The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) encourages all employees to do a “paycheck checkup” by checking their tax withholding to make sure they are paying the right amount of tax as they earn it throughout the year.  Last week, the IRS launched the Tax Withholding Estimator, a new, mobile-friendly online tool designed to make it easier for employees to have the right amount of tax withheld during the year.  The tool will help determine whether employees need to adjust their withholding by submitting a new Form W-4 (Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate) to their employers.

The Tax Withholding Estimator, which replaces the Withholding Calculator, offers a variety of new user-friendly features including:

• Plain language throughout the tool to improve comprehension.
• The ability to more effectively target at the time of filing either a tax due amount close to zero or a refund amount.
• A new progress tracker to help users see how much more information they need to input.
• The ability to move back and forth through the steps, correct previous entries and skip questions that don’t apply.
• Enhanced tips and links to help the user quickly determine if they qualify for various tax credits and deductions.
• Self-employment tax for a user who has self-employment income in addition to wages or pensions.
• Automatic calculation of the taxable portion of any Social Security benefits.