W-4 Form: What It Is & How to Fill it Out

In 2020, major changes were made to Form W-4, the form every employee has to fill out to determine the amount of taxes that are withheld from each paycheck. The Internal Revenue Service said it revised the form to increase its transparency and the accuracy of the payroll withholding system. For some people, filling in W-4 can be very simple.

For more information on how to complete Form W-4, check out the IRS’s website—including FAQs—and read the General Instructions on Page 2 of the form. So, here’s a step-by-step guide to filling out Form W-4 in 2022, including what it is and who’s required to complete it. If they do not furnish a new Form W-4, withholding will continue based on a valid form previously furnished. If more is withheld, your refund may be larger, or you may owe less if everything else stays the same. As with the prior version of the form, the new W-4 allows you to claim exempt status if you meet certain requirements. However, the new tax changes don’t always work well with the previous version of Form W-4.

Step 1

For example, single people with only one job and no specific tax deductions will be able to complete the form in five minutes. Others may have a more complex task – if they’re filing the taxes jointly, for instance, or if they need to fill in a multiple jobs worksheet. The first case is not a major issue because you can generally get a tax refund if your withholdings are too high and you end up overpaying.

• Otherwise, you may set up your withholding at too low a rate.
• On page 3 or the estimator to ensure you are withholding enough.
• Say the employee marked “Single” on the 2019 and earlier Form W-4, claimed 1 withholding allowance, and did not request any additional withholding amounts.
• Non-Resident Aliens have certain requirements for filling out tax paperwork.
• This is also where you can reflect any other tax credits as well if you want the amount withheld from your paycheck.

You have income from sources other than jobs or self-employment that is not subject to withholding (Step 4). Employees who have furnished Form W-4 in any year before 2020 are not required to furnish a new form merely because of the redesign. Employers will continue to compute withholding based on the information from the employee’s most recently furnished Form W-4. The new Form W-4 is a bit easier to understand because each section shows why adjustments are being made.

FAQs on the 2020 Form W-4

This new design aims to simplify the process of filling out Form W-4 for employees and improve tax withholding accuracy. New employees first paid after 2019 who fail to furnish a Form W-4 will be treated as a single filer with no other adjustments. This means that a single filer’s standard deduction with no other entries will be taken into account in determining withholding. This treatment also generally applies to employees who previously worked for you who were rehired in 2020 and did not furnish a new Form W-4. The IRS made significant changes to the W-4 form in 2020 and the updated form should provide you the means to more accurately withhold federal income tax. We’ll go over the changes and what you should know.

There have also been several recent changes to the W-4, so you may need to make some adjustments to your current form on file. No, Form W-4 has largely stayed the same since the overhaul in 2020. Changes made include revisions to standard deduction amounts and tables in the multiple jobs worksheet.

What is a 2022 W-4 form for?

Beginning with the 2018 tax year, personal and dependent exemptions are no longer used as deductions for calculating income tax. However, the W-4 form will continue to guide you to the correct amount https://www.bookstime.com/ of tax withholding. Some taxpayers might also qualify for exempt status. If, for example, you had no tax liability for the previous year, or for this year, you can claim exempt status on your W-4.

Please follow the directions below to correctly complete these forms. Non-Resident Alien employees at the University must adhere to the following how to fill out a w4 for dummies restrictions when filing out the Form W-4. Failure to comply with these restrictions can result in Internal Revenue Service penalties and fines.

Other adjustments (Step

However, to be eligible, tax returns must be filed no later than Sept. 30, 2022. Line 1 should be filled out if you have two jobs, or you are married filing jointly and both employed. If you have more than one job at a time or are married filing jointly and have a working spouse, you should fill out the Multiple Jobs Worksheet.