Overview
The W-4 form, also known as an Employee's Withholding Certificate, is filled out by employees when starting a new job to ensure that the correct amount of income tax is withheld from their paychecks. This form includes information about the employee's filing status, number of dependents, and any additional income.
Every worker in the United States should fill out a federal W-4 form for federal income taxes [1].
The following states also have state-specific W-4 forms. If you have employees that reside in one of these states, then they will need to fill out that state-specific form in addition to the federal form:
States with their own W-4 forms:
States with their own W-4 forms:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Connecticut
District of Columbia
Georgia
Hawaii
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Vermony
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin
All other states have no income tax, and therefore do not have a state-specific W-4 form.
Note: While there is no official deadline for employees to fill out their W-4 form, it's recommended for them to fill it out before their first paycheck. Failure to do so could result in over or under paying when filing taxes.
Setup in Fountain
Assigning W-4 forms to your employees is done through an onboarding flow task.
Follow these steps to create an onboarding flow that will assign the correct W-4 form(s) to your workers:
Click Onboard in the WX sidebar
On the Flows and tasks page, click Add Flow in the top right
This will open the Onboard Flow editor, starting with the Flow details page > give your flow a Flow Name and Flow Description
Click Next to go to the Add Tasks page
Click Add Task and select the W-4 option
Fill out the Title field and adjust the Estimated task completion time if needed (the default is five minutes)
From there, add any other tasks that are needed for this flow, and complete the onboarding flow setup as outlined here.
Worker Portal Workflow
After a flow with a W-4 task has been published, then each worker in that flow will be automatically assigned a W-4 task with a status of Pending.
For all workers, this task will contain the federal W-4 form
If an employee's address is in a state that requires a state W-4 form, then they will automatically be assigned that state's form to complete as well
First, your employee will fill out a W-4 profile form with their name and address. The information entered here will be used to auto-fill the official W-4 form(s).
Note: This W-4 profile page is the same profile page used for I-9 tasks. If an employee has already filled out this profile form for an I-9 task, then they will not need to fill it out again for the W-4 task (and vice versa).
After filling out this profile, employees will be shown a list of W-4 forms to fill out (including a state form if applicable):
Tapping on either of the forms will open a mobile-friendly, easy to fill out version of the federal or state form, including pre-filled information from the W-4 profile form previously filled out:
Employees will be guided through their forms to fill out information for:
Filing Status (required)
Exempt Status (optional)
Multiple Jobs or Spouse Works (optional)
Claiming dependents (optional)
Other adjustments (other income, deductions, and extra withholding) (optional)
This includes a helpful deductions worksheet for employees to utilize:
After all fields have been filled out, the employee will electronically sign the document to confirm that all information is correct, and then submit it:
State W-4 forms follow a similar pattern, but the content differs by state.
Completed forms will have a green checkmark next to them in the Assigned Forms list, so employees can quickly see which forms still need to be filled out:
Tapping or clicking on the completed form will show the status of the form, along with an option to view/download the form itself:
Reviewing W-4 Statuses and Completed Forms
To keep track of the statuess of all of your employee's W-4 forms, access the W-4 Forms table by going to:
The Onboard activity in the sidebar
The W-4 Forms option nestled under Onboard
By default, you'll see all W-4 forms in all statuses:
Filter to specific statuses by using the Status tabs at the top of the table, or the Filters button in the top right. Available statuses are:
Pending: W-4 task has not been started yet
In Progress (status may be removed in the future): Applicant is in the process of filling out their form(s)
Needs review: W-4 form has been submitted, and require your review
Note: if an employee has both a state and a federal form, if they submit one of those forms, it will go into review even if the other one hasn't been submitted yet
Completed: W-4 form has been submitted, reviewed, and approved
To take action on a W-4 form for an employee, or view more information about it, click the Manage button. This will open the worker's W-4 profile:
The W-4 profile will show you the submitted W-4 form, which you can review, download, & print. If the employee has more than one form assigned to them, you can see how many submissions are in the current status at the top of the profile:
Additional actions that can be taken depend on the status that the form is in, but include:
Restart W-4: Sets the W-4 worker portal task back to Pending, and clears any already-submitted forms
Accept: If a document is pending review, then accepting it moves the status into Completed ✅
Reject: Similar to Restart, this sets the worker portal task back to pending and clears the already-submitted form, but also allows you to specify a rejection reason.
This reason will be included in the email sent to the employee letting them know that their W-4 has been rejected
Take Action on W-4: opens the W-4 form in a bigger screen, and also allows you to Accept or Reject the document from here
This page also gives you the option to directly upload a replacement version of the W-4 form for this worker
Final Steps
Once W-4 forms have been reviewed and approved, then they are all set!
Sources
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