NC-4 Form 2026: How Many Allowances to Claim

The NC-4 form is the certificate you give your employer so it withholds the right amount of North Carolina income tax from your pay. The number that matters is the allowances on line 1: if you are single, have one job, take the standard deduction, and have no children under 17, no other adjustments and no state tax credits, the worksheet gives 0, and the calculator above works out the number for every other case (Form NC-4).

An NC-4 allowance is $2,500 a year taken off the pay that North Carolina withholding is worked on, which means about $102 less tax withheld over a year at the 2026 withholding rate of 4.09%. The arithmetic is $2,500 × 4.09% = $102.25 (Form NC-30). More allowances mean bigger paychecks now; fewer mean more tax withheld and usually a bigger refund when you file.

What is the NC-4 form, and who has to fill it in?

Every employee has to give the employer a signed withholding certificate when starting work. State law says every employee “shall, at the time of commencing employment, furnish his or her employer with a signed withholding allowance certificate” (G.S. 105-163.5; G.S. stands for the North Carolina General Statutes). For most people that certificate is the NC-4 form from the NC Department of Revenue (NCDOR), or its short version, the NC-4 EZ.

You give the form to your employer, not to NCDOR. A new employee’s certificate takes effect with the first paycheck after it is handed in, and it stays in effect until you give a new one, unless you claimed exemption, which lasts one year (Form NC-30). The federal Form W-4 does not count for North Carolina: NC-30 says “Federal Withholding Allowance Certificates are not acceptable.”

The certificate itself is short. You tick a filing status (Single or Married Filing Separately; Head of Household; or Married Filing Jointly or Surviving Spouse), enter your total allowances on line 1, enter any extra amount you want withheld from each paycheck on line 2 in whole dollars, and sign that you are entitled to the allowances you claim (Form NC-4). The rest of the NC-4 form is the instructions and the Allowance Worksheet.

What happens if you don’t turn in an NC-4?

Your employer must withhold as if you were single with no allowances. The NC-4 says: “If you do not submit Form NC-4 to your employer, your employer must withhold as if your filing status is ‘Single’ with no allowances.” The same rule is in G.S. 105-163.5 and in Form NC-30.

For a single worker with one job and nothing to claim, that is what the worksheet gives anyway. For a married worker whose spouse earns little, a parent, or anyone who itemizes, it means more North Carolina tax withheld than needed. The extra comes back as a refund when you file, but you wait months for money that could have been in your paychecks.

NC-4, NC-4 EZ, NC-4 NRA or NC-4P: which one do you need?

Use the full NC-4 if you itemize, have North Carolina deductions other than the child deduction, or expect state tax credits; if you have nothing beyond the standard deduction and the child deduction, the shorter NC-4 EZ will do, unless you file jointly with a spouse who earns $10,250 or less, or as a surviving spouse: those allowances (line 14) are only on the full NC-4. Nonresident aliens must use the NC-4 NRA, and the NC-4P is for pensions, not wages. The mind map shows who uses which.

North Carolina withholding forms

• NC-4

  • Most employees
  • The full allowance worksheet
  • Itemized deductions, credits, two jobs

• NC-4 EZ

  • Standard deduction and child deduction only
  • Claiming exempt: a new form each year
  • Military spouses and tribal members

• NC-4 NRA

  • Nonresident aliens
  • Always withheld as single
  • Extra tax each paycheck for the standard deduction they cannot claim

• NC-4P

  • Pensions and annuities
  • Nonperiodic payments: 4% unless you opt out

• No form

  • Withheld as single
  • With no allowances

• NC-4: the full form with the Allowance Worksheet. You need it if you plan to claim NC itemized deductions, other NC deductions besides the child deduction, or NC tax credits (Form NC-4).
• NC-4 EZ: for workers who take the NC standard deduction, claim at most the NC child deduction, have no NC tax credits, or qualify to claim exempt. Its allowances come from one table of children and income (Form NC-4 EZ).
• NC-4 NRA: required for nonresident aliens. Withholding is always worked out as single, and because a nonresident alien generally cannot claim the NC standard deduction, the form adds a fixed amount to each paycheck’s withholding: $11 weekly, $21 every two weeks, $22 twice a month or $44 monthly (Form NC-4 NRA).
• NC-4P: for North Carolina residents who receive pensions, annuities and some deferred compensation. Periodic payments are withheld the same way as wages, and a one-time (nonperiodic) distribution has a flat 4% withheld unless you choose no withholding (Form NC-4P).

How do you fill in the NC-4 Allowance Worksheet?

