I dont feel like this was ever answered.  I have spoke with my "accountant" and they have no idea.  Entering 5000 for dependents seems wrong, no withholding is being withheld.  What do we do?  Enter 5 or 5000?

Hi there, @npetersen.

I want to ensure you can enter the correct number of dependents in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

First off, you'll want to know that you need to enter the same numbers as you see on the form. If it doesn't work, I suggest getting the latest payroll updates to stay compliant with paycheck calculations. Here's how:

1. Go to the Employees menu, then select Get Payroll Updates.
2. Choose Download Entire Update.
3. Select Update. An informational window appears when the download is complete.

If the issue persists after updating, I recommend contacting our QuickBooks Support Team. This way, they can further check on this matter and provide additional steps to get this resolved. 

Just in case you want to know how QuickBooks calculates your payroll taxes, you can check out this article for more information: QuickBooks Desktop calculates wages and/or payroll taxes incorrectly.

Come back to this post if you have other concerns or follow-up questions about entering dependents in QuickBooks Desktop. We're always here to help.

On the W4: The employee enters the number of dependents X $2,000. If he has 3 dependents, the employee will enter $6,000 on the W4. You will enter 3 in Quickbooks. Looking back on the thread, it seems impossible to get a good answer from QB. I set up an employee, entered 6,000 and had to pay him about $1,584 on a weekly basis to get it to deduct $2.00 in federal. I changed it to 3 in QB and it withheld the correct amount that matched the tax table from the IRS. QB does not make it very clear. Even the HELP button on that window does nothing.

Hope it helps.

I came here looking for this information because I noticed that only $20 was being deducted from our new employee's paycheck for federal withholding.  I didn't want to run payroll until I resolved this because it didn't seem right.  Any tax calculator I attempt to use is asking me for information on the employee that I do not have.  We should NOT have to go to Accountants, the IRS etc. to get this information, and according to other posters on this thread, none of those resources were any help because they don't advise on QBs software.  We pay QBs to have this computed for us.  All of the responses by moderators in this thread say to enter it exactly as the employee has completed on the W-4, which does not seem correct.  The W-4 has an amount that the employee enters, not a number of dependents.  Every other poster has stated when they enter this amount, no federal withholding is deducted.  When I enter an amount, it is not zero, but it is only $20. I don't know why the moderators cannot answer the question that is being asked or just say they don't know.  Providing links to information we don't need or that will not help with this particular issue is frustrating. I tried entering just the number of dependents and that gave me $0 for withholding.  Possibly because this employee has 3 dependents and doesn't make a high hourly wage, the $20 is accurate? I still don't have faith in this QBs Payroll module and will need to worry if this employee is going to get some huge tax liability at the end of the year.  Good grief!

I think the formula in Quickbooks has not been adjusted to account for the new form calculation, they aren't understanding it, I am putting in the number not the amount, when I put the amount in in resulted in zero tax being withheld. Then worse that could happen is the employee will get a refund at the end of the year, not so bad, I just check with the employees and make sure they are aware of the situation and if they need to they can always have additional amount withheld too

They are given a list of responses they can give. They aren't even in the US. So, any question, outside the realm of their computer screen, will get a vague, robotic response.

YES!!

On the 2019 form, there was a part where we could put 1 dependent as yourself.  For the 2020 W4 form, should we consider that amount $500.00 as other dependents?

YES. If there is one dependent, you enter $2,000. Two dependents, $4,000. Three dependents, $6,000...

The number you enter will be an even number. You can't enter $5000. You multiply the number of dependents by $2000. If you are claiming 2, the # you enter on line 3, will be $4000. If you are claiming 3, the # you enter on line 3 will be $6000. If you are claiming 5, you would enter $10,000 on line 3.