Anyone successfully using Epicor Payroll with the new W4s

Last year we followed the document from Epicor for setting up an additional tax table to people who fill out the new W4 form. Now we are getting some questions and comparing against some manual calculations it doesn’t work at all!

I think I have found a way to make it work but wondering if anyone else has tackled this?

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at the Payroll Tax Tables logic but I’d like to know more about the issue.

Can you share the payroll details, tax table, the incorrect calculated amounts and the correct manual ones?

Also I’m familiar with the W2 but not the W4, is that CSF/CSG?

First off, I didn’t intend to bash Epicor. Just wondering what others are doing since there hasn’t been any development in the payroll module for as long as I can remember and we go back to DCD Classic. This was caused by the government trying to make it easier for people to withhold the correct amount but just made everything more complicated and confusing.

It started with an employee that filled out a new (2020 or later) W4 as married and $3000 in step 3 which is meant to account for his dependents and the child tax credit. The Epicor instructions were to use the new tax table and fill in 2 personal and 1 dependent. In the federal tax table the personal deduction is set to $500 and dependent $2000. This combination matches the $3000. When they ran the first payroll $238 was withheld. When I filled out the worksheet from the IRS manually it should have been $44.

What is missing is the standard deduction that the manual worksheet figures in. In order to get it to work correctly, I needed to use the original tax table with both personal and dependent set to $4300. For married, I put 3 in the personal deduction and otherwise put 2. This computes to $12,900 or $8,600 that needs to be deducted before going to the tax table.

Any amount put in step 3 needs to be added to the Fixed Credit field so that it is taken out after the tax table. Any amount put in step 4 going in the Additional Withholding field.

Using the instructions the way they were printed caused excessive withholding so I am surprised they haven’t had more complaints.