Take-home pay from NYC biglaw SA? Forum

[frankc]

How do most places withhold - as if you were going to work the full year at the SA salary, or at the rate you would normally pay if you made ~30k? I realize I'll end up with the same amount of money either way, but I'm wondering whether it will be in the form of a biggie size refund for 2013 or if I'll just get it mostly up front.

Basically, how much do you actually take home each pay period with a ~3k/week salary?

[Anonymous User]

If you do standard exemptions you will have taxes withheld as if you made that money ever week of the year. So your take home will be about 2k/week and then you will get a 5k-ish refund next year.

I think you can also just list a bunch of allowances and they will not withhold as much but then you may be on the hook for owing taxes next year depending on how much is actually withheld.

[imchuckbass58]

I withheld at the standard level as if I were full time, and my semi-monthly paychecks were about $4700 or $4800 (single, no dependents).

I know some firms let you adjust your withholding to compensate for working just for the summer, but mine did not.

[Anonymous User]

I know my firm does some kind of optional part-time withholding, but I have no clue what difference, if any, this makes.

[Anonymous User]

Most firms do not allow you to change your withholding method to part-time, so you will usually have your income withheld as if you were making $160k. (A few firms do allow you to change your withholding method, but this is unusual.) You can somewhat reduce your withholding by claiming a significant number of federal allowances when you submit your tax information to your firm. In theory, you could reduce your withholding to appropriate levels for ~$30k of income by claiming about 25 allowances. However, claiming 10 or more allowances makes an IRS audit very likely, so I would recommend you claim 9 allowances.

[Old Gregg]

I withheld at the standard level as if I were full time, and my semi-monthly paychecks were about $4700 or $4800 (single, no dependents).

I know some firms let you adjust your withholding to compensate for working just for the summer, but mine did not.

Either you're making more than I do, or that's wrong.

And I say this being in the exact same tax situation and being more senior...

[guano]

Most firms do not allow you to change your withholding method to part-time, so you will usually have your income withheld as if you were making $160k. (A few firms do allow you to change your withholding method, but this is unusual.) You can somewhat reduce your withholding by claiming a significant number of federal allowances when you submit your tax information to your firm. In theory, you could reduce your withholding to appropriate levels for ~$30k of income by claiming about 25 allowances. However, claiming 10 or more allowances makes an IRS audit very likely, so I would recommend you claim 9 allowances.

The number of allowances you claim on your W4 does not affect your chances of getting audited, as the form is not submitted to the IRS

If its just for a summer job, you're fine. If it's year round, it's not the number of allowances you claim, but the nature of the deductions, that affect your chance of bring audited.

[Old Gregg]

Most firms do not allow you to change your withholding method to part-time, so you will usually have your income withheld as if you were making $160k. (A few firms do allow you to change your withholding method, but this is unusual.) You can somewhat reduce your withholding by claiming a significant number of federal allowances when you submit your tax information to your firm. In theory, you could reduce your withholding to appropriate levels for ~$30k of income by claiming about 25 allowances. However, claiming 10 or more allowances makes an IRS audit very likely, so I would recommend you claim 9 allowances.

The number of allowances you claim on your W4 does not affect your chances of getting audited, as the form is not submitted to the IRS

If its just for a summer job, you're fine. If it's year round, it's not the number of allowances you claim, but the nature of the deductions, that affect your chance of bring audited.

Assuming you itemize.

[imchuckbass58]

I withheld at the standard level as if I were full time, and my semi-monthly paychecks were about $4700 or $4800 (single, no dependents).

I know some firms let you adjust your withholding to compensate for working just for the summer, but mine did not.

Either you're making more than I do, or that's wrong.

And I say this being in the exact same tax situation and being more senior...

Two possibilities:
-First, are you sure you are only deducting taxes? When you're full-time, you also have money taken out of your paycheck for health insurance, your 401(k), transitcheck, etc., which would make take-home smaller (not so if you're a summer).
-Second, my firm was on a semi-monthly cycle, rather than a bi-weekly cycle, which actually makes a decent amount of difference ($6666 pretax vs. $6154 pretax, since there are 24 pay cycles per year, rather than 26).

If that doesn't account for the discrepancy, it's possible I'm misremembering, but I'm pretty sure that was what my take-home was.

[Anonymous User]

My firm was bi-weekly, and my take-home was between $4200 and $4300.

Single, standard deductions.

[Anonymous User]

My firm was bi-weekly, and my take-home was between $4200 and $4300.

Single, standard deductions.

Sounds about right. My firm was weekly and I was taking home around 2,200 IIRC. We had an option to change the withholding which I screwed up, so some of my friends were taking home 2,500 or 2,600. I got a fat refund this February thanks to my screwup, so it all comes out in the wash eventually.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah, it also depends on if your firm withholds city tax even if you're not a resident. My firm didn't, so my refund wasn't that big.