Changes to IRS Form W-4 for Calendar Year 2020

As a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the IRS has elected to implement a new Form W-4 which is very different from the current and prior year forms. The officially revised form was released in December 2019. Our partners in Administrative Systems Management have been working diligently to implement the necessary updates through the Employee Self Service tool using Duke@Work.

Based upon guidance from the IRS, the new Form W-4 will need to be completed only by those employees hired beginning in 2020 or those who plan to make withholding changes. Otherwise, tax withholdings will continue to be based upon the information from the employee’s federal W-4 record on file in the Payroll system.

The IRS and U.S. Treasury Department have updated the tax tables in an attempt to make individuals’ tax withholdings more closely match their tax liabilities. The new tax tables were just released last Friday morning.

In support of this change, the IRS has developed a new Tax Withholding Estimator for individuals to estimate their tax withholdings for 2020. They are in the process of incorporating the new 2020 tax tables and plan to release an update to this calculator in early January. The IRS recommends having a recent pay stub and tax return to compare withholding taxes. Corporate Payroll will distribute additional communications once this information is available.

Individuals seeking to update their tax withholdings are encouraged to discuss with a tax advisor. We will communicate more information in the coming weeks as it becomes available. The IRS has also published Frequently Asked Questions that may be helpful to review in anticipation of this change.

We appreciate your partnership and support with this regulatory change.