My husband and I have 3 children all under the age of 6 and we both work. He is the bread winner and my job is part time (i bring home under $15k a yr). Last year we received $8000 total from state (MD) and federal. We want to get more back on our paychecks during the year opposed to getting a big chunk back at the end of the year but we DO NOT want to owe. In federal we got a little over $5k back. I went onto the irs.gov deductions calculator but it automatically does the standard deduction vs. the itemized one and we always itemize. The calculator said to claim 12 (we currently claim 5 on his and on mine i claim 1) and that we would get $150 back at the end of the year...that seems to be cutting it kinda close to me? but I dont know what i'm doing or how any of this stuff works. Just want more money to invest and spend during the course of the year. Thank you for any help