HR Cloud Ensures Compliance with the New W-4 Form in 2018

The IRS has recently updated its Form W-4 in response to the tax code adjustments that were passed into law last year. The changes should make it easier for businesses and their employees to report on new hire start dates.

As an HR Cloud customer, you may be wondering how these changes will affect your company and the way you file taxes moving forward. Rest assured that HR Cloud is fully compliant with the updated form and filling them out will be as streamlined as ever!

In this article, we'll discuss the various changes you can expect to see on the new W-4 form.

Changes to the W-4 Form

There aren't many changes to the new W-4 form. Still, it's important you understand the differences in order to ensure your company remains compliant when filing taxes in 2019 and beyond.

Boxes 5 and 8: First, the instructions for Boxes 5 and 8 have changed. When employees fill out this section of the form, they must enter their employers name and address. But, if their employer is submitting a copy of the W-4 to the State Directory of New Hires, they must enter the appropriate address that child support agencies should mail income withholding orders to.  

Box 9: The field "Office Code" has been updated to read, "First Date of Employment". This box should reflect the date the new employee was first hired, unless said employee was rehired after a period of 60 days or more away from the company. If this is the case, input the rehire date.

It's also worth noting that, inside the HR Cloud system, most fields on the updated W-4 now support complex expressions instead of just numbers. For example, you now use parentheses to indicate a negative number. This feature makes the process of filling out forms and filing your company's taxes even easier than before!

Stay Compliant

While the changes to the new W-4 form are fairly minor, they are important to understand and must be complied with. If you have any further questions on the W-4 update or how HR Cloud can better assist your HR department when filing taxes, please contact us. We're happy to help!