Tax and Workers Compensation Changes

Purpose: This action is used to establish or update FICA, Federal, and State tax withholding information, as well as the Workers Compensation code.

Tax and Workers Compensation can be entered on the following actions:

 
FILLING OUT THE FORM
Mandatory (yellow font) must be completed before the document can be submitted.
For optional (white font) fields, only the information changing needs to be entered.
 
Effective Date

On the Tax and Workers Compensation Changes action, choose the pay period begin date you want the changes to be effective on.


 
Note: The date that appears in this field will be the pay period begin date for the first pay period that has not been processed (by pay group). To see more dates, click the drop-down list and choose from a total of 13 pay period begin dates ranging from the first pay period that has not been processed through the next 12 future pay period begin dates.

  On the Appointment Action, the effective date will be the date of the hire. 

 

Federal Section      

Taxing State
The state in which the employee is physically performing their duties (not the state they live in). Most State of Idaho employees will physically work in Idaho, which is code ‘11’.
  • For employees who physically perform their duties in another state, please refer to the 'Employees Performing Service outside the State of Idaho' section of the Statewide Payroll Policy.
  • For employees who qualify for federal Military Spouses Residency Relief Act and have provided an ID-MS1 form, select Taxing State ’99 NONSTATE’.
  • If '99 NONSTATE' is selected as the Taxing State, the information in the State Section will be removed and become inaccessible. No state taxes will be withheld or reported.
 
Marital Status
Select the marital status the employee chose on their W-4 form.
Note: Marital Status is for tax purposes only.
The Marital Status codes are:

S = Single or Married filing separately

M = Married filing jointly

H – Head of Household

X = Married, but withhold at Single rate.

If a new employee did not complete a W-4 form, per 'IRS Publication 15' select 'S' (Single).
 
Withholding

Effective the first pay period in January 2020, Federal withholding allowances have been eliminated and can no longer be added or updated. 

If an employee has allowances greater than zero and a change is made to the federal section, a message is generated and the Federal withholding will be set to 000.

 
Federal Exempt

All employees are considered not exempt unless they complete a W-4 form for the current year, with 'Exempt' written in the Exempt box.

The Federal Exempt indicators are:

N = Employee is not exempt and federal tax will be withheld from the employee's pay.

Y = Employee is exempt.

Note:

  • This field defaults to ‘N’ on an Appointment action.
  • An employee claiming exempt (‘Y’) is required to complete a new Federal W-4 form each tax year by February 15th. If the employee does not submit a new Federal W-4 form by February 15th of the current year or if they submit a Federal W-4 form that does not have the word Exempt written on the form, the Federal Exempt field should be changed to ‘N’.  
State Exempt
All employees are considered not exempt unless they complete a State W-4 form for the current year, with 'Exempt' written in the Exempt box or they have a state tax form claiming exempt.
Note: When the 'Taxing State' is Idaho, the 'State Exempt' indicator must match the 'Federal Exempt' indicator.

The two State Tax Exempt indicators are:

N = Employee is not exempt and state tax will be withheld from the employee's pay.

Y = Employee is exempt.

 
FICA Exempt
All employees are not exempt from FICA, except for:
  • Patients who are employed at a State or Local Government Hospital.
    • In agency 270, this means employees in pay locations 7225 and 9725.
  • Students employed by the school they are attending.
    • In agency and 511, this means employees in pay location 10.
  • Foreign Students with qualifying visa status (Call Division of Statewide Payroll).
  • Emergency Workers
  • In agency 190, this is usually their SAD employees in pay location 1000. In agency 320 it is employees in pay locations ending in '90'.
  • University Federal Employees

The two FICA Tax Exempt indicators are:

N = Employee is not exempt and FICA Tax will be withheld from the employee's pay.

Y = Employee is exempt.

Note:  Employees who are exempt from FICA may also be exempt from unemployment.

Multiple Job Indicator (Optional)

The two Multiple Job indicators are:

N = Employee only holds one job.

Y = If the employee holds more than one job or is married and filing jointly and the employee and their spouse both work.

Dependents Amount (Optional)

The annual dollar amount of child tax credit and other dependent credits the employee may be able to claim.

Information entered in this field must be a whole number and cannot contain commas or decimals.  Maximum character length of 7 digits.

Other Income (Optional)

The total for any other estimated income for the year that won’t have withholding.

Information entered in this field must be a whole number and cannot contain commas or decimals.  Maximum character length of 7 digits.                 

Federal Additional Amount

Enter the additional Federal Tax amount requested by the employee on their W-4 form.

Code whole dollar amounts (no cents).

To blank this field, enter an asterisk (*) in the first position of the Additional Amount field.

Deductions Amount (Optional)

The annual dollar amount the employee expects to claim on deductions other than the standard deduction.

Information entered in this field must be a whole number and cannot contain commas or decimals.  Maximum character length of 7 digits.


 

Note:  To remove dollar amounts in the Dependents, Other Income or Deductions Amount fields enter an asterisk (*) in the first position of the field.

State Section  

State Code
The state code will default to the same state entered in the Federal section. 
This field is informational only. 
 
Employee's Marital Status
Use the Marital Status the employee claimed on their Idaho W-4 withholding form.

Note: If the field is left blank on the Appointment action, it will default to the information entered in the Federal Marital Status field.

The Marital Status codes are:
S = Single
M = Married  
X = Married, withhold at higher single rate.
 
Withholding 

Enter the 'Total number of allowances' the employee claimed on their Idaho W-4 form.

This field requires a 3 digit number with leading zeros (e.g. - 2 allowances would be entered as '002').

 

State Additional Amount
Enter the additional State Tax amount requested by the employee on their W-4 form or state withholding form.
Note: Do not enter any additional state withholding tax if the federal taxing state is Washington.  The state of Washington does not have state income tax.
Code whole dollar amounts (no cents).
To blank this field, enter an asterisk (*) in the first position of the Additional Amount field.
 
Employee's Workers Compensation Code
Note:  This field is required when the taxing State is Idaho.
Select the code that indicates which compensation group the employee belongs.  
Contact State Insurance Fund (SIF) at (208) 332-2100 or (800) 334-2370 for further details.
Note: Only the valid Workers Compensation Codes on your agency's Workers Compensation Policy at State Insurance Fund will be available on the drop-down list.  If the Workers Compensation Code you need is not available, please contact the State Insurance Fund.
A valid Worker's Compensation Code is required if the employee's taxing state is equal to 11 (Idaho).
If the employee's Taxing State is not Idaho, the agency must contact the Bureau of Risk Management at (208) 332-1869 for coverage.