SEC. 6. FORM W-4 RECORD — Internal Revenue Bulletin 2001-4

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

10–44 Employee Name 35 REQUIRED. Enter the name of the employee Line 1 whose TIN appears in field positions 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.

(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 Line 2 care of” (c/o) situation. Left-justify and fill unused positions with blanks. Hyphens and slashes must be

2001–4 I.R.B. 383 January 22, 2001

FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Field Position Field Title Length Description and Remarks

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 Address employee. 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 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. Left-justify 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.

January 22, 2001 384 2001–4 I.R.B.

FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Field Position Field Title Length Description and Remarks

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 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 ZIP Code 9 REQUIRED. Enter the valid nine-digit ZIP Code of employee. IF YOU ONLY HAVE FIVE (5) DIG- ITS 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.

2001–4 I.R.B. 385 January 22, 2001

FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Field Position Field Title Length Description and Remarks

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 right-most 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.

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

179–213 Employer Name 35 REQUIRED. Enter the name of the employer Line 1 as it appears on employment tax 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 Line 2 than is available in Employer Name Line 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 or continued to the end of the field (e.g., ab...b, aba).

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; blanks must be numeric; hyphens must be surrounded by alphas or numerics; January 22, 2001 386 2001–4 I.R.B.

FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Field Position Field Title Length Description and Remarks

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. Code Must use abbreviation shown in the location abbreviation table for Employee Location Code (field positions 140-141).

310–318 Employer ZIP Code 9 REQUIRED. Enter the valid nine digit ZIP Code of employer. IF YOU ONLY 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 Control Code Code (TCC) assigned by IRS/MCC.

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.,19991231). 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

1–9 10–44 45–79 80–114 115–139

140–141 142–150 151 152 153 154–156

2001–4 I.R.B. 387 January 22, 2001

FORM W-4 RECORD LAYOUT

Additional Amount BLANK Employer Employer Employer Identification Name Line 1 Name Line 2 Number

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

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

324–331 332–348 349–350

PART C. ELECTRONIC FILING SPECIFICATIONS

SEC. 1 BACKGROUND

.01 All electronic filing of information returns are received at IRS/MCC via the FIRE (Filing Information Returns Electronically) System. The FIRE System can be accessed via analog and ISDN BRI connections. The system is designed to support the electronic filing of information returns only. The telephone number for electronic filing is (1-304-262-2400) . Publications and forms are no longer available electronically from MCC. Users needing publications and forms will need to download them from the IRS’Web Site at www.irs.gov or order them by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM (1-800-829-3676).