While the changes to the new W-4 form will likely result in confusion, they're ultimately a good thing. It should be easier for employees to set and adjust withholding to achieve the desired results, such as zero tax due, or a specific refund amount due back, at the time of their return.
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Insightful Accountant was among the very first trade journals to tell you about the proposed W-4 for 2020, and then report to you when the IRS launched the new W-4 form. Even though we have since launched our sister publication Tax Practice News, we wanted to make certain that our readers were aware of IRS Publication 15-T which really is the tables and computational procedures that the Internal Revenue Services is proposing in the form of their Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods, designed to go along with the new W-4 form.
While taxpayers can still make use of the worksheets found in the instructions within Publication 505 for Form W-4, the proposed regulations specified in Publication 15-T are geared toward the use of the new IRS Tax Withholding Estimator by taxpayers while filling-out the new W-4 form. Taxpayers should use their results from the Tax Withholding Estimator to help them complete a new (2020) Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Certificate whenever they are required to do so.
The Estimator is also designed to allow taxpayers to easily perform a 'paycheck checkup' to help make certain that they have the right amount of tax withheld from their paycheck(s). In so doing, taxpayers can help protect themselves against having too little tax withheld and in so doing face an unexpected tax bill or penalty at tax time at the end of the tax year. But, the Tax Withholding Estimator can also help taxpayers determine if too much tax is being withheld, allowing them the opportunity to have less tax withheld from each paycheck, so they receive more in their check but get a smaller tax refund at tax time.