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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has recently changed their regulations concerning employer reporting of certain Forms W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, received from their employees. Previously, under section 31.3402(f)(2)-1(a-g) of the Internal Revenue Code, every employer was required to submit a copy of any W-4 on which an employee had claimed more than 10 withholding exemptions. With the change in regulation, employers (including the Postal ServiceTM) are no longer required to send these W-4s to the IRS; however, employers must still submit a copy of any W-4 if directed to do so by a written notice from the IRS. Unless written instructions from the IRS have been received by the Postal Service, withholdings will be based upon the information provided on the W-4 completed by each employee. However, in instances when the IRS has provided a written notice to the Postal Service, we must withhold based upon the number of allowances specified in the IRS notice. All specifications provided by the IRS concerning employee withholding remain in effect until a new IRS notice supercedes the original instructions. Both the IRS and the Postal Service will send a copy of all notifications directly to the employee's address of record. |
All specifications provided by the IRS concerning employee withholding remain in effect until a new IRS notice supercedes the original instructions. Both the IRS and the Postal Service will send a copy of all notifications directly to the employee's address of record. Following receipt of these IRS instructions, any employees wishing to claim either complete exemption or more withholding exemptions than stipulated by the IRS must submit their written request directly to the IRS. The updated regulations have removed the option of having an employee send a request to an employer for subsequent forwarding to the IRS. Any new Forms W-4 or subsidiary materials from impacted employees will not be acted upon or forwarded to the IRS by the Postal Service. Employees may still change their withholding exemptions to less than the maximum number specified in the IRS notice. For example, if the IRS letter specifies "Single, 2" and an employee wishes to voluntarily change to "Single, 1" or "Single, 0", the employee will be able to reduce the number of withholdings. — Payroll Accounting, |
