Withholding Allowances | How to Fill Withholding Allowance Certificate?

What are Withholding Allowances?

A withholding allowance is a credit against the amount of income tax that must be deducted by an employer from a worker’s salary. Employees in the United States often claim their withholding allowance on IRS Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate.

What are Regular Withholding Allowances?

A withholding allowance reduces the amount of federal income tax that must be withheld from a worker’s salary. Income tax deductions are reduced for higher withholding allowance amounts and increased for lower allowance amounts. It is possible for some workers, such as those who file as singles, to claim no allowances at all.

How to fill out an Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate?

The withholding allowance certificate needs to be filled out in 5 steps. These are the steps you need to take:

Step 1: Information about the employee

Information about the employee is on the withholding allowance certificate.

Fill in your name and address.
SSNs of workers.
Write down your filing status if you are…

- single or married;
- filing separately or together; or
- iii. the head of a household.

Step 2: Multiple jobs

Withholding Allowance is for people who have more than one job or whose spouse works.

Employees who have more than one job or who file together with a spouse who also works should do this step.

The employee can either use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator or the Multiple Jobs Worksheet to figure this out.

Step 3- Claim dependents

If a worker fills out Step 2 of the Withholding Allowance certificate, he or she only needs to fill out Step 3 for one of the jobs listed in Step 2.

Step 3 informs you if an employee is qualified for the child tax credit and the credit for other dependents. An employee may be able to claim these credits when they file their own taxes.