IRS Releases New 2020 Form W-4 – What all you need for Compliance Requirement

New and Improved (?) 2020 Form W-4

Recently, 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 Vicki M. Lambert, CPP, 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.

This session covers the IRS Form W-4 for 2019 including the requirements for completing the form properly, handling non-resident aliens, state equivalent forms, record retention and processing the form electronically instead of on paper. Also cover the changes to the 2019 form caused by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and provide information on the related anticipated changes to Form W-4 for 2020. 

Topics covered include:

• Review of the latest draft form W-4 for 2020
• Review of the employer instructions and publication 15-T
• Examples of calculating income tax withholding
• Discussion of how to handle calculating income tax withholding using prior versions of the form
  

Session Highlights:

• 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.
• Changes to the form for 2019-2020
• 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
• Tips on setting up an electronic system for Form W-4 
• 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