New Trump administration tax guidelines rely on workers to double-check their paychecks
Source: WAPO
By Damian Paletta January 11 at 2:13 PM
Millions of Americans will need to use a new Internal Revenue Service tool to ensure their new paychecks are accurate, Trump administration officials said Thursday as they issued guidelines for implementing the recently passed tax law.
The guidelines are necessary for businesses to calculate how much to withhold in taxes from employees paychecks beginning as soon as next month. The White House said Thursday businesses should make these adjustments by Feb. 15, part of the administrations push for millions of workers to see bigger paychecks as quickly as possible.
In rushing the process, the Treasury Department is asking companies to rely on outdated forms to help determine how much to withhold.
A senior Internal Revenue Service official said Thursday that Americans with simple tax situations would likely get accurate paychecks next month. But many Americans, including those who tend to itemize their tax returns, would need to use the online tool to ensure they arent dramatically overpaying or underpaying their taxes.
If they find their paychecks are inaccurate, it will be incumbent on the employees to tell their employers to make corrections.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/new-tax-guidelines-rely-on-workers-to-double-check-their-paychecks/2018/01/11/234088c4-f700-11e7-b34a-b85626af34ef_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_irsguide-240pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.59b042e3387d
onecaliberal
(32,894 posts)elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)to figure withholding. Generally, people claim x number of exemptions to determine how much in federal taxes to withhold from their paychecks. Usually claiming exemptions = the number of people in the household works out pretty well to a neither owe nor refund.
But, if you have a lot of high ongoing medical expenses or big mortage deduction, some people claim a lot of exemptions so they have enough money to cover their expenses because they know they'll get that money back, but need it now. If you have investment income where federal taxes aren't withheld, you need to have more tax taken out so as not to owe too much at the end of the year. Generally, you claim 0 exemptions plus an extra amount relative to your income situation.
This is what the IRS W-4 form did, but since there aren't any personal exemptions anyone, you have to figure out your tax liability some other way.
irisblue
(33,023 posts)That is a genius move.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)a link to the tool would be good...
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)Igel
(35,356 posts)"I want to get a 4-week jump on what my employer's going to do."
Seriously, if I checked this by the time I got my first paycheck under the regime nouvelle I'd have forgotten the results. I'm not that OCD.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)not fooled
(5,801 posts)Remember all the faux outrage from pukes when there were some glitches with the ACA website at its launch?
Whaddya wanna bet there will be crickets from them when chaos ensues with implementation of the GOPee tax scam?
Of course, with the IRS it's not the dump maladmin's doing per se, although no doubt like the rest of the Federal non-war gov't the IRS has suffered funding cuts and insufficient personnel to implement changes such as this.
pukes can't govern. Nor can they run anything except criminal grifting schemes.
procon
(15,805 posts)who missed the memo or got the wrong taxamount from the untested app the Republicans are touting?
sinkingfeeling
(51,473 posts)own withholding? Since personal exemptions are gone, won't everybody need new W2's?
NCjack
(10,279 posts)The GOP will determine what it wants you to have, and it will instruct the IRS to return that amount to you.
NCjack
(10,279 posts)my 2017 taxes. And, I am advising every DEM I know to do the same. However, I'm telling every GOPer I know to send in 50% of their 2017 taxes -- yeah, that should be just about right to hit the center of their fake tax cut -- NOT. That should give them a good surprise screwing when they calculate their tax bill in early 2019. Of course, the GOP will blame the DEMs for not providing intellectual leadership in crafting the tax act.
UpInArms
(51,284 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)They're doing their best to make sure it's as accurate as possible. No career civil servant is trying to sc**w the public.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,192 posts)Thanks Dotard
Igel
(35,356 posts)You file your tax return, not you.
This sort of spreads the responsibility out a bit. So you'd have to check in February for 2018 and then again in spring 2018 for real. Mess it up in early 2017, you pay through your teeth in early 2018.
At the same time, the people most likely to itemize in a serious way are those most likely capable of doing precisely this. Many of my peers constantly double-check their employer. It's the people making $28k/year who don't itemize (why bother?) that most often lack the academic chops for doing this kind of thing.
I personally rather like the idea of overpaying and then getting a sizeable tax return. I've often understated deductions just for that. My peers often say, "But the federal government's getting the interest!"
So what? If you support the government morally and conceptually, then it's not a problem. If you believe that you deserve every cent from government that you can get, and want to pay not one extra cent, then it's a problem.
DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)handle their payroll. These payroll specialist firms having to scramble to figure out the right federal income tax withholding is a big "unintended consequence" of the new tax bill.