Tax Withholding Forms May Be Combined for ’88

The Internal Revenue Service will look into whether it can combine the complicated W-4 tax withholding form and the new, simplified W-4A next year, IRS Commissioner Lawrence B. Gibbs said Saturday.

Gibbs, addressing the American Payroll Assn., said the IRS redesigned the form with the help of management consultants Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc. He said that the firm had tested the changes among typical taxpayers.

“We are going to see if, with the help of Booz, Allen, we can combine the two forms for 1988 and future years,” he said, “but we will have to wait to see if we can come up with a successful way to combine them.”

The Office of Management and Budget has approved, with slight revisions, a simplified version of the W-4 form that is dubbed W-4A. The latter, a two-page work sheet and form, is being printed for distribution to employers about April 15.

The IRS had to come up with the W-4A because of widespread criticism of the revised W-4, which became more complex this year after Congress ordered the agency to make withholdings come closer to the actual amounts of income tax owed.