In the category of “everything old is new again,” the IRS announced in late July that it intends to require that nonemployee compensation (“NEC”) paid during the 2020 calendar year be reported on new Form 1099-NEC, instead of being reported in Box 7 of Form 1099-MISC. A draft of Form 1099-NEC was posted on the IRS website for public comments, which are due by September 30. The change comes in response to statutory changes made in 2015 by the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act.
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Draft Forms
IRS Releases Updated Tax Withholding Estimator
Today, the IRS unveiled its new Tax Withholding Estimator to help employees complete the Form W-4 and ensure that withholdings are sufficient to cover their income tax liability. The new calculator was previewed in the draft 2020 Form W-4. (See earlier coverage.) A near-final draft 2020 Form W-4 is expected to be released soon. Currently, the calculator provides guidance to employees regarding how to complete the 2019 Form W-4 based on the information they provide and whether they wish to match their withholding to their estimated tax liability or receive a refund.
The calculator has been updated to reflect the changes made to the Internal Revenue Code by 2017 tax reform legislation, such as the elimination of personal exemptions. To use the calculator, an employee provides information regarding the income that he or she and his or her spouse earn at each job, tax withholding per pay period, and tax withholding year-to-date. The calculator allows an employee to input information regarding qualified retirement plan contributions (it is worth noting that the results page displays only the amount included in box for the employee’s contribution, but the calculation appears to take into account any contribution made by a spouse), cafeteria plan salary reductions (for HSAs, FSAs, dependent care accounts, health insurance, adoption assistance, group-term life, etc.), and other pre-tax reductions, such as for qualified transportation fringes. The prompt, however, does not make it clear what should be included in the total as employees may be unfamiliar with the term “cafeteria plan” and no reference is made in the prompt to qualified transportation fringes. In addition, the income information asks for “wages” and if the employee inputs “taxable wages” from his or her paystub and then includes pre-tax deductions, the recommendations may result in too little withholding. The calculator includes expandable tips that explain that “total wages” means “gross wages” before any pre-tax reductions, but employees may not complete the form without seeing the additional guidance, which is only visible if the employee clicks on a question mark.
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Draft 2020 Form W-4 Addresses Some Privacy Concerns
On May 31, the IRS released a draft 2020 Form W-4 that addresses some, but not all, of the privacy concerns that led the IRS to abandon the redesigned form for 2019. According to an accompanying news release, the IRS anticipates releasing a near-final form in July to allow payroll processors and employers to begin work on programming updates to their systems. Minor changes may be made based on comments to that draft form, but stakeholders are encouraged to submit their comments on the released draft by the end of June to ensure they can be taken into account. Draft form instructions are expected to be released in the next few weeks for stakeholder comment.
The new draft directs filers to the IRS withholding calculator to determine how to complete the form without disclosing all of the personal information that would be disclosed on the form if it were fully completed. It also requires less information to be shared with employers, even if the employee does not use the withholding calculator. As with the 2019 draft, the 2020 draft eliminates the concept of withholding allowances to reflect the elimination of personal exemptions under tax reform.
Continue Reading Draft 2020 Form W-4 Addresses Some Privacy Concerns