Form Improvements and Fixes

US Tax Withholdings

The following tax parameters have been updated and are available as part of the Symmetry SPF 2021-R1b, SPF 2021-R1c, and SPF 2021-R1d releases.

Federal

Form W-4 updated

Form Name: Employee's Withholding Certificate

SPF Form ID: W4101

The PDF has been updated again for the 2021 Federal Form W-4:

On page one, the IRS has added "Rev. December 2020" to the top left of the form.
On page three, Step 4(b) – Deductions Worksheet, line 1, "10%" has been updated to "7.5%"

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

Corrected error when rendering Form W-4(SP)

Form Name: Certificado de Retenciones del Empleado

SPF Form ID: W4101SP

Corrected a null pointer error that was preventing the proper rendering of the Spanish Federal Form W-4(SP). Users of the Blank Forms product, as well as SPF-API users, would receive a Gateway Timeout error.

Arkansas

Form AR4EC updated

Form Name: Employee's Withholding Exemption Certificate

SPF Form ID: AR101

The PDF has been updated for Arkansas Form AR4EC:

The revision date has been updated from 1/14/2020 to 12/1/2020.
The amounts in the table on the bottom right have changed.

https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/images/uploads/incomeTaxOffice/AR4EC2021_FI.pdf

Form AR4ECSP updated

Form Name: Employee's Special Withholding Exemption Certificate

SPF Form ID: AR102

The PDF has been updated for Arkansas Form AR4ECSP:

The revision date has been updated from 1/13/2020 to 12/2/2020
Arkansas has significantly revised the format of this form; the headings on the lines on the top have changed, and the employee and employer instructions are now located in their own box on the left.
The wording has changed on the applicable box questions.
The dollar values have changed.
The perjury statement has been updated both on the PDF and within SPF: “I certify that the number of exemptions and dependents claimed on this certificate does not exceed the number to which I am entitled.”

https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/images/uploads/incomeTaxOffice/AR4ECSP2021_FI.pdf

Hawaii

Form HW-6 updated

Form Name: Employee's Statement To Employer Concerning Nonresidence In The State Of Hawaii

SPF Form ID: HI103

The PDF has been updated for Hawaii Form HW-6:

The form year has been updated to 2021.
Revision dates have been updated to 2020.
Years on line 6 updated from "2016 through 2020" to "2017 through 2021"

https://files.hawaii.gov/tax/forms/2020/hw6.pdf

Idaho

Form ID-MS1 updated

Form Name: Employee's Idaho Military Spouse Withholding Exemption Certificate

SPF Form ID: ID102

The PDF has been updated for Idaho Form ID-MS1:

Dates within the form have been updated to 2021.
Revision date updated from 11/21/2019 to 2/7/2020.

https://tax.idaho.gov/forms/EFO00226_02-07-2020.pdf

Maine

Form W-4ME updated

Form Name: Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate

SPF Form ID: ME101

The PDF has been updated for Maine Form W-4ME:

Formatting - “FORM W-4ME” changed to “Form W-4ME”
Revision date changed from “11/19” to “December 2020.”
On page two, under B., $5,000 has been updated to $3,000.

https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/21_form_w-4me_ff.pdf

Maryland

Form MW 507 corrected in SPF Catalog

Form Name: Employee's Maryland Withholding Exemption Certificate

SPF Form ID: MD101

The description for the MD.reciprocalResidentState tax parameter has been corrected to include “VA - Employee is a resident of Virginia.”

Please note that this correction only affects the SPF Catalog.

Form MW507 updated

Form Name: Employee's Maryland Withholding Exemption Certificate

SPF Form ID: MD101

The PDF has been updated for Maryland Form MW507:

The revision stamp updated from “20-49” to “12/20” at the bottom of the form, both pages.
Formatting has changed on the second page, but the percentages and standard deduction amount has not changed for 2021.

https://www.marylandtaxes.gov/forms/21_forms/mw507.pdf

Form MW507M updated

Form Name: Exemption from Maryland Withholding Tax for a Qualified Civilian Spouse of a U. S. Armed Forces Servicemember

SPF Form ID: MD102

The PDF has been updated for Maryland Form MW507M:

The revision stamp updated from “20-49” to “21-49” at the bottom of the form, both pages.
Tax Help email address on bottom of second page revised from “TAXHELP@comp.state.md.us” to “TAXHELP@marylandtaxes.gov”

https://marylandtaxes.gov/statepayroll/Static_Files/Employee_W4/2021-MW507M.pdf

Mississippi

Form 89-350 updated

Form Name: Mississippi Employee's Withholding Exemption Certificate

SPF Form ID: MS101

The PDF has been updated again for Mississippi Form 89-350 (from the 2021-R1 release), because Mississippi released the standalone version of their withholding form:

The revision date has changed from 07/20 to 08/20.

https://www.dor.ms.gov/Business/Documents/89350208.pdf

New York

New tax parameters added for Form IT-2104-E

Form Name: Certificate of Exemption from Withholding

SPF Form ID: NY103

Two new boolean tax parameters will be added for tracking whether an employee has selected if they are a full-time student or a military spouse for purposes of exemption. This allows more precise information than the true/false returned by the exemptFromStateWithholding tax parameter.

