Instructions for Form IT-2104

Allowances: A withholding allowance is an exemption that lowers the amount of income tax your employer must deduct from your paycheck. A larger number of withholding allowances means a smaller New York income tax deduction from your paycheck, and a smaller number of allowances means a larger New York income tax deduction from your paycheck.

Important information

The 2021-2022 New York State budget was signed into law on April 19, 2021. Changes to New York State personal income tax have caused withholding tax changes for taxpayers with taxable income:

• more than $2,155,350, and who are married filing jointly or a qualifying surviving spouse;
• more than $1,077,550, and who are single or married filing separately; or
• more than $1,616,450, and who are head of household.

Accordingly, if you previously filed a Form IT-2104 and earn more than the amounts listed above, you should complete a new 2023 Form IT-2104 and give it to your employer.

Changes effective beginning 2022

Form IT-2104 has been revised for tax year 2022. The worksheet and the charts below, used to compute withholding allowances or to enter an additional dollar amount on line 3, 4, or 5, have been revised. If you previously filed a Form IT-2104 and used the worksheet or charts, you should complete a new 2023 Form IT-2104 and give it to your employer.

Who should file this form

Complete Form IT-2104 each year and file it with your employer if any of the following apply:

Life changes

• you are no longer a dependent
• you got married
• you became divorced or legally separated
• you had a child
• you moved into or out of New York City or Yonkers

Income changes

• your wages increased and you expect to earn $107,650 or more during the tax year
• the total of your income and your spouse’s income increased to $107,650 or more for the tax year
• you have significantly more or less income from other sources or from another job, including self-employment

Job changes

• you started or ended a new job
• you are a covered employee of an employer that has elected to participate in the Employer Compensation Expense Program

Tax situation changes

• you itemize your deductions on your personal income tax return
• you are eligible for New York State credits (like the earned income, child and dependent care, or college tuition credits)
• you owed tax or received a large refund when you filed your personal income tax return for the past year
• you no longer qualify for exemption from withholding
• the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) advised you that you are entitled to fewer allowances than claimed on your original federal Form W-4 (submitted to your employer for tax year 2019 or earlier), and you claimed the disallowed allowances on your original Form IT-2104

Tax years 2019 or earlier

If the most recent federal Form W-4 you submitted to your employer was for tax year 2019 or earlier, and you did not file New York State Form IT-2104, your employer may use the same number of allowances you claimed on your federal Form W-4. Due to differences in federal and New York State tax law, this may result in the wrong amount of tax withheld for New York State, New York City, and Yonkers.

Tax years 2020 or later

If you submit a federal Form W-4 to your employer for tax year 2020 or later, and do not file New York State Form IT-2104, your employer may use zero as your number of allowances. For tax years 2020 or later, withholding allowances are no longer reported on federal Form W-4. This may result in the wrong amount of tax withheld for New York State, New York City, and Yonkers.

How often to submit Form IT-2104 to your employer

When you start a new job, complete Form IT-2104. You should review the form you submitted for each job you have every year. Whenever your tax situation changes and you need to update the number of allowances you may claim, submit a new Form IT-2104 to your employer.

Claiming the correct number of withholding allowances

General information

Calculations

If you have more than one job, file a separate IT-2104 certificate with each of your employers. Be sure to claim only the total number of allowances that you are entitled to.

If you claim all your allowances at your higher-paying job and zero allowances at the lower-paying job, your withholding will better match your total tax liability.

Dependents

If you and your spouse both work, you should each file a separate IT-2104 certificate with your respective employers.

If the higher wage-earning spouse claims all the allowances the couple is entitled to, and the lower wage-earning spouse claims zero allowances, your withholding will better match your total tax liability. Do not claim more total allowances than you are entitled to.

If your combined wages are:

• less than $107,650, you should each mark an X in the box Married, but withhold at higher single rate on the certificate front, and divide the total number of allowances that you compute on line 19 and line 31 (if applicable) between you and your working spouse
• $107,650 or more, use the charts in Part 5 and enter the additional withholding dollar amount on line 3

Married taxpayers with two or more jobs

If you are a married taxpayer, and your combined wages from all your jobs are $107,650 or more, use the charts in Part 5 and enter the additional withholding dollar amount from the chart on line 3 (Substitute the words Higher-paying job for Higher earner’s wages within the chart).

Specific information

Follow these instructions to make sure you withhold the correct amount, so that you will not owe additional tax when you file your income tax return.

Claiming more than 14 allowances

If you claim more than 14 allowances, your employer must send a copy of your Form IT-2104 to the New York State Tax Department. You may then be asked to verify your allowances. The Tax Department will review your certificate and notify your employer of any adjustments that must be made to either the filing status or number of withholding allowances permitted, or both.

To ask your employer to withhold an additional dollar amount each pay period, complete lines 3, 4, and 5 on Form IT-2104, as applicable.

In most instances, if you calculate a negative number of allowances and your employer cannot accommodate that, you should ask to withhold these amounts for each negative allowance claimed:

• New York State (line 3): an additional $1.85 of tax withheld per week
• New York City (line 4): an additional $0.80 of tax withheld per week
• Yonkers residents (line 5): an additional 16.75% (.1675) of the New York State amount

Note: The additional amounts provided in these instructions or calculated using the charts in Part 5 or Part 6 are accurate for a weekly payroll. Therefore, if you are not paid on a weekly basis, you will need to adjust the dollar amounts that you calculate.

For example, if you are paid biweekly, you must double the dollar amounts you calculated.

Avoid under withholding

Form IT-2104, together with your employer’s withholding tables, is designed to make sure the correct amount of tax is withheld from your pay. If you do not have enough tax withheld during the entire year, you may owe additional tax when you file your return. The Tax Department must charge you interest and may impose penalties in certain situations in addition to the tax you owe. Even if you do not file a return, we may determine that you owe personal income tax. In that case, we must add interest and applicable penalties to the amount of tax that you should have paid during the year.

Exemption from withholding

You cannot use Form IT-2104 to claim exemption from withholding. To claim exemption from income tax withholding, you must file one of the following with your employer:

• Form IT-2104-E, Certificate of Exemption from Withholding,
• Form IT-2104-IND, New York State Certificate of Exemption from Withholding
• Form IT-2104-MS, New York State Withholding Exemption Certificate for Military Service Personnel

To determine if you are eligible to file any of the above forms, see their respective instructions on our website (www.tax.ny.gov).

Employers

Box A

If you are required to submit a copy of an employee’s Form IT-2104 to the Tax Department because the employee claimed more than 14 allowances:

1. Mark an X in box A.

2. Send a copy of Form IT-2104 to: 

NYS TAX DEPARTMENT, INCOME TAX AUDIT ADMINISTRATOR
WITHHOLDING CERTIFICATE COORDINATOR
W A HARRIMAN CAMPUS
ALBANY NY 12227-0865

If not using U.S. Mail, see Publication 55, Designated Private Delivery Services.

If you are submitting a copy of this form to comply with New York State’s New Hire Reporting Program:

1. Mark an X in box B.
2. Enter the first day the employee performs services for which the employee will be paid wages, commissions, tips and any other type of compensation. (For services based solely on commissions, this is the first day an employee working for commissions is eligible to earn commissions.)
3. Mark an X in the Yes or No box indicating if dependent health insurance benefits are available to this employee. If Yes, enter the date the employee qualifies for coverage.
4. Within 20 days of hiring, submit the completed form as follows:

by mail

NYS DEPT TAX AND FINANCE
NEW HIRE NOTIFICATION
PO BOX 15119
ALBANY NY 12212-5119

online