Periodic: a monthly blog feature

Tax time can be taxing for we mere mortals, especially if all that math results in your owing more tax than was withheld.  The IRS is encouraging people to start now to check that there will be no surprises come next April!

To this end, the IRS has updated and improved their useful tool, the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator.

More than just a name change

The Tax Withholding Estimator now offers taxpayers a more user-friendly, step-by-step tool for tailoring the amount of income tax to have withheld from your wages and pension payments. Guidance for retirees and self-employed individuals has been added for this year. The tool has a mobile component and boasts “plain language”.

Now is the time…

The IRS urges taxpayers to check their withholding each year and adjust it, if needed, to avoid tax filing surprises. The new Tax Withholding Estimator will help anyone doing tax planning for the last few months of 2019. It’s especially important to use the estimator now:

• If you owed taxes last year or paid a penalty
• If you made changes to your withholding(s) in 2018
• If your marital status, dependents, income or job changed in 2019
• If you pay estimated taxes quarterly