05/14/2026
YOU are in control of your refund! If you do not have dependents to claim, school credits, etc. to add on to your taxes, then do yourself a favor. Make sure your federal withholding is at least 10 percent of what your paycheck is to guarantee you will not owe the IRS at the end of the year.
That means, if you make $600 a week, then $60 needs to be paid into federal taxes that paycheck. If you make $1200 every two weeks, then $120 need's to be paid into Federal taxes that paycheck. If you make $2,000 a week, then $200 needs to be paid in to Federal taxes that paycheck.
This will almost guarantee you will not owe. I say almost because once you start making over $70,000, the ten percent rule no longer applies because you are going into higher tax brackets. Once you are over $70k, you have to have more withholding according to the higher tax bracket you fall into. However, if you make less than $70k, this 10 percent rule of thumb will help you make sure you do not owe.
If you make less than 15k a year, you legally do not have to even file taxes if you do not want to.
Just a few things to know.