NY.fullTimeStudent - "Employee is a full time student"
NY.militarySpouseExempt - "Employee is claiming military spouse exempt under SCRA"

North Carolina

Form NC-4 updated

Form Name: Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate (Long Form)

SPF Form ID: NC101

The PDF has been updated for North Carolina Form NC-4:

Web revision date updated from 11-19 to 9-20. Web revision date on actual certificate remains 12-18.
On page three, Schedule 2, "dependent child" updated to "qualifying child."

https://files.nc.gov/ncdor/documents/files/NC-4-Web_0.pdf

Form NC-4 NRA updated

Form Name: Nonresident Alien Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate

SPF Form ID: NC103

The PDF has been updated for North Carolina Form NC-4 NRA:

Web revision date updated from 11-19 to 9-20. Web revision date on actual certificate remains 12-18.
On page three, Schedule 2, "dependent child" updated to "qualifying child."

https://files.nc.gov/ncdor/documents/files/NC-4-NRA-Web.pdf

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh LST Exemption Certificate updated

Form Name: City Of Pittsburgh 2021 Local Services Tax - Exemption Certificate

SPF Form ID: PA113

The PDF has been updated for the Pittsburgh LST Exemption Certificate:

Dates have been updated to 2021.

https://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/redtail/images/12641_2021_LST_EXEMPTION_CERT.pdf

Form CLGS-32-6 EIT decimal precision updated

Form Name: Local Earned Income Tax Residency Certification Form

SPF Form ID: PA114

The tax parameters "PA.nonresidentEITrate" and "PA.residentEITrate" are now allowed to have up to 4 decimal places.

Within the catalog, this is the new “percent_extra_precision” type (as opposed to the “percent” type, which only allows 2 decimal places).

Form CLGS-32-6 generated PDF corrected

Form Name: Local Earned Income Tax Residency Certification Form

SPF Form ID: PA114

When the webservice feature is enabled, SPF will now correctly display the employee's municipality or the county on the final generated form. Previously, it was displaying as blank.

Form REV-419 EX updated

Form Name: Employee's Nonwithholding Application Certificate

SPF Form ID: PA103 The PDF has been updated for Pennsylvania Form REV-419 EX:

Significant formatting changes. The form has been extended to two pages. The instructions have been moved to the second page. Per What's New on second page, "The form has been redesigned to meet the branding, formatting and instructions standards used for all department forms. The instructions and form have also been updated as a result of recent amendments to the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act."
Revision date updated from 06/2018 to 09/2020
Form number has been updated from 4190018101 to 4190020105
Page one, section I, zip code separated into its own box
Page one, section II created for Exemption Information. Questions a and b merged into one (a). Language on question c updated for servicemembers
Page one, section III created for penalty of perjury statement.

https://www.revenue.pa.gov/FormsandPublications/FormsforBusinesses/EmployerWithholding/Docu ments/rev-419.pdf

South Carolina

Form SC W-4 question order updated

Form Name: South Carolina Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate

SPF Form ID: SC101

Users in Guided Mode will now be asked if they wish to claim exemption from state withholding prior to being asked for their filing status. If they claim exempt, the SC.filingStatus tax parameter will be returned as NOT_APPLICABLE. This has replaced the previous “Off” value.

Previously, SPF would ask the user to select a filing status before asking if they wish to claim exemption from state withholding.

Utah

Form W-4 filing status error corrected

Form Name: Employee's Withholding Certificate

SPF Form ID: UT101

Users will no longer receive an error when setting the filing status to “Head of Household” for Utah Form W-4.

Miscellaneous Updates

Exit button removed from Session Expired page

On the Session Expired page, removed the Exit button below “Your session may have timed out or you may not have permissions to view this page.” This button linked to https://symmetry.com, which was causing confusion for users.

Correct state forms using the federal Form W-4

When starting a state withholding form that uses the federal Form W-4 (Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, or Utah), SPF would produce a 500 Internal Server Error. This has been corrected and was caused by a missing description for w4101.additionalWitholding.question text.

Add state’s purpose statement on final PDF

For states using the federal Form W-4 as their own (Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Utah), the final PDF now correctly includes the state’s purpose statement.

February 3, 2021 Form Updates