re: Withholding question

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The withholding question by the OP is because bonus and commission income is withholding a tax at 25%

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Jesus Christ I’ve been patiently explaining why this is not necessarily gospel for two days now and you still don’t get it. It could explain the OP’s problem, but it’s not a guarantee.

Just because your employer withholds a flat 22% (not 25%), doesn’t mean all of them do. Many places roll it into regular income and withhold according to the tables every single paycheck.

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And you are wrong. The number of payperiods doesn't change midyear. So there would be no need to change the withholding percentage given inconsistent taxable income amounts on various paychecks.

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Yes, there absolutely would be.

Let’s assume you’re paid twice a month. You have taxable income of $3,000 on paycheck. The payroll system will multiply that by 24 pay periods and come up with $72k. They’ll adjust the $72k by your filing status and deductions, then come up with an adjusted annual wage amount. Whatever that number is, they’ll withhold the proper amount of taxes. Let’s assume MFJ, so they’ll deduct $29,200 for standard deduction to create a taxable income of $42,800. They’ll calculate 10% on the first $23,200 - so $2,320 - plus 12% on the remaining $19,600 - or $2,352 - for a total of $4,672. Divide that by 24 pay periods and they’ll withhold $194.67 on that paycheck - an effective rate of 6.489%. If your taxable income was $3500 on that check, they would have withheld $254.67, an effective rate of 7.28%.

They’ll repeat that process on every paycheck all year long - multiplying taxable income by 24, making deductions, figuring taxes on that amount for the year, and then dividing by 24. Many places will roll commission into those paychecks which will understandably throw them off considerably.

Again, just because your firm withholds at 22% doesn’t mean it’s standard nor is it the only way to do it.