SEC. 7. FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT AND RECORD LAYOUT

.01 This record is used to identify the employer, the employee, number of allowances, and other information that is reported on the paper Form W-4.

.02 ALL RECORDS MUST BE A FIXED LENGTH OF 350 POSITIONS. .03 Do not begin any record at the end of a block or diskette and continue the same record into the next block or diskette.

FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Field Position Field Title Length Description and Remarks

1–9 Employee Tax 9 REQUIRED. Enter the 9-digit TIN assigned to the employee. DO NOT ENTER Identification HYPHENS or ALPHA CHARACTERS. All zeroes, ones, twos, etc. will have the Number (TIN) effect of an incorrect TIN.

10–44 Employee Name 35 REQUIRED. Enter the name of the employee whose TIN appears in field positions Line 1 1-9. Enter the name in the following order: first name, middle name (if present), and surname. (Use initials for the first and middle names where necessary to insure that the entire employee surname fits in the field.) If fewer than 35 characters are used, left-justify and fill unused positions with blanks.

1999–49 I.R.B. 633 December 6, 1999

(1) A blank must be surrounded by alphas or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba). (2) A hyphen in the first position is to identify an employee with surname only. Hyphens must be surrounded by alphas or numerics and must never occur in the first position of a name unless immediately followed by a caret. (3) A caret is used to define an internal name control. It must immediately precede the employee surname in place of the blank. A second caret is used to separate a suffix from the surname (e.g., JOHN J. <BLACK; BILL<OAK<JR; AMY FERN<BROWN<MD).

Note: The only allowable characters are alphas, blanks, numerics, ampersands, hyphens and slashes. A minimum of one and a maximum of two carets (<) can be used. Punctuation, such as, periods and commas are not allowed and will cause your file to be returned.

45–79 Employee Name 35 Optional. This line is designated for an “in care of” (c/o) situation. Left-justify and Line 2 fill unused positions with blanks. Hyphens and slashes must be surrounded by alphas or numerics; ampersands must be surrounded by blanks; blanks must be surrounded by alphas or numerics or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba).

Note: The same exceptions apply as set forth in “Employee Name Line 1”; also the use of a percent sign (%) is not valid— use c/o if necessary.

80–114 Employee Street 35 REQUIRED. Enter mailing address of employee. Street address should include Address number, street, apartment or suite number (or P O Box if mail is not delivered to street address). Left-justify and fill unused positions with blanks. Position 80 must be an alpha or numeric; hyphens and slashes must be surrounded by alphas or numerics; ampersands must be surrounded by blanks; blanks must be surrounded by alphas or numerics or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba).

Note: The only allowable characters are alphas, blanks, numerics, ampersands, hyphens and slashes. Punctuation such as periods and commas are not allowed and will cause your file to be returned. For example, the address 210 N. Queen St., Suite #300 must be entered as 210 N Queen St Suite 300.

115–139 Employee City 25 REQUIRED. Enter the city, town or post office. If a foreign address, see Note 2. Leftjustify and fill unused positions with blanks. Enter APO or FPO, if applicable. Do not enter state and ZIP Code information in this field. Position 115 must be an alpha or numeric; hyphens must be surrounded by alphas or numerics; blanks must be surrounded by alphas or numerics or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba).

Note 1: The only allowable characters are alphas, blanks, numerics, ampersands, hyphens and slashes. Punctuation such as periods and commas are not allowed and will cause your file to be returned. For example, the city St. Louis must be entered as St Louis.

Note 2: For foreign addresses, you may use the 25 position Employee City field to provide the following information: city and country name.

140–141 Employee State 2 REQUIRED. Enter the two character location code of employee address; must be one of the following:

Note: For foreign addresses, enter XX from table below.

Location Code Location Code Location Code

Alabama AL Kentucky KY Ohio OH Alaska AK Louisiana LA Oklahoma OK American Samoa AS Maine ME Oregon OR Arizona AZ Marshall Islands MH Pennsylvania PA Arkansas AR Maryland MD Puerto Rico PR California CA Massachusetts MA Rhode Island RI Colorado CO Michigan MI South Carolina SC

December 6, 1999 634 1999–49 I.R.B.

FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Field Position Field Title Length Description and Remarks

Location Code Location Code Location Code

Connecticut CT Minnesota MN South Dakota SD Delaware DE Mississippi MS Tennessee TN District of Columbia DC Missouri MO Texas TX Federated States Montana MT Utah UT of Micronesia FM Nebraska NE Vermont VT Florida FL Nevada NV Virginia VA Georgia GA New Hampshire NH Virgin Islands VI Guam GU New Jersey NJ Washington WA Hawaii HI New Mexico NM West Virginia WV Idaho ID New York NY Wisconsin WI Illinois IL North Carolina NC Wyoming WY Indiana IN North Dakota ND Foreign Address, Iowa IA Northern All Others XX Kansas KS Mariana Islands MP

142–150 Employee 9 REQUIRED. Enter the valid nine-digit ZIP Code of employee. IF YOU ONLY ZIP Code HAVE FIVE (5) DIGITS AVAILABLE, LEFT-JUSTIFY AND ZERO FILL. Blank fill only if the employee’s ZIP Code is unavailable.

