New downloadable assistant helps small businesses

The Internal Revenue Service has launched a new online assistant designed to help employers, especially small businesses, easily determine the right amount of federal income tax to withhold from their workers’ pay.

Known as the Income Tax Withholding Assistant for Employers, this new spreadsheet-based tool is designed to help employers easily transition to the redesigned withholding system (no longer based on withholding allowances), which goes into effect today, Jan. 1. It does this by helping them easily implement new income-tax withholding requests from employees who fill out the completely redesigned 2020 Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate.

At the same time, the tool can also help employers continue to properly withhold from employees who still have a withholding request on file using a past version of the W-4, which was based on withholding allowances.

More information about the Income Tax Withholding Assistant for Employers, the redesigned 2020 Form W-4, and other tax topics of interest to employers and small businesses can be found on IRS.gov.