The IRS released its annual paycheck checkup reminder on September 4, 2026, timed to National Payroll Week (September 7 through 11, 2026). The release is short on new law but useful as a client conversation trigger. Coming into the last four months of the year, it is the right window to run withholding refreshes on individual clients and payroll systems checks on employer clients before year end catches up.
For workers: the Form W-4 refresh
Federal income tax is paid throughout the year through wage withholding under IRC Section 3402. Withholding is driven by the employee’s Form W-4 on file, which most employees complete once at hire and never revisit. The IRS recommends a review particularly after any of the following:
Starting or leaving a job.
Working multiple jobs at the same time.
Marriage or divorce.
Birth or adoption of a child.
A significant change in income.
Any tax law change that affects the individual’s deduction, credit, or bracket picture.
The 2026 tax year picks up several new items that make a refresh more meaningful than usual. Qualified overtime compensation, qualified tip compensation, and the car loan interest deduction all interact with the withholding decision, and the 2026 Form W-4 was updated to allow taxpayers to account for these items in step 4(b). Clients who want the cash flow benefit of these deductions during the year (rather than as a bigger refund next April) need an updated W-4, and the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator has been updated to walk through the numbers.
For preparers, this is a client outreach opportunity. A one page email or client portal note in September that says “here is why you should refresh your W-4 before the end of the year” is a modest touch that produces meaningful goodwill and reduces the “why did I owe” conversation in April.
For employers: five items the IRS is calling out
The release identifies five payroll responsibilities as this year’s focus areas:
Accurate employment tax withholding. Federal income tax, Social Security tax, and Medicare tax withheld from wages. Errors here are the source of the most common Trust Fund Recovery Penalty exposure under IRC Section 6672 for responsible persons.
Electronic federal tax deposits. Federal tax deposits must be made by electronic funds transfer through EFTPS, IRS Direct Pay for businesses, or (for eligible users) the Business Tax Account. Paper coupons are gone. Deposit schedules (monthly versus semi weekly) depend on the employer’s lookback period liability.
On time filing of employment tax returns. Forms 940, 941, 943, 944, and 945 can all be electronically filed. Late filing and late deposit penalties under IRC Sections 6651 and 6656 stack quickly.
Recordkeeping. The IRS specifies that employment records should be kept for at least four years. That is the federal minimum. State law and best practice for employment claim defense often push the retention period longer.
Payroll data security. Verify changes to direct deposit or employee information through a trusted channel. Limit access to payroll systems. Use multi factor authentication. Stay alert to phishing and credential theft. Payroll fraud (particularly direct deposit redirection) is one of the fastest growing categories of business email compromise loss, and the IRS is calling it out for a reason.
The September 8 webinar is worth the calendar slot
The IRS is running a free webinar on September 8, 2026, titled “IRS and Payroll Professionals: Partners in Every Paycheck.” The agenda covers:
Federal employment tax deposits.
Trump Account employer contributions.
2026 Form W-2 reporting changes.
IRS payroll resources.
Two of those items are new territory. Trump Account employer contributions are part of the Working Families Tax Cuts framework and will require payroll systems configuration for employers who choose to contribute. The 2026 Form W-2 reporting changes include the new box 12 code TT for qualified overtime compensation (covered separately in FS-2026-13), along with expected reporting changes for qualified tip compensation. Firms with employer clients should send the webinar link to the client’s payroll lead this week.
Why this matters for tax pros
Four practice level takeaways.
First, use National Payroll Week as the client outreach hook. Preparers who send a September client note on withholding, direct deposit verification, and year end planning look proactive and produce measurable client engagement. Preparers who wait until January produce panic.
Second, coordinate the W-4 refresh conversation with clients affected by the new deductions. Clients earning qualified overtime, qualified tips, or purchasing a new vehicle with a qualified loan should know that the W-4 refresh is how they capture the benefit during the year. Otherwise the deduction shows up only at return time.
Third, brief employer clients on the September 8 webinar and follow up. If the client’s payroll systems are not configured for the 2026 W-2 changes, this is the last comfortable window to fix it before year end payroll runs. A January discovery costs more than a September project.
Fourth, run a payroll security check with every employer client. Direct deposit fraud, wire fraud on payroll transfers, and W-2 phishing (business email compromise targeting W-2 data) are all continuing trends. Employer clients with any of the following are candidates for a security refresh conversation: (a) no MFA on payroll system access, (b) direct deposit change requests accepted by email without callback verification, (c) shared payroll system credentials across multiple staff, or (d) no written incident response plan for a payroll compromise.
A note on the reference materials
Two IRS publications remain the operational backbone for payroll compliance and should be on every employer’s shelf:
Publication 15 (Circular E), Employer’s Tax Guide, which covers the federal employment tax obligations, deposit rules, and reporting requirements.
Publication 15-T, Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods, which provides the tables and computation methods for withholding.
Both are updated annually. Firm reference libraries should confirm they hold the current version.
THE TTR TAKE
National Payroll Week is one of the easiest client outreach hooks in the calendar, and this year it lands right when 2026 W-4 refreshes and 2026 W-2 configuration decisions actually matter. Send the note to individual clients, forward the September 8 webinar to employer clients, and run a payroll security check on every business return in the book.
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Direct link to the official Internal Revenue Service announcement.