151 Marital Status 1 REQUIRED. Enter appropriate code from the table below: Marital Status Code Designated Single S Married M Married, withhold at single rate W No marital status designated A

152 Exempt Status 1 REQUIRED. Enter “E” if employee claims exempt status; otherwise, enter blank.

153 BLANK 1 Enter Blank.

154–156 Allowances 3 REQUIRED. Must be a three (3) digit numeric field corresponding to the number of allowances claimed by employee. (It is necessary to file this Form W-4 with IRS if the number of allowances is more than ten (10) or exempt status is claimed.) Field must be right justified and zero filled. If no entry, or employee claimed exempt status, enter blanks.

157–163 Additional Amount 7 REQUIRED. Enter any additional amount of withholding the employee wants deducted from each pay. Amount must be entered in U.S. dollars and cents. The rightmost two positions represent cents. Do not enter dollar signs, commas, decimal points, or negative numbers. Right-justify and zero fill. If no entry, zero fill.

164–169 BLANK 6 Enter Blanks.

1999–49 I.R.B. 635 December 6, 1999

FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Field Position Field Title Length Description and Remarks

170–178 Employer 9 REQUIRED. The 9-digit EIN assigned to the employer. DO NOT ENTER Identification HYPHENS, ALPHA CHARACTERS. All zeroes, ones, twos, etc. will have the Number effect of an incorrect TIN.

179–213 Employer Name 35 REQUIRED. Enter the name of the employer as it appears on employment tax Line 1 forms (e.g., Form 941). Any extraneous information must be deleted from this name line. Left-justify and fill with blanks. Position 179 must be alpha or numeric; hyphens and slashes must be surrounded by alphas or numerics; blanks must be surrounded by alphas or numerics or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba).

Note: The only allowable characters are alphas, blanks, numerics, ampersands, hyphens and slashes. Punctuation, such as periods and commas, are not allowed and will cause your file to be returned.

214–247 Employer Name 34 If the employer name requires more space than is available in Employer Name Line Line 2 1, enter the remaining portion of the name in this field. Left-justify and fill with blanks. Position 214 must be alpha or numeric; hyphens must be surrounded by alphas or numerics; blanks must be surrounded by alphas or numerics or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba).

Note: The same exceptions apply as set forth in “Employer Name Line 1”; also, the use of a percent sign (%) is not valid— use c/o if necessary.

248–282 Employer Street 35 REQUIRED. Enter mailing address of employer. Street address should include number, street, apartment or suite number (or P O Box if mail is not delivered to street address). Left-justify and fill unused positions with blanks. Position 248 must be alpha or numeric; hyphens must be surrounded by alphas or numerics; blanks must be surrounded by alphas or numerics or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba).

Note: The only allowable characters are alphas, blanks, numerics, ampersands, hyphens and slashes. Punctuation such as periods and commas are not allowed and will cause your file to be returned. For example, the address 210 N. Queen St., Suite #300 must be entered as 210 N Queen St Suite 300.

283–307 Employer City 25 REQUIRED. Enter the city, town or post office. Enter APO or FPO if applicable. Do not enter state and ZIP Code information in this field. Position 283 must be alpha or numerics; hyphens must be surrounded by alphas or numerics; blanks must be surrounded by alphas or numerics or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba).

Note: The only allowable characters are alphas, blanks, numerics, ampersands, hyphens and slashes. Punctuation such as periods and commas are not allowed and will cause your file to be returned. For example, the city St. Louis must be entered as St Louis.

308–309 Employer State 2 REQUIRED. Enter location code of employer. Must use abbreviation shown in Code the location abbreviation table for Employee Location Code (field positions 140–141).

310–318 Employer ZIP 9 REQUIRED. Enter the valid nine digit ZIP Code of employer. IF YOU ONLY Code HAVE FIVE (5) DIGITS AVAILABLE, LEFT-JUSTIFY AND ZERO FILL. Blank fill only if employer’s ZIP Code is unavailable.

319–323 Transmitter 5 REQUIRED. Enter 5-character Transmitter Control Code (TCC) assigned by Control Code IRS/MCC.

December 6, 1999 636 1999–49 I.R.B.

FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Field Position Field Title Length Description and Remarks

324–331 Form W-4 Date 8 REQUIRED. Enter date located on signature line Form W-4. If no date entered, generate current system date. Format as YYYYMMDD (e.g.19981231). Exempt Status Form W-4 compare “year effective date” on Line 7 to signature date. If year entered on Line 7 is later than signature date, use Form W-4 date as a 01/01 receipt for subsequent calendar year (e.g., Line 7 of Form W-4 shows an exempt status date of 2000 but signature date is 19991031, use 20000101 as Form W-4 date.)

332–348 BLANK 17 Enter Blanks.

349–350 BLANK 2 Enter blanks, or carriage return/line feed (CR/LF) characters.

FORM W-4 RECORD LAYOUT

Employee Tax Identification Number

Employee

Name Line 1

Employee Name

Line 2

Employee Street

Employee City Address

1–9 10–44 45–79 80–114 115–139

Employee ZIP Employee State

Code

Marital

Status

Exempt

BLANK Allowances Status

140–141 142–150 151 152 153 154–156

Employer Name Line 2

Additional Amount BLANK

Employer Identification

Number

Employer Name Line 1

157–163 164–169 170–178 179–213 214–247

Employer State Employer Street Employer City

Code

Employer ZIP

Code

Transmitter Control Code

248–282 283–307 308–309 310–318 319–323

BLANK or Form W-4 Date BLANK

CR/LF

324–331 332–348 349–350