Warning To All Employees: Review The Tax Withholding In Your Paycheck Otherwise A Big Tax Bill May Be Waiting For You
As a result of tax reform, the IRS released the new income tax withholding tables in January and your employer probably entered those new withholding amounts into the payroll system in February. It was estimated that about 90% of taxpayers would see an increase in their take home pay once the new withholding tables were implemented.
As a result of tax reform, the IRS released the new income tax withholding tables in January and your employer probably entered those new withholding amounts into the payroll system in February. It was estimated that about 90% of taxpayers would see an increase in their take home pay once the new withholding tables were implemented. While lower tax rates and more money in your paycheck sounds like a good thing, it may come back to bite you when you file your taxes.
The Tax Withholding Guessing Game
Knowing the correct amount to withhold for federal and state income taxes from your paycheck is a bit of a guessing game. Withhold too little throughout the year and when you file your taxes you have a tax bill waiting for you equal to the amount of the shortfall. Withhold too much and you will receive a big tax refund but that also means you gave the government an interest free loan for the year.
There are two items that tell your employer how much to withhold for federal income tax from your paycheck:
Income Tax Withholding Tables
Form W-4
The IRS provides your employer with the Income Tax Withholding Tables. On the other hand, you as the employee, complete the Form W-4 which tells your employer how much to withhold for taxes based on the “number of allowances” that you claim on the form.
What Is A W-4 Form?
The W-4 form is one of the many forms that HR had you complete when you were first hired by the company. Here is what it looks like:
Section 3 of this form tells your employer which withholding table to use:
Single
Married
Married, but withhold at higher Single Rate
Section 5 tells your employer how many "allowances" you are claiming. Allowance is just another word for "dependents". The more allowances your claim, the lower the tax withholding in your paycheck because it assumes that you will have less "taxable income" because in the past you received a deduction for each dependent. This is where the main problem lies. Due to the changes in the tax laws, the tax deduction for personal exemptions was eliminated. This may adversely affect some taxpayers the were claiming a high number of allowances on their W-4 form because even though the number of their dependents did not change, their taxable income may be higher in 2018 because the deduction for personal exemptions no longer exists.
Even though everyone should review their Form W-4 form this year, employees that claimed allowances on their W-4 form are at the highest risk of either under withholding or over withholding taxes from their paychecks in 2018 due to the changes in the tax laws.
How Much Should I Withhold From My Paycheck For Taxes?
So how do you go about calculating that right amount to withhold from your paycheck for taxes to avoid an unfortunate tax surprise when you file your taxes for 2018? There are two methods:
Ask your accountant
Use the online IRS Withholding Calculator
The easiest and most accurate method is to ask your personal accountant when you meet with them to complete your 2017 tax return. Bring them your most recent pay stub and a blank Form W-4. Based on the changes in the tax laws, they can assist you in the proper completion of your W-4 Form based on your estimated tax liability for the year.If you complete your own taxes, I would highly recommend visiting the updated IRS Withholding Calculator. The IRS calculator will ask you a series of questions, such as:
How many dependents you plan to claim in 2018
Are you over the age of 65
The number of children that qualify for the dependent care credit
The number of children that will qualify for the new child tax credit
Estimated gross wages
How much fed income tax has already been withheld year to date
Payroll frequency
At the end of the process it will provide you with your personal results based on the data that you entered. It will provide you with guidance as to how to complete your Form W-4 including the number of allowances to claim and if applicable, the additional amount that you should instruct your employer to withhold from your paycheck for federal income taxes. Additional withholding requests are listed in Section 6 of the Form W-4.
Avoid Disaster
Having this conversation with your accountant and/or using the new IRS Withholding Calculator will help you to avoid a big tax disaster in 2018. Unfortunately, many employees may not learn about this until it's too late. Employees that are used to getting a tax refund may find out in the spring of next year that they owe thousands of dollars to the IRS because the combination of the new tax tables and the changes in the tax law that caused them to inadvertently under withhold federal income taxes throughout the year.
Action Item!!
Take action now. The longer you wait to run this calculation or to have this conversation with your accountant, the larger the adjustment may be to your paycheck. It's easier to make these adjustments now when you have nine months left in the year as opposed to waiting until November.I would strongly recommend that you share this article with your spouse, children in the work force, and co-workers to help them avoid this little known problem. The media will probably not catch wind of this issue until employees start filing their tax returns for 2018 and they find out that there is a tax bill waiting for them.
About Michael.........
Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.
How Much Will Your Paycheck Increase In 2018?
U.S taxpayers have a big reason to celebrate this week. By the end of February, you should see your paycheck increase. The government released the new payroll withholding tables this week which will lower the amount of taxes withheld from your paycheck and increase your take home pay. Naturally the next question is "How much will my paycheck go
U.S taxpayers have a big reason to celebrate this week. By the end of February, you should see your paycheck increase. The government released the new payroll withholding tables this week which will lower the amount of taxes withheld from your paycheck and increase your take home pay. Naturally the next question is "How much will my paycheck go up?" Out of curiously, I spent my Saturday morning comparing the 2017 tax tables to the new 2018 tax tables to answer that question. Yes, this is what nerds do on their weekends.
The Calculation
Like most financial calculations, it's long and boring. I will provide you with the cliff notes version. The government provides your company with tax withholding tables that they enter into the payroll system. It tells your employer how much to withhold in fed taxes from each pay check. The three main variables in the calculation are:
Payroll frequency (weekly, bi-weekly, etc)
The number of withholding allowances that you claim
The amount of your pay
Single Filers or Head of Household
If you are a single or head of household tax filer, I ran the following calculations based on a bi-weekly payroll schedule and an employee claiming one withholding allowance. The table below illustrates how much your annual take home pay may increase under the new tax withholding tables at various salary levels.
withholding tables - single filer
Based on this analysis, it looks like a single filer’s paycheck will increase between 2% – 3% as soon as the new withholding tables are entered into the payroll system. If you want to know how much your bi-weekly pay will increase, just take the annual numbers listed above and divide them by 26 pay periods. If the payroll frequency at your company is something other than bi-weekly or you claim more than one withholding allowance, your percentage increase in take home pay will deviate from the table listed above.
Married Couples Filing Joint
For employees that are married and file a joint tax return, below is the calculations based on a bi-weekly payroll schedule and two withholding allowances. The table below illustrates how much your annual take home pay may increase under the new tax withholding tables at various salary levels.
payroll tax withholding table - married
Even though I added an additional withholding allowance in the calculation for the married employee, I was surprised that the “range” of the percentage increase in the take home pay for a married employee was noticeably wider than a single tax filer. As you will see in the table above, the increase in take home pay for an employee in this category range from 1.5% – 3.1%.
Another interesting observation, in the single filer table, the percentage increase in take home pay actually diminished as the employee’s annual compensation increased. In contrast, for the married employee, the percentage increase in annual take home pay gradually increased as the employee’s annual salary increased. Conclusion…..get married in 2018? Nothing says love like new withholding tables.
About Michael.........
Hi, I’m Michael Ruger. I’m the managing partner of Greenbush Financial Group and the creator of the nationally recognized Money Smart Board blog . I created the blog because there are a lot of events in life that require important financial decisions. The goal is to help our readers avoid big financial missteps, discover financial solutions that they were not aware of, and to optimize their financial future.