You start with four yes-or-no questions, and if every answer is no, you stop and claim 0 (5 for a surviving spouse). The questions ask whether your NC itemized deductions will be more than $15,249 if single (your share, if married filing separately), $27,999 if married filing jointly or a surviving spouse, or $21,624 as head of household; whether your NC child deduction will be more than $2,499; whether you will have federal adjustments to income or NC deductions from income; and whether you will have NC tax credits. Each of those first amounts is the standard deduction plus $2,499. Married couples filing jointly also answer whether the spouse will earn less than $10,250 in wages and taxable retirement benefits (Form NC-4).

If any answer is yes, Part II turns your numbers into allowances, line by line:

1. Line 1: your expected NC itemized deductions, from Schedule 1 of the form: home mortgage interest and real estate property tax (together no more than $20,000, and for a married couple $20,000 combined, not each), charitable gifts and medical and dental expenses as allowed federally, and repayment of claim-of-right income.
2. Line 2: your NC standard deduction: $12,750 if single or married filing separately, $19,125 as head of household, $25,500 if married filing jointly or a surviving spouse.
3. Line 3: line 1 minus line 2, or 0 if line 1 is smaller. Only the part of your itemized deductions above the standard deduction counts.
4. Line 4: your NC child deduction, from Schedule 2 (the table below).
5. Line 5: amounts that lower your income before any standard or itemized deduction: your federal adjustments to income and North Carolina’s own deductions from federal adjusted gross income (AGI).
6. Line 6: lines 3, 4 and 5 added together.
7. Line 7: income you expect that is not wages, such as interest or dividends.
8. Line 8: your NC additions to federal AGI.
9. Line 9: lines 7 and 8 added together.
10. Line 10: line 6 minus line 9, not below 0.
11. Line 11: line 10 divided by $2,500, rounded down. The form’s own example: $3,900 ÷ $2,500 = 1.56, which rounds down to 1.
12. Line 12: your expected NC tax credits.
13. Line 13: line 12 divided by $103, rounded down. The form’s example: $200 ÷ $103 = 1.94, so 1.
14. Line 14: 0 if you file as single, head of household or married filing separately; 5 as a surviving spouse; 5 down to 0 if married filing jointly, depending on your spouse’s pay (see below).
15. Line 15: lines 11, 13 and 14 added together.
16. Line 16: married filing jointly only: how many of the line 15 allowances your spouse will claim on their own NC-4.
17. Line 17: line 15 minus line 16. This is the number for line 1 of your NC-4.

The NC child deduction table

For each child under 17 at the end of the year for whom you get the federal child tax credit, North Carolina allows a deduction that depends on your federal AGI and filing status (G.S. 105-153.5). Each line gives the amount per child, then the AGI bands for married filing jointly or surviving spouse, head of household, and single or married filing separately:

• $3,000 per child: AGI up to $40,000; up to $30,000; up to $20,000.
• $2,500 per child: over $40,000 to $60,000; over $30,000 to $45,000; over $20,000 to $30,000.
• $2,000 per child: over $60,000 to $80,000; over $45,000 to $60,000; over $30,000 to $40,000.
• $1,500 per child: over $80,000 to $100,000; over $60,000 to $75,000; over $40,000 to $50,000.
• $1,000 per child: over $100,000 to $120,000; over $75,000 to $90,000; over $50,000 to $60,000.
• $500 per child: over $120,000 to $140,000; over $90,000 to $105,000; over $60,000 to $70,000.
• $0: over $140,000; over $105,000; over $70,000.

The NC-4 EZ turns the same table straight into allowances. A single parent with two children and income from $20,001 to $30,000, for example, claims 2 allowances: $2,500 × 2 children = $5,000, which is two allowances of $2,500. A married couple can claim each child’s allowance on only one spouse’s form (Form NC-4 EZ).

Tax credits: one allowance for each $103

If you expect North Carolina tax credits, you get one allowance for each $103 of credit, rounded down. The $103 is the tax one allowance saves, $2,500 × 4.09% = $102.25, rounded up to the next dollar; it was $109 in 2025, when the withholding rate was 4.35% (Form NC-30).

Married filing jointly: the spouse lines

For withholding, NCDOR uses the same $12,750 standard deduction for a married worker as for a single one, not the couple’s $25,500 (Form NC-30). Line 14 gives back the unused part when one spouse earns little. Based on what your spouse expects to earn in wages and taxable retirement benefits for the year, you enter (Form NC-4):

• 5 allowances if it is $250 or less;
• 4 if it is over $250 up to $2,750;
• 3 if it is over $2,750 up to $5,250;
• 2 if it is over $5,250 up to $7,750;
• 1 if it is over $7,750 up to $10,250;
• 0 if it is over $10,250.

