What federal tax forms do new employees need to fill out?

Whenever you’re hired by a business, you’re required to fill out certain tax forms. The federal tax forms you must fill out are W-4 forms.

What Are They For?

The W-4 federal tax forms are required by businesses for their own tax purposes. They must report to the IRS how much they are withholding from your check in order to pay federal taxes. They also must report their state tax withholdings from your check. Having each employee fill out W-4 income tax forms lets them know just how much to withhold.

This is accomplished when the employee tells them how many tax allowances they wish to take. These allowances can include anything from having kids to claiming head of household.

The W-4 also keeps all of the employee’s information on file. This includes their name, address, and Social Security Number. The business will use this info to send out W-2 tax forms when it comes time for tax season.

W-4 Tax Form Quirks

The W-4 income tax forms have a few quirks. One issue is the number of withholdings on the forms doesn’t equal don’t equal the number of exemptions you can claim on your 1040 tax forms.

On the W-4 income tax forms, you can claim that you have only one job. This exemption isn’t on the 1040. If an employee has more than one job, he or she can choose to forfeit this allowance with both employers. However, they can also choose to keep their allowances with the business that pays them the highest wage. In this case, they would forfeit two allowances, ‘self’ and ‘one employer,’ with the second company.

If you feel that too little has been withheld from your wages, you can write in additional amounts to withhold. You might fill this in if you’re worried about paying a huge sum come April 15^th. Or, you might have investments. Either way, you can write in any additional amounts on your federal tax forms when filing your federal taxes.

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