Virginia Form VA-4, the Employee’s Virginia Income Tax Withholding Exemption Certificate, tells your employer how much state income tax to pull from each paycheck. You give it to your payroll department, not the Department of Taxation. Fill in your filing status on Line 1, your allowance count on Line 2, any extra flat dollar amount you want withheld on Line 3, and Line 4 only if you qualify to skip Virginia withholding entirely.
What Each Line Does
The form collects your name, Social Security Number, home address, filing status, and the number of withholding allowances you’re claiming. Your employer feeds those numbers into Virginia’s withholding tables to calculate the state tax on each paycheck. Each allowance shelters a portion of your income from withholding, so more allowances mean less tax pulled per pay period.
Four lines do the work. Line 1 is your filing status. Line 2 is your total allowances. Line 3 is an optional flat dollar add-on withheld each pay period. Line 4 is complete exemption, which most workers won’t use. Sign and date it, and hand it to payroll.
Line 1: Filing Status
Your Virginia filing status must match what you use on your federal return: Single, Married, Married Filing Separately, or Head of Household. This choice picks the withholding table your employer applies, and the wrong one throws off the whole year even if your allowance count is right.
Two-income married couples run into a specific problem here. The married table assumes a single income, so if both spouses work at similar salaries and both check “Married,” too little tax comes out of each paycheck. The fix is to claim fewer allowances between you or to add extra withholding on Line 3.
Line 2: Counting Your Allowances
Virginia gives you one allowance for yourself, one for a spouse as long as your spouse isn’t also claiming it on their own VA-4, and one for each dependent you claim on your federal return.1Virginia Department of Taxation. Virginia Form VA-4 Each personal exemption allowance is worth $930 against your taxable income for the year.2Virginia Department of Taxation. Exemptions
Age and Blindness Add-Ons
Virginia grants an extra allowance worth $800 if you are 65 or older by January 1 of the tax year, and another $800 allowance if you are legally blind under federal tax standards. Both apply per person, so a married couple where both spouses are over 65 would each add an age-related allowance to their own VA-4.2Virginia Department of Taxation. Exemptions These are easy to miss, and skipping them means you’re over-withholding all year.
When the Basic Count Isn’t Enough
The basic formula covers straightforward situations. If you have large itemized deductions, significant adjustments to income, or valuable tax credits, the Virginia Department of Taxation provides worksheets that convert your full financial picture into a single allowance number. Someone with heavy mortgage interest and charitable contributions might end up with a considerably higher allowance count than the personal-plus-dependents formula produces. That higher number aligns your withholding with what you’ll actually owe.
If you hold two jobs, or your spouse also works, don’t double-count. The total allowances claimed across all VA-4 forms filed with all employers in your household should not exceed what the worksheet produces. Splitting unevenly between jobs is fine as long as the total holds.
Line 3: Adding Extra Withholding
Line 3 tells your employer to pull an extra flat dollar amount from each paycheck on top of the normal calculated withholding. It’s the simplest fix when you know standard withholding won’t cover your liability. People with rental income, freelance payments, or capital gains during the year often use Line 3 to head off a shortfall in April. Two-income married couples who both selected “Married” filing status sometimes find Line 3 easier than reworking allowance counts.
Line 4: Full Exemption
Line 4 lets you opt out of Virginia withholding entirely. To qualify, you must have owed no Virginia income tax last year and expect to owe none this year. This typically fits students working part-time or very low earners below the filing threshold. The exemption isn’t permanent. You must file a new VA-4 by February 15 each year to keep it in effect. Otherwise, your employer reverts to withholding as if you claimed zero allowances.1Virginia Department of Taxation. Virginia Form VA-4
Military Spouses and Reciprocal-State Workers
Two situations can take you out of Virginia withholding altogether.
Under the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act, the civilian spouse of an active-duty servicemember can keep tax residence in a home state while living in Virginia because of military orders. If that describes you, Virginia should not withhold state income tax from your wages, because that income is taxable in your home state.3Internal Revenue Service. Transitional Guidance for Taxpayers Claiming Relief Under the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act File a VA-4 claiming exemption and give your employer documentation of your spouse’s military orders and your home-state residency.
Virginia also has reciprocity agreements with Maryland, Washington D.C., and West Virginia. If you live in one of those and work in Virginia, reciprocity means Virginia doesn’t withhold; your employer withholds for your home state instead. File a VA-4 indicating your exempt status. If you live in Virginia but work in a reciprocal state, file that state’s exemption form and confirm your Virginia employer is withholding correctly based on your VA-4.
When to File a New VA-4
Life changes that reduce the number of allowances you’re entitled to claim require a new VA-4 within 10 days. Divorce, the death of a spouse or dependent, and a large jump in non-wage income all qualify.1Virginia Department of Taxation. Virginia Form VA-4
Changes that increase your allowances, like getting married or having a child, don’t carry the same mandatory deadline, but filing sooner means you stop over-withholding sooner. There’s no penalty for submitting a new VA-4 whenever your circumstances change. Once your employer receives the updated form, federal regulations require the new withholding to take effect no later than the start of the first payroll period ending on or after the 30th day from receipt, though many employers implement it sooner.4Federal Register. Income Tax Withholding From Wages
What Happens If You Get It Wrong
Claiming too many allowances creates a real risk. If your withholding plus any estimated payments falls significantly short of your actual liability, Virginia can charge interest on the underpaid amount. The safest habit is to check your withholding against your expected liability at least once mid-year, especially after a raise, a new job, a marriage, or a spike in outside income. Adjusting your VA-4 in July beats scrambling in April.
If you never submit a VA-4 at all, your employer generally withholds at the highest rate, treating you as single with zero allowances. That’s the most conservative setting and guarantees over-withholding for almost everyone. Taking a few minutes to fill out the form correctly is the difference between a paycheck sized for your actual tax picture and one built on the worst-case assumption.