Bailey retirement, certain military retirement, Social Security and railroad retirement do not count as taxable retirement benefits here. Both spouses must agree whether to fill in the worksheet as married filing jointly or as married filing separately. On a joint worksheet you may split the total on line 15 between you however you choose, and each of you claims your share on your own NC-4 (Form NC-4). The calculator at the top of this page asks for your spouse’s pay and the allowances your spouse claims, and does the split for you.

How should you fill in the NC-4 with two jobs?

Claim all your allowances on the NC-4 for your higher-paying job and 0 on the other, then ask for extra withholding on line 2 using the NC-4’s Multiple Jobs Table. The form says your withholding “will usually be most accurate when all allowances are claimed on the NC-4 filed for the higher paying job and zero allowances are claimed for the other” (Form NC-4).

The extra is needed because each employer takes its own share of the $12,750 standard deduction off your pay, so with two jobs the deduction is counted twice. The table’s amounts come to 4.09% of that second share, spread over your paychecks. Find your expected yearly wages from the lowest-paying job and read across. If you are single, married or a surviving spouse and that job pays $12,750 or more a year, the table asks for $43 extra a month, $22 twice a month, $20 every two weeks or $10 a week. At lower wages the amounts are smaller, and for a head of household they go up to $65, $32, $30 or $15 at $19,000 and over.

The federal Form W-4 handles two jobs its own way, with a checkbox in Step 2 or its own worksheet, so set up both forms; one does not carry over to the other.

Head of household and surviving spouse on the NC-4

Both filing statuses get extra room in withholding, by different routes. A head of household is generally unmarried, or treated as unmarried, on the last day of the year, paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home for the year, and had a qualifying person living there for more than half the year (Form NC-4). Withholding for a head of household takes off a $19,125 standard deduction instead of $12,750, and line 14 is 0 (Form NC-30).

A surviving spouse is generally someone whose spouse died in either of the two years before, whose home is the main household of a child or stepchild they can claim as a dependent, and who could have filed a joint return for the year the spouse died. Withholding uses $12,750 for a surviving spouse, but the surviving spouse’s standard deduction is $25,500, so line 14 is 5 (Form NC-4).

If you stop being head of household after keeping up the home for most of the year, you do not need a new NC-4 until the first pay period that ends on or after January 1 of the next year (Form NC-4).

Can you claim exempt from North Carolina withholding?

Yes, on the Form NC-4 EZ (a nonresident alien uses the NC-4 NRA, described above), but only if you meet one of three conditions:

• Line 3: last year you were entitled to a refund of all North Carolina tax withheld because you had no tax liability, and this year you expect a refund of all of it for the same reason.
• Line 4: you meet the requirements of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the exemption NC-30 describes for military spouses.
• Line 5: you are an enrolled member of a federally recognized Indian tribe who meets the requirements of G.S. 105-153.5(b)(6).

An exemption lasts one calendar year. You write the year on the form, and you must give your employer a new NC-4 EZ each year to keep it. NC-30 tells employers that on February 16 they must start withholding, as single with no allowances, for anyone who claimed exemption last year and has not given a new NC-4 EZ or NC-4 for the current year. If you stop qualifying during the year, line 6 of the NC-4 EZ revokes the exemption (Form NC-30, Form NC-4 EZ).

Your employer must send NCDOR a copy of any certificate that claims exemption, or more than 10 allowances, if your weekly wages would normally be more than $245 in 2026 (Form NC-30). The NC-4 NRA has its own exemption for residents of Canada or Mexico who work in transportation, with a different deadline: the first pay period that ends on or after January 1 (Form NC-4 NRA).

When do you have to give your employer a new NC-4?

Within 10 days if your allowances go down. The form says: “If your withholding allowances decrease, you must file a new NC-4 with your employer within 10 days after the change occurs.” Allowances go down when, for example, your spouse’s expected pay moves into a band with fewer allowances on line 14, your itemized deductions shrink, or a child will be 17 by the end of the year and the child deduction ends (Form NC-4).

If your allowances go up, you may give a new one any time after the change. You may also always claim fewer allowances than you are entitled to, or ask for an extra amount on line 2, to have more withheld (Form NC-30).

Your employer does not check your number. NC-30 says employers are “not required to determine whether the total amount of allowances claimed is greater than the total amount to which the employee is entitled,” so getting it right is up to you (Form NC-30). A certificate with information that “has no reasonable basis” and lowers your withholding can bring a penalty of 50% of the tax not properly withheld (Form NC-4, G.S. 105-163.5).

How is the NC-4 form different from the federal W-4?

