What are Tax Withholding Forms?

There are three basic tax withholding forms for US payroll - Federal Tax Withholding (Form W-4), Work Location Tax Withholding and Residence Tax Withholding.

These forms are regularly updated based on the published changes available for Federal W-4 and State Tax Forms. These forms do not appear in the New Hire's onboarding flow when the work/residence address of the New Hire is other than USA.

How do you complete Tax Withholding forms?

Federal Tax Withholding

Select one option in Step 1(c).

Fill out steps 2-4 if applicable. The tax withholding adjustments in Step 4 accept entering the amounts in decimals as shown below.

After completing the form, click the confirmation checkbox.

Click on Electronically Sign.

if exemption from federal withholding is applicable, check the box under "Exemption from Federal Withholding" in Step 4. This will mask the fields of Step 3(Claim Dependents) & Step 4(Other Adjustments).

This displays the following warning message when signing the form. Click on "Yes" to confirm the "EXEMPT" status.

State Tax Withholding

The information that needs to be entered varies depending on the state where the employee works or reside. Some states have their own version of the State Form W-4 while few others use the Federal Form W-4. Also, some states do not have income tax at all and so this activity does not show up in the New Hire's onboarding flow for the employees working/residing in those states. The states with no income tax are listed in the following sections.

Please click here to see the states that have state tax W-4 forms.

Given below is an example of State Tax Withholding Form for Oregon State.

When entering the details, use the links provided in the form for instructions/worksheet. Once you are done filling up the form, acknowledge and electronically sign.

Work Location Tax Withholding

In this example, the work state is taken as North Carolina and hence the North Carolina State form is displayed. The form contains the New Hire's personal information (Name, home address and Social Security Number) populated from the invitation data and Employee Information activity.

To complete the form the New Hire must enter all the information that applies to him/her and click on Electronically Sign. 

If the New Hire's residential address is not US, then the Country name populates in the field "Country (if not U. S)". Complete the form as mentioned above.

In case, you want to print the tax form after completing the activity, click on "Download Signed Forms" icon on the bottom right corner of the page.

The printable format of the form displays as below:

Residence Location Tax Withholding

The information that needs to be entered varies depending on the state where the employee lives.  Also, if the employee's residence state does not have state income tax, or employee's residence state is same as the work state, this will not be seen in the New Hire's activity. For the list of states with no income tax, please check the following sections.

In this example, the residence state is taken as California. The New Hire must enter all the information that is applicable to him/her. 

Enter allowances or exemption whichever is applicable. if both are left blank the following error message displays.

The allowances that are entered in 1a & 1b adds to 1c.

Note: If 1a and 1b options are not applicable, then enter 1c if no exempt.

If exemption is applicable, then select the check box for #3 or #4.

After completing the form, click on the check box to certify and then click on "Electronically Sign" button. In case if exemption from withholding (option #3 or #4) is selected, the following warning message will be displayed when signing the form.

Click "Yes" on the message to continue submitting the form with tax exemption.

Click "No" to go back and make changes to the form.

This confirms the form has not been saved and you can revise your form entries. Click "Close".

Make changes to your entries as required, and then sign the form. If you have chosen option #3 or #4, you will once again see the confirmation message for tax exemption. Choose "Yes" to complete and continue to the next activity or "No" to go back to the form and make changes again.

When Residence/Work Location state is one of the territory states - Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa

The Federal and State taxes will be bypassed if the candidate's work or residence state belong to any of these three U.S. territory states - GU/VI/AS.

That means, if one of these territory states is selected in residence or work location address, then the Federal and State tax withholdings forms do not show in the payroll activities of the New Hire onboarding.

Note: Also, the tax data will not be pushed to HRMS database on system update for the employees with residence or work state as GU/VI/AS.

Few examples are given below:

Example 1: When Residence State = California, Work State = Guam

Example 2: When Residence State = U.S. Virgin Island, Work State = California

Example 3: When  Residence State = American Samoa, Work State = Guam

Example 4: When Residence State = Texas, Work State = Guam

Example 5: When Residence State = Virgin Islands, Work State = Florida

Work State = Florida

How to download Tax Withholding forms?

To download the unsigned Tax Withholding form, click on the 'Download Document(s)' gadget provided at the right bottom corner of the page.

The downloaded unsigned form looks like below:

Once the tax form is electronically signed, the form can be downloaded using 'Download Signed Forms' gadget that is present at the right bottom corner of the page.

The downloaded signed form looks like below:

What are the states that do not have state income tax?

Given below are the list of states that have no state income tax:

• Alaska
• Florida
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Washington
• Wyoming
• Pennsylvania

The Work Location Tax Withholding / Residence Tax Withholding do not show in the New Hire's payroll activities for the employees working or residing in the above states.

Example: Residence State = Texas, Work Location State = Florida

Only Federal Tax Withholding form is shown in New Hire's payroll activities. State Tax withholding Forms are not available since there is no state tax for these states.

What are the states that use the Federal Form W-4 for state tax purposes?

The following four states use the Federal Form W-4 for the state income tax purposes:

• Colorado
• New Mexico
• North Dakota
• Utah
  
  

To access the above state tax forms, please click here.

Can you edit the tax forms that are already completed?

The completed tax forms are available for editing until the New Hire's process is submitted to HR. Before "Submit to HR" the candidate can revise the forms and edit them in case if corrections are needed.

Click on "Edit Form" button given at the bottom of the completed form.

This opens the form in edit mode. Make the changes as required, click check box to certify and click on "Electronically Sign".

If you want to retain the old values, click on "Cancel Edit" button. This will cancel the edit and display the completed activity page in read only mode.