State Tax Table

Use the State Tax Table page to create tables for calculating state tax withholding amounts during payroll processing. The system requires these tables to look up rates and reference deductions defined by state income tax guidelines.

As state guidelines change, you can change your State Tax records to match the new guidelines using the Human Resources > Reference Tables > Future Changes > State Tax Codes option. This option allows you to change table records without affecting live data prior to the effective date you define. For more information, refer to Future Tax Table Options.

Menu Path: Human Resources > Reference Tables > Payroll > State Tax Codes

Caution
Do not delete a table record that is currently being used. When you use the State Tax Table page's delete function, the system does not verify whether the record is needed.

Setting Up State Tax Table Records

The State Tax table provides flexibility in accommodating a range of tax structures. For example, the State Tax Table page allows you to enter flat percentages or graduated tax rates that include either percentages or amounts. The system also supports tax credits and a variety of deduction methods.

If you are not required to withhold state income taxes, you do not need to create records in this table. However, some school districts and municipalities may need tables for more than one state, depending on where their employees live and the applicable state tax laws.

Note

If your account structure needs to be changed in accordance with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), refer to the PowerSchool ERP Human Resources and Payroll Every Student Succeeds Act Fiscal Year-End Checklist for details on updating Deduction, Pay Code, and Tax tables with new year information.

Using the Generate Item

The State Tax Table page's Action Bar displays a Generate item for creating tax table records for specific pay frequencies. This eliminates the need to manually enter records for each combination of state, pay frequency, and filing status that apply to your employees.

Before using this option, you must enter an annual tax table record for each of the filing status designations used. The system uses these annual table records as base information for generating the additional records. Be sure to verify that the annual table records for all tax status designations are current and that your entries are accurate. Otherwise, the records generated could be incorrect.

You cannot use the Generate item to create the initial annual tax table record for a filing status since this record provides the base for the additional records generated. Also, you cannot specify the percentage for supplemental pays when using the procedure described below. Instead, the percentage defaults to the generated record from the annual tax table record. To adjust this information for a generated record, use the State Tax Table page to search for, list, and access the appropriate record.

Generating a State Tax table record

Select Human Resources > Reference Tables > Payroll > State Tax Codes to display the State Tax Table page.
Click Generate.

In the Generate State Tax Table page, complete the following fields:

State	Standard two-character abbreviation of the state for the tax table being entered.
Pay Frequency	Select: A - Annual B - Bi-weekly M - Monthly S - Semimonthly W - Weekly X - X Userdefined Y - Y User-defined Z - Z User-defined The codes X, Y, and Z can be used to represent pay frequencies that may be required in processing pay runs but are not specified by the other codes.
Filing Status	Select the tax filing status that applies to the record. The selections include Married, Single, and any user-defined status codes associated with previously-entered Federal Tax Table records.
Liability Account	Enter the account to be charged for the taxes withheld via this table.
Number of Pay Period/Year	Enter the number of pays issued annually (from 2 to 99) for the pay frequency being used. For example, a frequency of M (for monthly) would have 12 pay periods, while a frequency of B (for biweekly) would have 26 pay periods. The number you enter is used to pro-rate the annualized tax withholding information for the tax table being generated.
Dollar Round	Indicates whether to round the credits to the nearest dollar. The field only displays if credits are entered on the annual tax table. This option is selected by default. If this option is not selected, credits are generated to the nearest cent.

For more information on how field values are updated in a generated State Tax Table record, refer below to the System Processing section.

Click OK to generate the table.
Verify that the new record is correct, either by searching for and displaying the record in the State Tax Table page's State Tax Data section or by using Print to generate the State Tax Table report. The report's default file name is statetax.rpt.

System Processing

The State Tax Table page's Generate function uses your selection in the State and Filing Status fields and your entry in the Number of Pay Period/Year field to determine values in the new table record's Standard Minimum, Standard Maximum, Tax Status Exemption, Dependent Allowance, Earnings, Tax Amount, and Credits fields.

The Filing Status field determines which annual State Tax table to use as the basis for the record about to be generated. The system then divides the field values in the base record by your entry in the Number of Pay Period/Year field.

Note the following characteristics of the resulting data:

Earnings and Credits field values are rounded to the nearest dollar.
All other values are rounded to the nearest cent.
The system assumes that the last row in the generated table record's Earnings field is 9999999.99. If the last row in the base annual record does not have this value, the system still forces the last row in the generated record to contain 9999999.99 rather than divide the base value by Number of Pay Period/Year.
Therefore, make sure when you set up your annual records that you include a final row for the 9999999.99 Earnings value.

