80 percent of people missed a step related to taxes in 2018, and it could affect their refund

Blog posted On February 04, 2019

The new GOP tax bill, which was passed in December 2017, made some sweeping changes. Most of those went into effect in the 2018 tax year, for which filing season officially starts on January 28.

The individual tax rates changed, so the IRS updated the income tax withholding tables and encouraged filers to review and update their W-4 forms — which determine how much income tax is withheld from your pay — to make sure you were withholding the right amount under the new legislation.

But a 2018 survey by H&R Block suggests that most Americans never did that: As of November, only about 20 percent of respondents said they had updated their W-4 in response to the tax overhaul. That means about 80 percent didn’t.

If you’re among those who didn’t, you could get a smaller refund than you anticipated. You could even owe money to the IRS.

Read more at CNBC.com.