Entering W-4 Withholdings

When setting up tax filings for new employees, or for existing employees who are updating their W-4 withholdings, use the following procedure to enter information from the W-4 form.

For more information, see Employee Tax Setup.

Note: For existing employees with a filing status of SINGLE or MARRIED that do not need to update their withholdings, no changes need to be made employee's tax setup.

About Filing Statuses

The Spectrum US Tax Table import has eight tax filing statuses. Note that the first six statuses in the list below are new for 2020:

  • HEAD HSE (2020 2JOB)

  • HEAD HSE (2020+ W-4)

  • MARRIED (2020 2JOB)

  • MARRIED (2020+ W-4)

  • SINGLE (2020 2JOB)

  • SINGLE (2020+ W-4)

  • SINGLE

  • MARRIED

All the new statuses have 2020 in the filing status name. These are the only statuses that correspond with the new W-4 form.

If you had a Head of Household filing status in the past, the graduated tables will not be updated. Edit that filing status manually on the Tax Table Maintenance screen.

Employee Tax Setup

  1. Select the Filing status from the drop-down that is selected on the 2020 W-4 form.

  2. From Step 1(c), select the first part of the filing status value: SINGLE, MARRIED or HEAD HSE.

  3. If the checkbox on Step 2(c) is selected, choose the status that includes "2JOB" in it:

    • HEAD HSE (2020 2JOB)

    • MARRIED (2020 2JOB)

    • SINGLE (2020 2JOB)

  4. If the checkbox on Step 2(c) is not selected, choose one of these statuses:

    • HEAD HSE (2020+ W-4)

    • MARRIED (2020+ W-4)

    • SINGLE (2020+ W-4)

  5. If either the checkbox in Step 2(c) is selected, or there is a value in Step 3, Step 4(a), 4(b) or 4(c) fields, click the Income Tax Overrides button.

  6. If the checkbox in Step 2(c) is selected, check the box Two jobs in total? checkbox on the Federal Withholding Certificate window.

  7. Enter the dollar values from the W-4 for Step 3, Step 4(a) and Step 4(b). The amounts entered should be directly from the W-4 fields of the same name.

  8. For extra withholding amounts in Step 4(c), the override works in the same way as with the prior version of the W-4. No override is the default. Otherwise, choose the type of override from the drop-down (% of gross, Fixed amount, Add-on). The override field also works for employees who have not filled out the new W-4. Their existing override values will populate these fields.

  9. For employees exempt from Federal income tax withholding, enter a Fixed amount Override for $0.