What is a Form W-4? How to Fill an Employee’s Withholding Certificate in 2023 United States

What is a W-4 Form?

A Form W-4 is an IRS form that employees fill out and forward to their employers when initiating a new job. Employers use this information to gather how much tax to withhold from an employee’s paycheck through out annually. It is formerly known as Employee Withholding Certificate.

How to fill out a 2023 W-4 form

Employers use the W-4 to calculate various payroll taxes and remit the taxes to to state , local authorities and IRS on behalf of employees.

First Step Personal Information

Enter your name, address, tax filling status and Social Security number.

Second Step Account for various jobs

If you file jointly and your spouse works and you do more than one jobs follow the instructions to get right witholding

• For the highest paying job W-4 fill out steps 2 through 4 b of the W-4 leave those steps blank on the W-4 for other jobs
• If you and your spouse have a total of 2 jobs and earn same amount at both you can instead opt to check box 2 to indicate this.
• If you do not want to show your employer that you have other sources of income or other job.
• On line 4 c you can tell your employer to withhold an amount of tax from your paycheck

Third Step Claim Dependents

If your total income is less than $200000 or jointly $400000 you can show how many kids and dependent you have and multiply them by credit amount.

Fourth Step Refine your witholdings

If you desire to claims deductions or extra tax witheld other than the standard deduction you can note that.

Fifth Step Sign your W-4

Once completed give the signed form to your employer human resources.

Do I have to update my W-4 every year?

No you do not needed to update W-4 form every year. It is only needed when you start a job with new employer or want to adjust your witholdings at your existing jobs.

Is there a new W-4 for 2023?

The IRS releases update version of W-4 2023 in late 2022. The 2023 W-4 form is similar to 2022 version. It has some changes removing a reference to the IRS withholding calculator updating the deduction worksheet.