What this form is for
Employee's Withholding Certificate (W-4). A W-4 tells your employer how much federal income tax to withhold from each paycheque. It is not filed with the IRS — the employer keeps it and applies it to payroll.
Deadline. On or before your first payday. A change takes effect on the next payroll run after your employer processes it.
Who needs it
Every new employee, and any existing employee whose circumstances change.
When you do not need it
It is not for contractors — if you are paid on a 1099 you file a W-9 instead and nothing is withheld. You also do not need a new one every year; the last one you filed keeps applying until you replace it.
Before you start
Have these to hand — stopping halfway to look one of them up is how a ten-minute job becomes an evening.
- Your filing status
- Details of any second job or a working spouse
- The number of qualifying children and other dependants
How to fill it in
Open the file in the Quire editor. Existing form fields become editable straight away; on a flat scan you can drop your own text boxes, checkboxes and dates exactly where they belong. Sign it with the Sign tool — draw, type or upload your signature — then export.
Everything happens in your browser. A tax or immigration form carries enough personal information that it has no business sitting on somebody else's server, and here it never does.
What goes wrong
- The 2020 redesign removed allowances. If you are copying numbers from an old W-4 they will not mean what they used to.
- Two incomes in a household is the most common cause of under-withholding — Step 2 exists for exactly that, and skipping it is what produces a surprise bill in April.
Where it goes
Follow the address or e-file route printed in the current IRS instructions for this form. Those change between tax years, so check the instructions rather than reusing last year’s envelope.
This page explains the document and helps you fill it in. It is not legal or tax advice, and it is not affiliated with any government agency.