When you’re plugging a new employee into COATS, there’s lots of data to enter: name, address, email, availability, skills, etc. But there’s also tax information to be considered, and depending on the details, that could be a lot of information.
For one thing, every state in which the employee is required to pay income tax must be listed. Where this gets really fun is that for some states, that’s determined by where the employee works, while for others, it’s determined by where the employee lives. (Whee!)
Also, many states have different state income tax codes for employees based on factors such as:
- Marital status
- Head of household status
- Tax bracket (for Arizona)
- Number of allowances claimed
- Age (over or under 65)
- Blindness (for Indiana)
- County the employee lives in (for Maryland)
- Any additional withholding requested
- Something called addition or subtraction method (for South Carolina)
In fact, only 14 states have state income tax codes that apply across the board to all employees. Let’s pause for a moment of thanks to those 14 states.
Also, don’t forget to enter each employee’s SUTA unemployment code. And again, some states determine it by work location, others by where the employee lives.
If all this sounds confusing (because it is!), don’t worry. You can always download the manuals for COATS Staffing Software from the Customers-Only site.
What’s your weirdest state-tax story? Let us know in the comments!