Article snippet: The Republican tax bill is the law of the land — but for federal officials, the work is just beginning. The Treasury Department and the IRS now have a mammoth task on their hands as they seek to turn the sweeping tax provisions passed by Congress into new rules and regulations. The tax law, which MORE signed on Friday, generally takes effect in January and includes significant changes to the tax code, including to deductions and pass-through income. Guidance from the IRS will be crucial in helping taxpayers and tax preparers navigate the changes. “[The IRS] will have a series of challenges,” said Mark Everson, who helmed the IRS from 2003 to 2007 and now serves as vice chairman of alliantgroup. The most pressing task for the IRS is to issue new guidance on tax withholdings from people’s paychecks. The agency said it expects to put forth guidance in January that “will allow taxpayers to begin seeing the changes in their paychecks as early as February.” Withholdings are currently based in part on taxpayers’ personal exemptions, but those are eliminated under the new law. Some tax and payroll experts had been concerned that employees would have to complete new W-4 forms in 2018, since workers fill them out to have the correct amount of taxes withheld from their pay. However, the IRS said the new guidance “will be designed to work with the existing Forms W-4 that employees have already filed, and no further action by taxpayers is needed at this time.” A few of the ... Link to the full article to read more