§ 44-30-71 - Requirement of withholding tax from wages.
SECTION 44-30-71
§ 44-30-71 Requirement of withholding taxfrom wages. – (a) General. Every employer maintaining an office or transactingbusiness within this state and making payment of any wages subject to RhodeIsland personal income tax to a resident or nonresident individual shall deductand withhold from the wages for each payroll period a tax computed in suchmanner as to result, so far as practicable, in withholding from the employee'swages during each calendar year an amount substantially equivalent to the taxreasonably estimated to be due resulting from the inclusion in the employee'sRhode Island income of his or her wages received during the calendar year. Themethod of determining the amount to be withheld shall be prescribed byregulations of the tax administrator, with due regard to the withholdingexemptions of the employee.
(b) Withholding exemptions. For purposes of thissection:
(1) An employee shall be entitled to the equivalent of thesame number of Rhode Island withholding exemptions as the number of withholdingexemptions to which he or she is entitled for federal income tax withholdingpurposes. An employer may rely upon the number of federal withholdingexemptions claimed by the employee.
(2) The amount of the equivalent of each Rhode Islandwithholding exemption shall be equal to and correspond to those set forth in 26U.S.C. § 3402(b).
(c) Electronic filing. Any person required to withholdand remit tax under this section with ten (10) or more employees must make thepayments by electronic funds transfer or other electronic means defined by thetax administrator. The tax administrator shall adopt rules necessary toadminister a program of electronic funds transfer or other electronic filingsystem.
(1) In the case of failure of a person required to deposittaxes by electronic funds transfer or other electronic means defined by the taxadministrator under the provisions of this section, unless it is shown thatsuch failure is due to reasonable cause and not due to willful neglect, thereshall be added to the amount shown as tax required to have electronicallytransferred five percent (5%) of the amount or five hundred dollars ($500) perrequired payment, whichever is less.
(2) The tax administrator is authorized to waive theelectronic filing requirement in a given year for persons who can show thatfiling electronically will cause undue hardship.