HRPAY 20-04, New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Certificate

Published: January 24, 2020
Effective: Pay Period 26, 2019

Summary

This bulletin supersedes HRPAY 20-02, New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Certificate, dated January 3, 2020, to add information regarding Form W-4s in the suspense file and the future file, as well as information for employees with no change to their W-4. All other information remains the same.

The IRS has a new 2020 Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Certificate, to reduce the form's complexity and to increase transparency and accuracy in the withholding system. The redesigned Form W-4 no longer uses the concept of withholding allowances, which was previously tied to the amount of the personal exemption.

Employees who had no changes to their Form W-4 by December 27, 2019, will default to their current Form W-4 on file.

Any Form W-4 in the old format in future or suspense status as of December 30, 2019, was deleted. Employees will be required to submit a new Form W-4.

Affected Systems

System	System Impact
EmpowHR	A new check box will be added labeled Multiple Jobs/Spouse Works. The following new fields will be added to the Federal Tax page: Qualified Children Other Dependents Total Dependents Other Income Other Deductions Extra Withholding
Front-End System Interface (FESI)	The file layout for Document Type 130, Federal Tax, will be updated.
Personnel Input and Edit System (PINE)	Document Type 130, Federal Tax, will be updated with six new error messages and codes.
Web-based Entry, Processing, Inquiry, and Correction System (EPIC Web)	The following new fields will be added to the Federal Tax page/Tax tab: Multiple Jobs/Spouse Works Qualified Children under Age 17 Other Dependents Total Claimed Dependents

Implementation

EmpowHR

W-4 data can be processed on the Payroll Documents page for the Tax/Federal Tax Data tab.

The following fields will be added:

Multiple Jobs/Spouse Works - Indicates employee holds more than one job at a time or married filing jointly and spouse also works.
Qualified Children - Indicates the total dollar amount for qualified children in increments of $2000 only. Example: Calculated totals will be $2,000, $4,000, $6,000, etc.
Other Dependents - Indicates total dollar amount for other dependents in increments of $500 only. Example: Calculated totals will be $500, $1,000, $1,500, etc.
Total Dependents - Indicates total dollar amount for dependents claimed.
Other Income - Indicates tax withheld for other income. This may include interest, dividends, and retirement income.
Other Deductions - Indicates deductions other than the standard deduction to reduce withholdings.

FESI

The following new fields will be added to the FESI layout for Document Type 130:

Multi-Jobs-Spouse-Wrk - Indicates employee holds more than one job at a time or married filing jointly and spouse also works.
Tot-Amt-Clm-Dependents - Indicates total dollar amount for dependents claimed.
Other-Income - Indicates tax withheld for other income. This may include interest, dividends, and retirement income.
Ded-Reduce-Tax-Whld - Indicates deductions other than the standard deduction to reduce withholdings.

PINE

The following new error messages and codes will be added to Document Type 130, Federal Income Tax/EIC Advance Payment Certificate:

Error Code	Description
056	Multi Job or Spouse Works Must Be Y or N.
057	Total Claim Dependents Must Be Numeric or Spaces.
058	Other Income Amount Must Be Numeric or Spaces.
059	Deducts Reduce Tax W-H Must Be Numeric or Spaces.
060	Total Claim Dependents Amount Must Be Rounded.
061	Citizenship Code Must Be 8 for this Filing Status.

Error code 055 will be modified to state "W-4 is Controlled by the IRS No Updates Allowed."

EPIC Web

W-4 data can be processed on the Payroll Documents - Federal Tax Document page for the Tax tab.

The following fields will be added:

Multiple Jobs/Spouse Works - Indicates employee holds more than one job at a time or married filing jointly and spouse also works.
Qualified Children under Age 17 - Indicates total dollar amount for qualified children in increments of $2000 only. Example: Calculated totals will be $2,000, $4,000, $6,000, etc.
Other Dependents - Indicates total dollar amount for other dependents in increments of $500 only. Example: Calculated totals will be $500, $1,000, $1,500, etc.
Total Claimed Dependents - Indicates total dollar amount for dependents claimed.

Resources

View INQUIRY Bulletin 20-01, New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Certificate and REPT Bulletin 20-01, New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Certificate.

The procedure manuals for these applications, which are available online at the NFC Web site, are being updated to include the information in this bulletin.

For more information on the redesigned Form W-4 go to the IRS Web site.

Inquiries

For questions about NFC processing, authorized Servicing Personnel Office representatives should contact the NFC Contact Center at 1-855-NFC-4GOV (1-855-632-4468) or via the customer service portal.