Wondering if the federal withholding on my w-2 is correct?

For 2009, completing the federal and state 1040whatever will give you an exact figure – you will owe some or you will get a refund. FICA is simply 7.65% of income.
For 2010:
Easy-to-Use Tax Withholding Calculator
http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/withholding/

How to Adjust Your Withholding
http://www.kiplinger.com/features/archives/how-to-adjust-your-withholding.html

FICA is a straight percentage -

There is no right or wrong, as long as you have filled out the W2 honestly and correctly. The question is whether you want a refund at the end of the year, or to pay some taxes at the end of the year. Financially it is better to have to pay a little, because you get to use that money all year, preferably by saving and earning interest, instead of the government holding on to it. On the other hand, letting the government hold onto is kind of like forced savings, but without any interest. I for one shoot for a refund, and this year my salary changed and I failed completely and will have to sign a rather large check for the city, the state, and the feds. Ugh.

Oh, I guess there could be a right and wrong if your employer did the math wrong, but that’s not likely, and still is only going to affect the amount of your refund or payment at year end.

Also, off the top of my head those numbers seem about right, maybe a little high, but that’s just based on what I’m used to seeing.

Do you have any of your pay stubs from 2009? Most pay stubs (every one that I’ve seen since the 70s) contain your weekly gross and deductions to arrive at the net pay that you get on the check. (Some pay stubs, in fact I’d guess “most” pay stubs from automated payroll systems, contain “year-to-date” figures for each amount, too.)

If you find a “representative” pay stub from 2009 (or even from this week, if you’re still working for the same employer under more or less the same terms) then you can do the math to figure how close to “correct” those numbers are.

If you’re not saving pay stubs, it’s a good idea to do that if only for this reason.

@Snarp You don’t fill out your W2. Your employer sends it to you. You fill out your W4.

@MrItty Oops, thanks, I always mix the damn numbers up when I don’t really concentrate on it. Which means that I’m wrong when I say the numbers seem high, since on a W2 they are the numbers for a whole year (somehow I thought the numbers were from a paystub, I got myself all kinds of mixed up on this one).

Try filling out the tax forms and see what you end up getting as a refund or owing, just do it quickly with the standard deduction, since you have no dependents that should work. Or use turbo tax and don’t get to the end, you don’t have to pay until you file. If you come to a reasonably sized refund or payment, then the numbers are right, if you owe a ton of money or a are up for a huge refund, they’re probably wrong.

The money that is reported on the forms is the actual amount that was withheld from your checks. There is no right or wrong amount, it just has to be the same as they actually withheld.

If you filled out your withholding form incorrectly, that is up to you to determine.