Additional withholdings calculator for California

April 22, 2014 4:01 PM

Is there an easy to use withholdings calculator for California? I want one that works like the IRS calculator does for Federal Withholdings.

The IRS has a really easy to use Withholdings Calculator for Federal Withholdings. You enter your filing status, income per job, withholdings to date, witholdings per paycheck, and pay period for each job and the calculator tells you how much you should take out of each check for additional withholdings.

Is there something similar for CA? I've found this online calculator on the CA Franchise Tax Board website, but it's frankly pretty terrible and doesn't take into account that we're a duel income household.

I've tried using the instructions included in the CA DE-4, but my results seem to say that I have to withhold such an excessive additional amount for CA that I'm pretty sure I'm doing it wrong. So I'm looking for a simple to use calculator I can use to check my results.

posted by Arbac to Work & Money (1 answer total)

There isn't one as far as I can tell, and I had this opinion reinforced by a friend who worked in CA one month last year and also needed some kind of means to set her expectations. She knew nothing until she actually filed, and I don't think she was real impressed with the results then either, so possibly your horrible result is right, or right before adjustments for whatever arcane circumstances CA allows. (The only things I miss from Texas are Whataburger and no state taxes, as it made things easy. And delicious.)

We've also been badly burned by the IRS calculator, so mileage varies a lot there too.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:13 PM on April 22, 2014