<prompt> Human: Hey PF, thanks for taking a look at this. I recently started a new job, one that now puts me I guess in a new tax bracket. I make 100k a year salary, split into bi-weekly paychecks for a total of 4,166 pre-tax. I owed taxes last year bc I made too much and claimed my child as a dependent. So to avoid that, I decided to not list an exemptions this time. However, now that Ive done that, I see that Im being taxed like 35!!! On a bi-weekly check Im seeing taxes taken out of Federal - 787Medicare - 255.99State - 183. This is fucking bonkers. Sorry for the crude language, but holy shit. Ill be making less now bc of this new tax bracket than when I made less money before this tax bracket. Can anyone give some guidance on if I should be claiming the dependent? What other ways can I save on how much taxes I pay into? Thank you for the heads up!  <response>: You seem to have a deep misunderstanding of how taxes work.Lets start with this: I recently started a new job, one that now puts me I guess in a new tax bracket.Only income earned above any given tax bracket is taxed at that rate. This is because tax brackets are marginal. Read more about how these work in the wikiI owed taxes last year bc I made too much and claimed my child as a dependent. So to avoid that, I decided to not list an exemptions this time. So you changed your W-4 from last year? When did you do this?For owing taxes last year, did you claim your child on your actual taxes 1040 form and not just your W-4? Did you do your taxes yourself? Also, you state you recently started this new job, so why would this new salary be relevant to having owed on last years taxes? It seems you are putting in a whole lot of variables into play here, but we need more information on what you are actually doing to be able to tell what is or isnt going wrong.But you owe taxes when you withhold too little, not because you have a child or because you have high earnings. You could have been claiming several exemptions on your W-4 which would have caused you to underwithhold. Having multiple jobs at once also causes this. Being an independent contractor 1099 for a side job often trips people up with tax withholding as well and has people thinking they are owing because they made too much when the real reason is because they simply didnt pay their withholdings.Can anyone give some guidance on if I should be claiming the dependent?You can also use the IRS withholding calculator to determine the appropriate withholding levels. Be sure to revisit it at the start of each year and after any major life events marriage, new job, additional child, etc. 