IRS Releases New 2020 Form W-4: What All You Need For Compliance Requirements

New and Improved (?) 2020 Form W-4

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) brought with it many changes. For individuals, some of the changes included tax rates, personal and dependent exemptions and itemized deductions. Because of these changes, the IRS redesigned Form W-4 for determining employee’s federal income tax withholding.

The IRS released a draft of the 2020 Form W-4 for for the payroll and tax community to review. The importance of the Form W-4 is fundamental to the payroll department. It is the foundation for the taxation of an employee’s paycheck as well as a required IRS form. Failure to handle the form correctly and completely can open the door to serious problems not only in properly withholding from the employee’s gross wages, but could extend beyond the regulations and affect payroll customer service or employee morale. It can also lead to costly expenditures of time and budget resources to correct non-compliance consequences.

Join this webinar expert speaker Margie Faulk, PHR, SHRM-CP, she will help you with best practices to meet the compliance requirements and identify problems and errors in preparing and processing Form W-4 that will empower your payroll department to function more efficiently and effectively.

Topics covered include:

• Understanding the proper way to process the 2020 federal W-4 and what to do with the last valid W-4 employers have on file for employees
• Review of the latest draft form W-4 for 2020
• How to handle a tax protestor
• Review of the employer instructions and publication 15-T
• Examples of calculating income tax withholding
• What should be the proper process for an invalid W-4 and what is considered a invalid W-4 now that the form is different?
• Proper processing and maintenance of a IRS lock in letter before and after W-4 changes
• Understanding the requirements around Form W-4 and how an employer can be at risk
• Employer notification requirements and important deadlines for both Form W-4 and the Form W-2
• What are the changes to personal exemptions from tax reform and how it will impact the Form W-4
• W-4 worksheet changes and requirements of when employees need to provide updated forms.
• Details of new federal tax calculations

Session Highlights:

• 2020 IRS Draft Review and final W-4 form for 2020
• Learn how to use the new form W-4 including the various new tables
• Understand the employer instructions in publication 15 T
• Discover the various methods of calculating income tax withholding using current and prior year forms W-4.
• W-4P & W-4S Forms
• The effective date of new and revised Form W-4 information
• Effective methods for handling incomplete or improperly completed forms
• When you must send Form W-4 to the IRS—it’s not what you think! 
• Effective strategies for streamlining your processing procedures you can use right now 
• How to withhold federal taxes in the absence of a valid Form W-4 
• The difference between an invalid form and a “questionable” one 
• The record retention requirements for Form W-4
• How to make employee verification part of your Form W-4 process
• Proper handling of IRS lock-in letters
• State equivalent forms versus Form W-4 
• When an employee must submit a new form versus when they may submit a revised form
• How to deal with visas and Form W-4