Tip:

At the beginning of each year, consider reminding employees to submit a new Form W-4 if they made a mid-year change to their Form W-4 based on their use of the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator available at IRS.gov/W4App . Employees who made a mid-year change may be underwithheld or overwithheld once their Form W-4 is applied to the next full calendar year.

New employee fails to furnish Form W-4.

A new employee who fails to furnish a Form W-4 will be treated as if they had checked the box for Single or Married filing separately in Step 1(c) and made no entries in Step 2, Step 3, or Step 4 of Form W-4. However, an employee who was paid wages before 2020 and who failed to furnish a Form W-4 should continue to be treated as Single and claiming zero allowances on a 2019 or earlier Form W-4.

Exemption from withholding.

Employees who check the box for exemption from federal income tax withholding below Step 4(c) shall have no federal income tax withheld from their paychecks except in the case of certain supplemental wages. Generally, an employee may claim exemption from federal income tax withholding because they had no federal income tax liability last year and expect none this year. See the Form W-4 instructions for more information.