Fill W-4 Online — Free, No Upload

Form W-4 (Employee's Withholding Certificate) tells your employer how much federal income tax to withhold from your paycheck. You hand it to your employer — not the IRS — when you start a job, and again whenever your situation changes: marriage, a child, a second job, a side business.

The form contains your SSN and filing status — data worth keeping off third-party servers. Fill it here: the official IRS template loads into your browser, you complete and sign it locally, and the finished PDF is generated on your device.

• Official IRS template, current-year revision — version and verification date shown above
• Only Steps 1 and 5 are required for most people — the middle steps are for specific situations
• Signature pad included; flattened on download, metadata wiped
• Zero bytes uploaded — your SSN never leaves your device

Unsure about a step? Read our step-by-step W-4 guide — it covers the two-income trap, dependents and the “exempt” line.

1. Step 1 — Personal information (required). Name, address, SSN and filing status (single/married filing jointly/head of household). Filing status drives the standard deduction and tax brackets used for withholding.
2. Step 2 — Multiple jobs or working spouse. Fill this only if you hold more than one job or your spouse works. Use the IRS estimator, the worksheet on page 3, or check the box in 2(c) if there are exactly two jobs with similar pay. Skipping this when it applies is the most common cause of under-withholding.
3. Step 3 — Dependents. Claim the child tax credit and credit for other dependents here if your income is within the limits. Multiply qualifying children by the current per-child amount shown on the form.
4. Step 4 — Other adjustments (optional). 4(a) other income not from jobs (interest, retirement), 4(b) deductions above the standard deduction, 4(c) extra withholding per paycheck if you want a cushion.
5. Step 5 — Sign and date (required). The form is invalid without a signature. Use the built-in signature pad and download the flattened PDF.
6. Give it to your employer. The W-4 goes to your employer's payroll — never to the IRS. Keep a copy; resubmit whenever your situation changes.

1. Looking for “allowances”. The pre-2020 W-4 used allowances; the redesigned form doesn't. If an old tutorial tells you to “claim 1 allowance”, it's outdated — the current form works in dollar amounts via Steps 2–4.
2. Ignoring Step 2 with two incomes. Two jobs (or a working spouse) without Step 2 means each employer withholds as if theirs were the only income — the classic path to an April surprise and possible penalties.
3. Claiming “exempt” without qualifying. Exempt status requires that you owed no federal tax last year AND expect none this year. Writing “exempt” casually leads to underpayment penalties.
4. Set-and-forget. Marriage, divorce, a new child, a second job — each changes your withholding. The W-4 isn't one-time paperwork; resubmit it after major life events.
5. Over-withholding on purpose without realizing the cost. A big refund feels nice but is an interest-free loan to the Treasury. If you consistently get large refunds, adjusting Step 4 puts that money in your paychecks instead.
6. Sending it to the IRS. The W-4 goes to your employer only. (Exception: the IRS can request it from the employer in specific compliance cases.)