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  5. State Agencies Bulletin No. 2161

State Agencies Bulletin No. 2161

Subject
Locked Query to Identify Employees who Require a New Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate
Date Issued
September 28, 2023

Purpose:

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform agencies of the New Locked Query (LQ_TAX_NEW_W4_REQUIRED) to help them identify employees who require a new Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate. 

Affected Employees:

Employees who are:

  • Newly hired employees.
  • Concurrently hired employees who have a concurrent record that is terminated.
  • Employees that were rehired within the same company after being terminated or retired for more than six months.

Background:

The IRS released the new Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Certificate, and Publication 15-T, Federal Income Tax Withholding Methods, for use in 2020 and after. Additionally, effective December 23, 2019, the PayServ Federal Tax Data page was modified to reflect the changes associated with the new Form W-4.

The new 2020 Form W-4 eliminates the use of allowances for purposes of calculating adjustments to wages when calculating federal income tax withholding. Instead, annual amounts based on the employee’s filing status, along with optional adjustments, will be used to calculate the amount of wages that will be subject to Federal income tax withholding. 

Only Employees that meet the below criteria should have a Form W-4 from 2019 and prior:

  • Have a Form W-4 that was filled out in tax year 2019 or prior and
    • Have had continued service from the date they filled out the form and present day. or
    • Have had a break in service for less than a six-month period and have returned to work.
    • Are currently on Workers Compensation.

All other employees should fill out a new Form W-4.

Agency Actions:

  • Run the new locked query LQ_TAX_NEW_W4_REQUIRED on a weekly basis.
  • Request a New Form W-4 from employees who show as results on the locked query.
  • Update the tax data page in PayServ to reflect the information on the employees’ new Form W-4.  For guidance on how to populate the tax data page please refer to Bulletin No. 1800.1 2020 Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate and PayServ Federal Tax Page dated February 4, 2020.
  • Only accept the most current version of Form W-4 for changes to Federal Tax Data.

Questions:

Questions regarding this bulletin should be directed