Employee taxes can be a complicated topic.  Each employee is responsible for understanding their own tax liabilty.  The Payroll Office and Payroll Coordinators cannot give tax advice.  They provide employees with access to the information they need to make their own decisions regarding their tax issues.

Resources for employees

• IRS Withholding Calculator
• Semi-Monthly Payroll Tax Table
• Foreign National Employee Tax Information
• Log in to ESS to change your Form W4
• Request for Replacement of Tax Forms

Most payments to employees will have Federal Withholding Tax deducted based on the Semi-Monthly Tax Table, the W4 withholding they have selected and any pre-tax deduction they currently have.  The exceptions to this are Supplemental Wage Payments and Stipend Payments

Supplemental Wage Payments

• Supplemental Wage Payments are classified by the IRS as wages that are outside of the normal employee salary and are required to be taxed at a specific percentage.
• Currently, all supplemental wage payments have a Federal Withholding Tax rate of 25%.
• Awards, Relocation Incentive Payments, Separation Payments, Contract Payments and Settlements are considered Supplemental Wages.

Stipend Payments

• Stipend Payments are not considered wages and have no Federal Witholding Tax deducted from them (the only exception is for some Foreign Nationals) 
• Stipend Payments are distributed with payroll wages, but are not reported as wages on a Form W2.
• Student stipend payment information will be reported at year end on a 1098-T
• Trainee/Learner stipend recipients will receive a Stipend Letter at the end of the year.

Social Security and Medicare Tax

Refer to the Tax Table for information regarding Social Security and Medicare Taxes.