Department of Revenue News Release

The Missouri Department of Revenue is updating the state’s tax tables to provide more predictable tax filings for Missourians. While adjustments are being made to ensure increased predictability for taxpayers, it does not change the amount of tax they will pay.

The Department will release the new adjusted withholding tables on its website as soon as the tables have been thoroughly vetted to ensure accuracy. Additionally, the Department is actively encouraging businesses to offer to update withholdings from their employees’ paychecks moving forward. Ensuring that appropriate withholding taxes are collected the rest of this year will help lessen unanticipated 2018 tax liabilities in the spring.

“Any time changes are made at the federal level, states can expect there will be a need to make some adjustments,” said Department of Revenue Director Joel Walters. “Updating the state’s tax tables is necessary to ensure enough money is being withheld to protect taxpayers from owing more or receiving less back than they are expecting when they file their tax returns in the spring.”

While most taxpayers’ tax liability is still less than last year, Missouri W-2 withholding amounts decreased by a greater margin than the overall estimated tax reduction. This unexpected decrease in withholding is due to a longstanding inaccurate calculation of the federal tax deduction that had previously gone undetected. As a result, some Missouri taxpayers are under-withholding for the 2018 tax period, meaning those taxpayers may see a smaller refund or a greater balance owed than they had seen in previous years.

Individual taxpayers may also request of their employers to have additional taxes withheld on the MO-W4 https://dor.mo.gov/forms/MO-W-4.pdf, or they could begin making estimated tax payments by completing Forms MO-1040ES, Declaration of Estimated Tax for individuals https://dor.mo.gov/forms/MO-1040ES2018.pdf.  

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