How to Successfully Navigate Employees' W-4s and Withholding in 2024

Take a strategic best practices-based approach to handling employees' W-4s

In this 75-minute interactive online training, learn how to:

Achieve full compliance. Discover if your W-4 and withholding processes are in compliance for 2024.
Make the W-4 changes work for you, not against you. Understand how the IRS’ “computational bridge” for employees who have old W-4s on file can ease your payroll calculations.
Explain it correctly to employees. Learn how to effectively communicate with your employees about how this complex new form can reduce common errors they make.

Complexity and taxes go together. But not on W-4s.

The W-4 is the most basic tax form every employee completes. They shouldn’t need an accountant’s help to do so.

But employers continue to struggle with translating the paper form into their computer systems, and the IRS isn’t sympathetic. The agency snuck new guidelines for electronic W-4s into Pub. 15-T and then gave employers 90 days to completely revamp their electronic forms.

Employees now have to do actual math to complete the form properly or are told to consult their tax accountants. It’s even tougher for employees with side gigs, because the IRS can’t seem to settle on the steps in the form they should complete.

Employees who complete Step 3 to claim dependents consistently end up being underwithheld. Some employees are having $0 withheld, so they’re stuck with a giant tax bill. And they’re blaming Payroll.

Despite all these challenges, the IRS is sticking with the revised form and the new, much more complicated withholding rules that go along with it. This includes no pay period withholding, no withholding allowances for employees to claim and no more inflation adjustments to the withholding adjustment amounts.

Remember, even if you outsource payroll to a third party, the IRS will always hold YOU responsible for any mistakes — so it's your job to guarantee compliance.

Agenda for How to Successfully Navigate Employees' W-4s and Withholding in 2024

What’s new about the W-4 process, electronic W-4s and how to quickly get your company into compliance.
What parts of the form employees should complete if they have side gigs. The IRS changes this every year!
What those W-4 worksheets are about and how they affect withholding. For years the IRS included worksheets along with the form. Most employees ignored them. Now they can't.
How to explain these changes to employees. When employees need (or choose) to update their W-4s, don't just hand them the confusing new form and walk away. Instead, create a communication plan to help employees fill out the form.
What to do if employees never update W-4s. Since most employees don't refile their W-4s, and the IRS says it can't make them refile, your payroll system must now account for two radically different W-4 forms and withholding methods. But don't worry — the IRS has at least two solutions for this!
Life changes may mean employees must refile their W-4s. To prevent IRS penalties, learn when employees must file new W-4s. Plus, discover the five situations in which you should immediately reject a W-4, and what to do when the IRS sends you a letter voiding an employee's W-4.
Are your withholding processes correct? Computer programs and vendors are only as good as the data you've supplied. Best practice: Figure your own withholding at least once a year. We'll decipher the IRS' step-by-step instructions that let you do just that.
How do you handle supplemental pay? You'll also be able to spot the 12 different types of supplemental pay and to apply the seven key rules for withholding on supplemental pay.

Interactive Q&A time included

Get answers to your own withholding questions from attorney Alice Gilman, editor of Payroll Legal Alert, a true payroll expert!

Alice Gilman, Esq., is an expert in payroll and tax compliance who has covered payroll issues for more than 35 years. She's written and edited several leading payroll publications, including Payroll Legal Alert, the Research Institute of America's Payroll Guide, the American Payroll Association's Basic Guide to Payroll and the Payroll Manager's Letter.

Alice Gilman esquire and author

Professional Recertification Credit Hours Included

Business Management Daily is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDC) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® recertification activities.

HR Certification Institute’s® (www.HRCI.org) official seal confirms that Business Management Daily meets the criteria for pre-approved recertification credit(s) for any of HRCI’s eight credentials, including SPHR® and PHR®. This program has been pre-approved for 1.25 HR-General recertification credit hours.

Register now and receive these free bonuses!

Payroll Checklist

Every registrant will receive a copy of Payroll Checklist, a 19-page step-by-step compliance guide detailing every deadline and action item required for every pay period, month, and calendar quarter of the year. Use the checklist as a guide to total payroll compliance for the rest of the year.

A full month of access to PayrollLegalAlert.com

You'll also receive one month of exclusive access to Payroll Legal Alert – our comprehensive online resource with timely advice, helpful articles, forms, tables and charts that will help you improve every aspect of your payroll operation. So that you continue to benefit from Payroll Legal Alert, we will continue your subscription after that for the then current rate, unless you tell us "no, thanks" – your choice.

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If How to Successfully Navigate Employees' W-4s and Withholding in 2024 fails to meet your needs in any way, we will refund 100% of your tuition – every penny you paid – but your course materials and registration bonuses will be yours to keep. No hassles, no questions asked.