Form DE 4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate (California)

What is Form DE 4?

Form DE 4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, is the California Employment Development Department (EDD) form you complete so that your employer can withhold the correct California state income tax from your pay. It is for California Personal Income Tax (PIT) withholding only. The form above is Rev. 56 (1-26). It has four pages: the certificate with its notes (page 1), references, a notification and the penalty statement (page 2), Worksheets A and B (page 3), and Worksheet C with the tax rate tables (page 4). Worksheet C and the tables say they are for 2026 only.

Who gives an employer a DE 4

The form says that as of January 1, 2020, federal Form W-4 is used for federal income tax withholding only, and that you must file the state form DE 4 to determine the appropriate California PIT withholding. EDD's website says new hires and existing employees making changes to their withholdings must submit both the Form W-4 and the DE 4, and that employees who submitted a Form W-4 before 2020 are not required to submit a new form if they have no changes to their withholding allowances.

If you give no DE 4. The form says your employer must then use Single with Zero withholding allowance. EDD's employer guide (DE 44, Rev. 52 (4-26)) tells employers they may use an existing withholding certificate in their file, and must use Single with Zero if they have none from you.

If your situation changes. EDD's information sheet DE 71 says that if the number of withholding exemptions you are entitled to becomes less than the number you claimed, you must give your employer a new DE 4 within 10 days of the change. The federal certificate rule, which California applies to state withholding through California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 4340-1(b), also requires a new certificate within 10 days when it is no longer reasonable to expect no federal income tax liability for the current or previous year after claiming exempt (26 CFR 31.3402(f)(2)-1(b)(1) and (b)(2)(vii)). Paragraph (b)(3) makes an exception to its current-year change rule when the combined effect of the changes is not expected to leave the year's tax withholding below the anticipated tax liability.

How to fill out Form DE 4

Page 1 is the certificate your employer receives:

1. Personal information. Name, Social Security number and address.
2. Filing status. One of three boxes: Single or Married (with two or more incomes), Married (one income), or Head of Household. The form says that to qualify as Head of Household you must be unmarried or legally separated from your spouse and pay more than 50 percent of the costs of maintaining a home for the entire year for yourself and your dependent(s) or other qualifying individuals. A married person may check Head of Household if the spouse will not live with them at any time during the year, they will furnish over half of the cost of maintaining a home for the entire year for themselves and a child or stepchild who qualifies as their dependent, and they will file a separate return for the year.
3. Line 1, allowances. 1a is the number of regular withholding allowances from Worksheet A, 1b the number from the estimated deductions in Worksheet B, 1c the total you are claiming.
4. Line 2, additional amount. Any additional amount you want withheld each pay period, if your employer agrees (Worksheet C). The form notes that your employer is not required to withhold it; if the employer does not agree, you may increase your withholding as much as possible by using the "single" status with "zero" allowances, and if that still leaves an underpayment you may need to file quarterly estimates on Form 540-ES with the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) to avoid a penalty.
5. Line 3 or line 4, instead of lines 1 and 2. An exemption from withholding; see the next section.
6. Signature and date. See "Signing the form and giving it to your employer" below. The Employer's Section (employer's name and address and California Employer Payroll Tax Account Number) is part of the same page.

Worksheet A, regular allowances. One allowance for yourself, one for your spouse if your spouse does not claim it separately, one each for blindness (yours, and your spouse's if your spouse does not claim it separately), and allowances for dependents (not yourself or your spouse). The total goes on line 1a. The form's footnote says wages paid to registered domestic partners are treated the same as wages paid to spouses for California PIT withholding, and that this does not affect federal income tax law.

More than one job or a working spouse. The form warns that under-withholding may occur when earnings come from more than one source and says it is best to check "Single or Married (with two or more incomes)". Figure the total allowances for all jobs using one DE 4, claim allowances with one employer, and do not claim the same allowances with more than one employer. Withholding will usually be most accurate, the form says, when all allowances are claimed on the DE 4 filed for the highest paying job and zero allowances are claimed for the others.

Worksheet B, estimated deductions. Use it only if you plan to itemize deductions, claim certain adjustments to income, or have a large amount of nonwage income not subject to withholding. You may claim one additional allowance for each $1,000, or fraction of $1,000, by which you expect your estimated deductions for the year to exceed your allowable standard deduction. On Rev. 56 (1-26), line 2 of the worksheet uses $11,412 if you are married filing joint with two or more allowances, unmarried head of household, or a qualifying widow(er) with dependent(s), and $5,706 if you are single or married filing separately, dual income married, or married with multiple employers. Lines 4 to 8 then add your estimated adjustments to income, subtract your estimated nonwage income, divide the result by $1,000 and round any fraction to the nearest whole number; that number goes on line 1b. If your nonwage income on line 6 is greater than line 5, the worksheet sends you to lines 9 to 11 instead (line 6 minus line 5), and then to Worksheet C. The form says not to include on this worksheet deferred compensation, qualified pension payments or flexible benefits that are deducted from your gross pay but are not taxed.

Worksheet C, additional withholding. It starts from your estimated wages for tax year 2026, adds your estimated nonwage income (lines 2 and 3) and subtracts your itemized or standard deduction, whichever is largest, and your adjustments to income (lines 4 to 7). The tax on the result is figured with the 2026 tax rate tables printed on page 4 (line 8). The worksheet then subtracts personal exemptions of $168.30 for each allowance on line F of Worksheet A, any tax credits (line 11) and the tax already withheld and estimated to be withheld during 2026 (line 13). If the difference on line 14 is less than zero, the form says you do not need to have additional taxes withheld; otherwise line 14, divided by the number of pay periods remaining in the year, goes on line 2. For the withholding tables employers use, the form points to EDD's California Employer's Guide (DE 44).

