As we start a new year and you begin to gather your information for the IRS income tax filing season, Payroll would like to share some important information with you regarding your Form W-4 (IRS Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate) for 2018. Your Form W-4 tells Payroll the correct amount of tax to withhold from your paycheck. Situations when you might need to change your Form W-4 include marriage, divorce, having a child, or if you discover through filing your federal income tax return that you had too little or too much withheld from your pay.

Due to the new tax reforms for 2018, the IRS expects to release a 2018 Form W-4 in the near future. Employers may continue to use the 2017 form until 30 days after the 2018 Form W-4 is released. Your most recently filed Form W-4 remains in effect until you give Payroll a new one. Payroll encourages employees to use the Greenshades employee portal when submitting a new Form W-4.

If you are one of the employees who completed a Form W-4 in 2017 claiming “Exempt” from income tax withholding, that exemption from withholding is valid only for that calendar year. The IRS announced that the deadline for employees who claim exempt from federal income tax withholding to submit a new Form W-4 has been extended to February 28. You must provide us with a new Form W-4 for 2018 to claim this exemption from withholding by February 28, 2018; otherwise, your withholding will change to Single with Zero allowances. There are tax consequences for claiming exemption from withholding. You may want to seek the advice of a tax professional or CPA before claiming exemption from withholding on your W-4.

We encourage employees to visit the IRS Withholding Calculator on the IRS website when it has become available for 2018. This tool is available to help individuals determine how many withholding allowances to claim on their Form W-4.

We wish everyone a successful and prosperous year!

Susan A. Worrell, CPFO
Chief Accountant
County of Albemarle
Finance Department – Payroll