Fields

State Tax Data Section

Use this section to identify the State Tax table record and enter the exemption and allowance amounts that apply.

Field	Description
State	Standard two-character abbreviation of the state for the tax table being entered.
Pay Frequency	Setting determining how often the tax should be withheld. These codes, which correspond with those entered in employees’ Payroll pages, combine with the state code and filing status to identify the tax table to use for an employee during payroll processing. You must create a separate table for each combination of state, frequency, and status. Select: A - Annual B - Bi-weekly M - Monthly S - Semi‑monthly W - Weekly X - X User‑defined Y - Y User-defined Z - Z User-defined The codes X, Y, and Z can be used to represent pay frequencies that are not covered by the other codes, for example, quarterly or semi‑annually.
Filing Status	Tax filing status that applies to the tax table’s rates. Unless the state uses other status designations, we recommend that you enter either M (for Married), S (for Single), W (for Married Filing Single), or N (for None). If other factors apply, you can define your own codes (up to two characters in length) and enter the table’s deductions, earnings, and other data accordingly. In any case, the codes entered here must correspond to those used in the Taxes tab, State section, on the Employee Information page.
Liability Account	Code identifying the liability account used for state tax withholding’s.
Standard Deduction Rate	Percentage for calculating the deduction all employees can take from their gross wages (Standard Deduction = Standard Rate x Earnings). Enter the percentage in decimal format (1.75% = 0.0175). Decimal/6,5 This rate is used in conjunction with the Standard Minimum and Standard Maximum fields, which determine whether the calculated deduction applies or if the minimum/maximum amount should be applied instead. If the state tax does not allow for a deduction rate, you may leave the three standard fields at their zero defaults and advance to the Tax Status Exemption field.
Note	Deductions, allowances, and status exemptions reduce the gross (pretax) wages, whereas credits reduce the tax amount due.
Standard Minimum	Least amount in dollars and cents that can be deducted from an employee’s gross wages, regardless of the amount calculated by the standard deduction rate. If a minimum does not pertain, you may accept the zero default. Decimal/10,2 Example: If an employee earns $18,000 and the standard deduction rate is 10%, the deduction calculated is $1,800, in which case the taxable wages are $16,200 (18000 ‑ 1800). If the standard minimum is $2,000, this has priority over the standard rate’s calculated value. As a result, the taxable wages would be $16,000 (18000 ‑ 2000).
Standard Maximum	Largest deduction in dollars and cents that can be taken from employees’ gross wages, regardless of the amount calculated by the standard rate. If the state tax does not allow for a standard maximum, leave the field at its zero default. Decimal/10,2 Example: If an employee earns $42,000 and the standard deduction rate is 15%, the deduction calculated is $6,300. However, if the maximum deduction is $6,000, this has priority over the calculated amount. As a result, the taxable earnings would be $36,000 (42000 ‑ 6000).
Tax Status Exemption	Amount of gross wages in dollars and cents that is exempt from state tax based on the Tax Filing Status field. Tax status usually refers to the employee’s marital status. Decimal/10,2 If the state tax guidelines list an annual amount, prorate your entry by the number of pays issued annually (Exemption Per Pay = Annual Exemption ÷ Number of Pays). If the state tax law does not allow an exemption based on marital status or other conditions, leave the field at its zero default.
Dependent Allowance	Gross wages in dollars and cents exempt per pay run for each eligible dependent. Enter the allowance in accordance with the pay frequency. For example, if your tax guidelines list an annual allowance, prorate the entry using the equation: Per Pay Allowance = Annual Allowance ÷ Number of Pays. Decimal/10,2 During payroll processing, the system multiplies the amount you enter by the value in the Dependents field in the State section of the Employee Information page’s Taxes tab (Total Dependent Allowance = Dependent Allowance x Number of Dependents). This amount is then subtracted from the gross wages to determine the taxable earnings. Leave the field at its zero default if a credit applies for each dependent, rather than a pretax allowance, or if the state’s tax laws do not permit a dependent allowance. Example 1: If a weekly or biweekly tax table has a dependent allowance of $20 and an employee’s Taxes tab lists three dependents, $60 (20 x 3) in gross wages would be exempt from the tax each pay run. Example 2: If the state guidelines list an annual dependent allowance of $1,300, enter 25.00 (1300 ÷ 52 = 25.00) for a table with a weekly pay frequency or 50.00 (1300 ÷ 26 = 50.00) with a biweekly frequency.
Supplemental Tax Percent	Percentage to apply against an employee’s supplemental wages to determine the additional tax due. A supplemental wage is compensation paid in addition to regular wages, for example, a bonus or severance pay. Enter the percentage in decimal format (1.75% = 0.0175). Decimal/7,6 During payroll setup, you can designate a supplemental pay by entering a P (for percentage) in the Tax field on an employee’s timecard in the row associated with the supplemental pay’s pay code. This overrides a rate’s default pay frequency. The system then calculates the supplemental tax and adds it to the regular tax determined by the appropriate table (Total Tax Withheld = Regular + Supplemental). If your state does not tax supplemental earnings or treats these earnings the same as regular wages, leave the field at its zero default.

