New federal tax forms will be released this week. They’ve been redesigned to make filing easier and clearer.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the new 1040 form individual income tax return. It will be a postcard.
The size is a nod not only to simplicity, but to deliver on a Republican campaign promise to create a postcard-sized means to file taxes.
“Hardworking taxpayers won’t have to spend nearly as much time filling out their (tax forms),” Mnuchin said in a preview announcement last week.
The changes spring from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that was passed last year.
The IRS has to develop, distribute and collect new forms as part of the revised tax law.
A new W4 form is also expected to be released.
Employers can use the forms already on file, but that has “posed problems for taxpayers because the sweeping tax changes address everything from personal exemptions to the standard deduction,” Fox Business reports. “As a result, many people have had inadequate amounts withheld from their paychecks, meaning, come April, they could be in for a big surprise from the IRS.”