Employees may notice a change in their paychecks in January for two reasons: employee raises are generally effective at the beginning of the new year, and new rules take effect regarding state income tax withholding.
The Georgia Department of Revenue recently changed the calculation method that employers must use to determine the amount of state income tax to withhold from payroll payments. This change will not affect everyone, but will result in a small change for those employees who claim married with more than two allowances or single with more than one allowance.
The university previously used the Federal W-4 form (Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate) to obtain employee allowance information for both federal and state withholding purposes. Beginning in January 2006 new employees will be required to submit both the federal W-4 form and the state G-4 form to comply with the new requirements. Current employees wishing to change their withholding status after that date also will be required to submit both the G-4 and the W-4.
Whenever an employee’s tax status changes, resulting in a need to change withholding status, the employee may use the worksheet included on the G-4 form to determine the appropriate filing status and may submit the completed form to payroll to implement the change. The W-4 (www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf) and the G-4 (www.dtae.org/hr/2004-G4.pdf) are available online for immediate download.