State Tax Table Detail Page

When adding or changing a State Tax record, click Tax Detail to display the State Tax Table detail page. This page lets you define information for calculating state tax withholdings based on earnings ranges.

Each row in the page displays tax deduction figures that apply to employees whose wages are less than or equal to the amount in the row’s Earnings field but are greater than the Earnings field value in the previous row.

Field	Description
State	The state for the record associated with the tax detail. Display-only.
Pay Frequency	The pay frequency for the record associated with the tax detail. Display-only.
Filing Status	The tax filing status for the record associated with the tax detail. Display-only.
Earnings	Maximum earnings in dollars and cents that are subject to the tax deduction values listed in the same row. An employee’s wages are subject to a row’s deduction figures if they are less than or equal to the row’s Earnings value but greater than the Earnings value for the previous row. Decimal/10,2 For example, if an employee’s taxable earnings are $32,500 and the table lists $32,000 on one row and $33,000 on the next, the system references the deduction figures from the row with $33,000. The last entry for gross earnings must be 9999999.99. This is especially important if you are going to use the State Tax Table page’s Generate function to create tax tables based on annual records. For more information, refer above to Using the Generate Item. If the state uses a flat percentage, as opposed to graduated rates, enter 99999999.99 in the first earnings field, then the flat rate in the percentage column. No other entries are required in this section if a flat rate is used.
Tax Amount	Dollars and cents amount due for employees whose wages are less than or equal to the Earnings value in the same row and greater than the Earnings value in the previous row. Decimal/10,2 If a tax percentage is used instead of an amount, leave the fields in the Tax Amount column at their zero defaults. If an amount and a percentage apply, enter both.
Tax Percent	Percentage for calculating taxes during payroll processing using the equation State Tax Due = Earnings x Rate. Enter the percentage in decimal format (1.75% = 0.0175). Decimal/7,6 This rate applies when taxable wages are less than or equal to the associated Earnings value and exceed the Earnings value for the previous row. If a tax amount applies instead of a percentage, leave the fields in this column at their zero defaults. If an amount and a percent apply, enter both.

State Tax Credits Page

When adding or changing a State Tax table record, click Credits to display the State Tax Credits page. Use this page to enter the amount to deduct from an employee’s state tax amount based on the number of dependents claimed.

Field	Description
State	The state for the record associated with the tax credit. Display-only.
Pay Frequency	The pay frequency for the record associated with the tax credit. Display-only.
Filing Status	The tax filing status for the record associated with the tax credit. Display-only.
Credits	Dollars and cents amount to deduct from the tax amount due, based on the number of dependents recorded in the Employee Information page’s Taxes tab, State section. Decimal/10,2 During a pay run, the system calculates the state tax and then uses the number of dependents to look up the credit that should be subtracted based on the order of entries in the State Tax Credits page (Gross Tax - Tax Credit = Tax Withheld). The entry should equal the total credit for the number of dependents claimed. Therefore, the top row is for one dependent, the second row for two dependents, and so on. If state guidelines call for an annual credit, prorate the credit to correspond with the table’s pay frequency. If credits are not allowed, leave the fields at their zero defaults. Example 1: If the state tax allows $5 per week per dependent and you pay employees biweekly, enter 10 (5 x 2) for one dependent in the first line, 20 ((5 x 2) x 2) for two dependents in the second line, and so forth. Example 2: To prorate an annual credit, divide it by the number of pays issued annually (Credit ÷ Number of Pays = Credit Per Pay). For a credit of $500 on a table with a biweekly frequency, enter 19.23 (500 ÷ 26) in the first line as the credit for one dependent, 38.46 (19.23 x 2) in the second line as the credit for two dependents, and so forth.