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See if this feels familiar: You were excited for this year’s tax refund, but now that you’ve used the money, the next one feels a very long way off.

Or maybe you just swallowed a nasty tax bill that’s going to take you months to recover from.

If you can relate to either of these scenarios, it’s probably time to update your tax withholding. A big refund can mean you’re overpaying the government during the year, and a big bill means that you should have been paying more.

Updating your IRS Form W-4 with your employer can correct for either, raising or lowering your paychecks accordingly.

Not sure what to change on the form? Taxes are such a black box that it can be hard to know. And the W-4 isn’t the most intuitive document.

This is where the IRS’s Tax Withholding Estimator comes in.

If you fill in some basic pay stub information, this online tool will estimate how much you would owe or get back if you don’t change anything for the rest of the year. But better still, it will give you the numbers you need to revise your W-4 so you won’t have any bill or refund. And it’s just been updated to reflect the tax changes passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

(Don’t worry, it doesn’t ask for your name or record the information you input.)

Now, if you want to tinker with the numbers for any reason, it gets a bit trickier. But in short, increasing Line 3 on your W-4 will reduce the amount of tax withheld and increasing Line 4(c) will increase it. (Bonus tip: If you want your take-home pay to be bigger, increase the amount on Line 3. It looks like it’s just for people who claim dependents or other credits, but it’s not.)

So what?

Your W-4 is a powerful form. Adjusting it now can potentially put more money in your pocket or help you avoid having to catch up later in the year.

And even if your most recent tax return was spot on, it’s worth running the withholding estimator at least once a year. (Or whenever you get a second job, buy a house, or have another big life change like a marriage or divorce.)

Related Reading

•   The Hidden Cost of a Big Tax Refund (SoFi)

•   How to Accurately Fill Out Your W-4 Form (Nerdwallet)

•   When Should I Adjust My W-4 Withholdings? (Jackson Hewitt)

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