The NC-4 still counts allowances; the federal W-4 has not used them since 2020. On the 2026 Form W-4 you enter dollar amounts instead: $2,200 for each child under 17 and $500 for each other dependent in Step 3, other income and deductions in Step 4, and any extra withholding. Allowances survive federally only on old W-4s from 2019 or earlier, which payroll still counts at $4,300 each (Publication 15-T).

So you fill in both forms, and they do different jobs: the W-4 sets your federal income tax withholding, and the NC-4 sets North Carolina’s. The two use the same definitions of qualifying child, single, married, head of household and surviving spouse, but as NC-30 puts it, “the number of allowances to which an individual is entitled will differ” (Form NC-30). A W-4 handed to your employer does not stand in for an NC-4.

What does one allowance change on your paycheck?

Each allowance lowers North Carolina withholding by about $102 a year: $2,500 × 4.09% = $102.25. NC-30 spreads the $2,500 over your pay periods, as $48.08 a week, $96.15 every two weeks, $104.17 twice a month or $208.33 a month, so one allowance is worth roughly $2 a week, $4 every two weeks or twice a month, or $8 to $9 a month in North Carolina tax (Form NC-30). Because withholding is rounded to the whole dollar, any one check can move by a dollar more or less.

The effect is the same at any pay level, as long as your pay is more than the standard-deduction share and your allowances together; below that, no North Carolina tax is withheld at all. Here is a paycheck with no NC-4 allowances, worked out by this site’s rules. Each allowance you add would lower its North Carolina line by about $4 a check.

Example: a salary of $60,000 a year, paid every two weeks, single on the W-4 and NC-4, no other entries. Each check: gross pay $2,307.69, federal income tax $193.08, Social Security $143.08, Medicare $33.46, North Carolina income tax $74.00. Take-home pay: $1,864.07 (80.8% of gross), $48,465.82 for the year.

To see your own paycheck with your allowances and any extra on line 2, enter them in the paycheck calculator. To check whether your withholding will cover your 2026 North Carolina tax, use the NC income tax calculator, which takes the tax already withheld into account.

The rules and amounts on this page come from NCDOR’s 2026 Forms NC-4, NC-4 EZ, NC-4 NRA and NC-4P, its employer guide Form NC-30, and G.S. 105-163.5 and 105-153.5, each linked where it is used. Figures checked October 29, 2026. The worksheet calculator and the example are estimates made the way how the calculators work describes. This page is general information, not tax or legal advice.

Questions people ask

How many allowances should I claim on my NC-4?

Claim the number the NC-4 Allowance Worksheet gives you on line 17. If you are single with one job, take the standard deduction and have no children under 17, no other adjustments and no North Carolina tax credits, that number is 0 (Form NC-4).

The worksheet calculator at the top of this page works out the number from your deductions, children, credits and, if you are married, your spouse’s pay.

Should I claim 0 or 1 on my NC-4?

Claim 1 only if the worksheet gives you at least 1; claim 0 if it gives 0, or if you would rather have more withheld and get a refund. One allowance is $2,500 × 4.09% = $102.25 a year of North Carolina withholding, about $4 a paycheck if you are paid every two weeks (Form NC-30).

Claiming allowances with no reasonable basis can bring a penalty of 50% of the tax not withheld (Form NC-4).

Where do I get the 2026 NC-4 form?

Download it from NCDOR’s Form NC-4 page, fill it in, and give it to your employer. An older 2023 edition of the NC-4 still turns up in web searches, so take the form from NCDOR’s page rather than from a search result.

Do I send my NC-4 to the NC Department of Revenue?

No. You give your NC-4 to your employer, who keeps it and uses it to work out your withholding. The employer sends NCDOR a copy only if you claim exemption or more than 10 allowances and your weekly wages would normally be more than $245 in 2026 (Form NC-30).

Is there a North Carolina W-4?

North Carolina’s version of the W-4 is the NC-4, or the shorter NC-4 EZ. You fill it in as well as the federal Form W-4, because NCDOR does not accept a federal W-4 in place of the NC-4 (Form NC-30).

What is the difference between the NC-4 and the NC-4 EZ?

The NC-4 EZ is the short version of the NC-4 for people who take the standard deduction, claim at most the child deduction and have no North Carolina tax credits, or who claim exempt. If you itemize, have other North Carolina deductions or expect credits, you must use the full NC-4 (Form NC-4 EZ).

What is the NC-4P form?

The NC-4P is the withholding certificate for North Carolina residents who receive pension or annuity payments, not wages. Without one, the payer withholds from periodic payments as if you were single with no allowances, and withholds 4% from a nonperiodic distribution unless you choose no withholding (Form NC-4P).

Updated October 29, 2026