MultiW2

Hey IH 👋

I'm Dave, founder of MultiW2 (https://multiw2.com) — a tax calculator and workflow tool for people juggling multiple W-2s.

Why I built it

A couple years ago I was working two W-2 jobs and came dangerously close to a five-figure tax bill. The problem isn't complicated once you see it: each employer withholds as if they're your only employer. Neither one can see the other. The Social Security wage base, your real marginal bracket, your 401k deferral limit across plans — none of it coordinates automatically. A life event late in the year saved me, but I promised myself I'd never wing it again.

I tried spreadsheets. I tried the big-name tax tools. Nothing actually modeled "I have two (or three) jobs right now and I need to know what to do about it this paycheck." So I built MultiW2.

What v1 got right — and wrong

V1 shipped as a stateless calculator. Punch in your numbers, get an answer, leave. It worked, and I learned a ton from real usage. Two signals came through loud and clear:

1. The biggest driver of upgrades was users hitting the 2-job free tier ceiling.

2. The second biggest was people wanting exact numbers instead of estimates.

But stateless was the wrong shape. People didn't want a calculator — they wanted a dashboard that remembered their jobs, tracked YTD cumulatively, and told them what to do next. Every return visit meant re-entering everything. That's not a product, that's a worksheet.

What v2 looks like

I'm rebuilding around a job-centric Workflow Dashboard. Highlights:

• Cumulative YTD snapshots instead of per-paycheck entry

• Server-side calculation and Pro gating (frontend-only enforcement was a mistake I'm not repeating)

• 2-tier pricing: Free, and Pro at $39/quarter or $99/year (no monthly — the use case is seasonal)

• Google / GitHub / magic link auth via Supabase, payments via LemonSqueezy

• The W-2 wizard, which I originally positioned as onboarding, is moving to a seasonal "safe harbor" feature — it's only actually useful at tax time

• Phase 2 tools (Scenario planner, Benefits coordinator, Tax Prep, Scanner) ship as visible "coming soon" cards so the roadmap is honest

No paying users yet and no production data to migrate, so I'm doing a clean greenfield rebuild. Destructive migration, no legacy baggage.

What I'd love feedback on

• Is killing monthly billing brave or dumb? My logic: tax coordination is a quarterly/annual concern, and monthly churn would punish a seasonal product. But I'd love to hear counter-arguments.

• How have you handled the "calculator → workflow" transition in your own products? The hardest part isn't the code, it's resisting the urge to keep v1's mental model.

• Anyone else here building for a narrow, high-pain niche? I pulled "overemployment" out of all public copy because it was narrowing the market more than it was sharpening the message. Curious if others have made similar language pivots.

Happy to go deep on any of the decisions above. Building in public, mistakes and all.

— Dave