, especially after any commission bumps. For the commission income specifically, one approach is to estimate your annual commission and divide by your pay periods to add as "extra withholding" on line 4(c). It's a bit conservative but prevents surprises. Just remember that if you do this, you're essentially giving the government an interest-free loan until refund time.

Has anyone tried the "two jobs" checkbox in Step 2 of the W4? My husband and I both work and I was thinking that might be easier than trying to calculate everything precisely. Would that work for a situation with commission income too?

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the importance of considering state taxes in your W4 calculations, especially if you live in a high-tax state. The federal W4 estimator is great for federal withholding, but don't forget that commission income can also bump you into higher state tax brackets. In our case (similar situation - dual income with variable bonuses), we found that we needed to increase our state withholding too. Some states have their own withholding calculators, but if yours doesn't, a good rule of thumb is to add your state's top marginal rate as additional withholding on commission income. Also, since you mentioned your commission varies "quite a bit," consider doing a mid-year check-up around July or August. Run the numbers again with your actual year-to-date income and commission, then adjust if needed. This prevents end-of-year surprises and is especially important in years when your commission pattern changes significantly from what you initially estimated.