Tax Withholding Assistant (Excel)

Excel form will help small employers calculate the amount of federal income tax to withhold from their employees’ wages and help you as you transition to the new Form W-4 for 2020.

Link to excel form

Use the Income Tax Withholding Assistant if you typically use Publication 15-T to determine your employees’ income tax withholding. If you use an automated payroll system, you do not need to use the Assistant.

Open the Tax Withholding Assistant and follow these steps to calculate your employees’ tax withholding for 2020. Be sure that your employee has given you a completed Form W-4. The Assistant can accommodate both the 2020 Form W-4 and Forms W-4 from prior years.

You will want to save a separate copy of the spreadsheet for each employee.

  • Indicate how frequently you pay your employee.
  • Specify which version of Form W-4 applies to the employee.
  • Enter the requested information from your employee’s Form W-4.
  • Save a copy of the spreadsheet with the employee’s name in the file name.
  • Each pay period, open each employee’s Tax Withholding Assistant spreadsheet and enter the wage or salary amount for that period. The spreadsheet will then display the correct amount of federal income tax to withhold.

It’s designed to help any employer who would otherwise figure withholding, manually, using a worksheet and either the percentage method or wage bracket tables found in Publication 15-T.

The tool will help employers easily transition to the redesigned withholding system (no longer based on withholding allowances), which went into effect on Jan. 1. It can accommodate both the 2020 Form W-4 and Forms W-4 from prior years.

More

Form W-4

Using Tax Withholding Assistant For 2021

Open the Tax Withholding Assistant and follow these steps to calculate your employees’ tax withholding for 2021. Be sure that your employee has given you a completed Form W-4. The Assistant can accommodate  Forms W-4 from both before and after the change in format introduced in 2020.