I was on here a loooong time ago asking about this, but it appears that my new job's start date is imminent. Filling out W-4s, and I haven't filled one out in 10 years, so... I obviously want to max out my monthly income but owe little to nothing in taxes in April of 2018, so I'm claiming myself, not claiming my wife, claiming my daughter, and putting in the 2 as instructed for the child tax credit. My question, I'll be married filing separately because my wife will be using the foreign earned income exclusion, and I don't want that on my return as it will nix the child tax credit and standard deduction. Should I mark "married but withold at the higher single rate"? Also, again, long time since I've had U.S. taxes withheld, does my employer withhold based on the knowledge that I'll be getting at the very least the standard deduction and the child tax credit? In other words, are they taking what I put on the W-4 and withholding what I should have to pay based on that info? I ask because by gross adjusted income after the standard deduction will have all my earnings fall into the 15% or lower tax brackets, and according to the IRS tax calculator, I'll really only end up owing about 5% of my income in taxes after claiming myself, my daugther as a dependent, and the child tax credit. Hope that makes sense. I'm just trying to gauge how much monthly income I will net to plan my budget.