Are You Going to Owe the IRS? Find Out Now

With just today left to make most of the changes that will affect your 2011 tax bill, now is the time to figure out if you're on track to owe the IRS when taxes are due in April.

The IRS has a special calculator that can help you get a rough picture, after answering just a few questions, of your tax bill for this year.

Here's what to do:

• Grab the most recent paycheck stubs for all of the jobs you have, including part-time work.
• Try to get a rough idea of how much student loan interest, alimony and other above-the-line deductions you will be able to take. Also, think about whether you have enough itemized deductions to make it worth going that route instead of taking the standard deduction ($5,800 individual; $11,600 couple). A recent income tax return may help you see how many deductions you took in recent years.
• Head to the IRS Withholding Calculator (direct link) which you can also find by going to IRS.gov and searching for "withholding calculator."
• The calculator will ask you a series of questions whose answers you should be able to find on the documents you gathered (salary, 401(k) contributions, federal income tax withheld, etc.). Plug these numbers in and click "continue" at the bottom of each page.
• At the end, a final screen will recap the answers you plugged in and provide an estimate of how much you will owe or how much you can expect in a refund. These figures are only estimates and will be affected by the accuracy of the information you input.

If it looks like you're going to owe more money than you'd like, check out these last-minute tax tips for suggestions on what you can do.