Enter or update an employee's W-4 withholdings
Go to People and open the employee you want to update. You can also type the employee's name in the search bar.
Open the "Withholdings" tab on the employee's page.
In the federal withholdings, change what you need: filing status, allowances, additional withholding, whether the employee was offered medical benefits, H-2A visa status, and whether the employee is a farm worker.
In the state withholdings, change the details for each state where the employee has tax withheld.
Click "Save" at the bottom of the form.
Exempt an employee from FICA or another tax
FICA is Social Security tax plus Medicare. The employee pays a share from each paycheck and your company pays a matching share. Some employees don't owe FICA, for example some employees on an F-1 or J-1 visa. Ask your accountant or a tax professional to confirm that the employee qualifies before you set an exemption.
Go to People and open the employee you want to update. You can also type the employee's name in the search bar.
Open the "Withholdings" tab on the employee's page.
In the federal withholdings, find the questions that ask if the employee is exempt from a tax. There is one question for each of these taxes:
Federal income tax
Social Security tax
Medicare
Additional Medicare, the extra Medicare tax on pay above $200,000 in a year
Employer Social Security tax, your company's share
Employer Medicare tax, your company's share
To stop FICA withholding from the employee's pay, mark the employee as exempt from Social Security tax, Medicare, and Additional Medicare.
To stop your company's share of FICA, mark the employee as exempt from Employer Social Security tax and Employer Medicare tax. When an employee is exempt because of their visa, your company doesn't owe its share either, so mark all five Social Security and Medicare questions.
Click "Save" at the bottom of the form.
Federal income tax is separate from FICA. Leave that question as it is unless the employee is also exempt from federal income tax.
If the employee stops qualifying, for example because their visa status changes, remove the exemptions on the "Withholdings" tab and click "Save". Freedom then applies those taxes again.
Fill in an employee's tax setup
Go to People and open the employee you want to update.
Open the "Tax Setup" tab on the employee's page.
Open the section for a state, or "All states". Sections with an "Action required" or "Needs attention" badge still have fields to fill in.
Click a field row. Rows that say "Still needed" are the ones Freedom is waiting on. Other rows show the saved value, "Not set", or "Default:" followed by a value.
Enter or choose the value in the window that opens, then click "Save Changes".
Repeat for each "Still needed" row. Each field saves on its own.
Which fields appear depends on your company's business type and where the employee works. These details are separate from the employee's W-4 withholdings, which you set on the "Withholdings" tab. The "Tax Setup" tab shows only when extra tax details apply to the employee.
Note: Employees can also complete their own withholdings from their personal Withholdings page, so some details may already be filled in. Only an admin can set the tax exemptions.
To see whether tax setup or withholdings are still outstanding for an employee, open their profile. A banner above the tabs lists what is still missing, on every tab. Look for "Tax withholdings" and "Employee Tax Setup". The "Employee Tax Setup" line links to the "Tax Setup" tab.