Caution:

Nonresident alien students from India and business apprentices from India aren’t subject to this procedure.

Instructions.

To figure how much federal income tax to withhold from the wages paid to a nonresident alien employee performing services in the United States, use the following steps.

Step 1.

Determine if the nonresident alien employee has submitted a Form W-4 for 2020 or later or an earlier Form W-4. Then add to the wages paid to the nonresident alien employee for the payroll period the amount for the applicable type of Form W-4 and payroll period.

If the nonresident alien employee was first paid wages before 2020 and has not submitted a Form W-4 for 2020 or later, add the amount shown in Table 1 to their wages for calculating federal income tax withholding.

Table 1 Payroll period Add additional Weekly $226.90 Biweekly 453.80 Semimonthly 491.70 Monthly 983.30 Quarterly 2,950.00 Semiannually 5,900.00 Annually 11,800.00 Daily or Miscellaneous (each day of the payroll period) 45.40

If the nonresident alien employee has submitted a Form W-4 for 2020 or later or was first paid wages in 2020 or later, add the amount shown in Table 2 to their wages for calculating federal income tax withholding.

Table 2 Payroll period Add additional Weekly $309.60 Biweekly 619.20 Semimonthly 670.80 Monthly 1,341.70 Quarterly 4,025.00 Semiannually 8,050.00 Annually 16,100.00 Daily or Miscellaneous (each day of the payroll period) 61.90

Step 2.

Enter the amount figured in Step 1 , earlier, as the total taxable wages on line 1a of the withholding worksheet that you use to figure federal income tax withholding.

The amounts from Tables 1 and 2 are added to wages solely for calculating income tax withholding on the wages of the nonresident alien employee. The amounts from the tables shouldn’t be included in any box on the employee’s Form W-2 and don’t increase the income tax liability of the employee. Also, the amounts from the tables don’t increase the social security tax or Medicare tax liability of the employer or the employee, or the FUTA tax liability of the employer.

Example.

An employer pays wages of $300 for a weekly payroll period to a married nonresident alien employee. The nonresident alien has a properly completed 2019 Form W-4 on file with the employer that shows marital status as “Single” with one withholding allowance and indicated status as a nonresident alien on Form W-4, line 6 (see Nonresident alien employee’s Form W-4 in section 9 of Pub. 15 for details on how a 2026 Form W-4 must be completed). The employer determines the wages to be used in the withholding tables by adding to the $300 amount of wages paid the amount of $226.90 from Table 1 under Step 1 ($526.90 total). The employer has a manual payroll system and prefers to use the Wage Bracket Method tables to figure withholding. The employer will use Worksheet 3 and the withholding tables in section 3 to determine the income tax withholding for the nonresident alien employee. In this example, the employer would withhold $31 in federal income tax from the weekly wages of the nonresident alien employee.

The $226.90 added to wages for calculating income tax withholding isn’t reported on Form W-2 and doesn’t increase the income tax liability of the employee. Also, the $226.90 added to wages doesn’t affect the social security tax or Medicare tax liability of the employer or the employee, or the FUTA tax liability of the employer.

Supplemental wage payment.

This procedure for determining the amount of federal income tax withholding for nonresident alien employees doesn’t apply to a supplemental wage payment (see section 7 of Pub. 15) if the 37% mandatory flat rate withholding applies or if the 22% optional flat rate withholding is being used to figure income tax withholding on the supplemental wage payment.