Changes in your paycheck to begin next month

NEW YORK — The IRS has released new withholding tables, incorporating the new “Making Work Pay” credit, one of the key tax provisions included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The new withholding tables, along with other instructions related to the new tax law, will be incorporated in new Publication 15-T and will be mailed to more than nine million employers in mid-March. The IRS asks employers start using these new tables as soon as possible but not later than April 1. Most workers will see a change in their take-home pay soon thereafter. Eligible workers will get the benefit of this change without any action on their part. This means that workers don’t need to fill out a new W-4 withholding form to get the Making Work Pay credit reflected in their take-home pay. Individuals and couples with multiple jobs may want to submit revised Form W-4 forms to ensure enough withholding is held to cover the tax for the combined income. Publication 919 provides additional guidance for tax withholding. Available for tax years 2009 and 2010, the Making Work Pay credit is 6.2 percent of a taxpayer’s earned income with a maximum credit of $800 for a married couple filing a joint return and $400 for other taxpayers, but it is phased out for higher income taxpayers. Most workers will qualify for the maximum credit. Because the credit is refundable (people can get it even if they owe no tax), most low-income workers will also qualify for the full credit. Though all eligible taxpayers will need to claim the credit when they file their 2009 income tax return next year, the benefit will generally be spread out over the paychecks they receive beginning this spring and continue until the end of the year. Many higher-income taxpayers will see little or no change in their take-home pay. That’s because the Making Work Pay credit is phased out for a married couple filing a joint return whose modified adjusted gross income is between $150,000 and $190,000 and other taxpayers whose modified AGI is between $75,000 and $95,000. Taxpayers will not get a separate, special check mailed to them from the IRS like last year’s economic stimulus payment. The link to new Income tax withholding tables is: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/n1036.pdf.