After your DE 4 takes effect, the form says, compare the state income tax withheld with your estimated total annual tax.

Claiming exemption from withholding

Line 3. On Rev. 56 (1-26), line 3 claims exemption from withholding for 2026 and certifies that you meet both conditions. The form states them as: you did not owe any federal and state income tax last year, and you do not expect to owe any federal and state income tax this year. If you wish to claim exempt, the form says, complete the federal Form W-4 and the state DE 4.

California's own sources do not word the two conditions the same way. The form says "federal and state income tax". EDD's employer guide (DE 44) says "federal or state income tax" on page 16 and, on page 17, speaks of federal income tax only, as the regulation does (California Code of Regulations, title 22, section 4340-1(f)). If your case turns on that difference, ask EDD or the FTB before you claim exempt.

Keeping the exemption. The form says that if you continue to qualify, a new DE 4 designating exempt must be submitted by February 15 each year. DE 44 describes an exempt DE 4 as valid only during the calendar year it was filed and requires a new exempt DE 4 by February 15 of the following year. Read that description with California's certificate rule: section 4340-1(b) applies the federal certificate rules, and section 4340-1(f) ties the state exemption to a certificate effective for federal withholding. Under 26 CFR 31.3402(f)(4)-1(b), an exempt certificate remains effective until a new certificate takes effect or the existing certificate expires; for a calendar-year taxpayer, it cannot apply to wages paid after February 15 of the calendar year following the estimation year. If you provide no renewal by the deadline, DE 44 says the employer withholds under an earlier valid Form W-4 or DE 4 that does not claim exempt status, or otherwise as single with zero allowances. The guide also tells employers not to withhold from an employee who filed Exempt unless they receive a written notice from the FTB to withhold at a special rate.

Ending the exemption. The form says that if you are not having federal and state income tax withheld this year but expect to have a tax liability next year, you are required to give your employer a new DE 4 by December 1. The federal regulation on withholding certificates sets the deadline for a change that reduces your withholding allowance for the next calendar year, but not for the current one, as the later of December 1 or 10 days after the change, unless the tax withheld next year is still expected to cover your tax (26 CFR 31.3402(f)(2)-1(e)), and California's regulation says the federal rules on withholding certificates also apply for state withholding (section 4340-1(b)).

Line 4, military spouses. Line 4 certifies, under penalty of perjury, that you are not subject to California withholding under the Service Member Civil Relief Act, as amended by the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act and the Veterans Benefits and Transition Act of 2018. The form says you may be exempt if your spouse is a member of the armed forces present in California in compliance with military orders, you are present in California solely to be with your spouse, and you maintain your domicile in another state. You may be required to provide proof of exemption upon request. The form does not mention it, but the FTB's military page says that for tax years 2023 and after a servicemember's spouse may elect to use the residence or domicile of the servicemember, the residence or domicile of the spouse, or the permanent duty station of the servicemember. If that election matters in your case, check with the FTB before you rely on line 4.

Signing the form and giving it to your employer

What you sign. The signature line sits under a certification, made under penalty of perjury, that the number of withholding allowances you claim does not exceed the number you are entitled to or, if you claim exemption, that you are entitled to the exempt status.

Where it goes. Form DE 4 goes to your employer, not to EDD. EDD's employer guide says an employer must have a new employee complete and provide a signed Form W-4 and a completed DE 4, and that employers must keep both forms in their payroll records. The form adds that the FTB or the EDD may require an employer to submit a DE 4 when that is necessary for the administration of the withholding tax programs.

Paper or electronic. The EDD documents we read (the form, the employer guide, information sheet DE 71 and EDD's withholding page) do not say how a DE 4 signed electronically is treated. California's regulation asks for a signed withholding exemption certificate and counts forms devised by an employer that are substantially similar to the DE 4 as the DE 4 (section 4340-1(a)); it does not mention electronic signatures. The federal regulation lets an employer establish a system for its employees to furnish withholding certificates electronically, signed under penalties of perjury (26 CFR 31.3402(f)(5)-1(c)), and California's regulation applies the federal rules on withholding certificates to state withholding. That rule describes a system the employer sets up; none of these sources addresses a signature added to the PDF in another tool. Ask your employer how it takes the DE 4: on its own payroll system, or as a printed form you sign by hand.

Do not alter the form. The employer guide treats a DE 4 as invalid if the employee makes major changes to it, such as crossing out words or writing more than is asked, or admits that it is false. An employer that receives an invalid DE 4 does not use it and asks for another; without a valid one it withholds as if you were single with no allowances, or as before if it has an earlier valid form.

Notification and penalties printed on the form

• The burden of proof rests with the employee to show the correct California income tax withholding.
• You may be fined $500 if you file, with no reasonable basis, a DE 4 that results in less tax being withheld than is properly allowable.
• Criminal penalties apply for willfully supplying false or fraudulent information or failing to supply information requiring an increase in withholding.

Questions about the form: EDD's Taxpayer Assistance Center, 1-888-745-3886.

Form DE 4 resources

• Form DE 4, EDD PDF
• Payroll Taxes, Forms and Publications, EDD
• Contribution Rates, Withholding Schedules, EDD
• California Employer's Guide (DE 44), EDD PDF
• Employer's Obligations for the DE 4 (DE 71), EDD PDF
• Franchise Tax Board
• Military, Franchise Tax Board
• 26 CFR 31.3402(f)(2)-1, Furnishing of withholding allowance certificates (eCFR)
• 26 CFR 31.3402(f)(4)-1, Effective period of a withholding allowance certificate (eCFR)
• Form W-4, the federal withholding certificate