IRS Lock-In Letter
Hey everyone. I received a Lock-In letter for one of my employees. I have not received one since the new W4 came out in 2020, so I have a quick question. I tried to call the IRS to ask and sat on hold for an hour and a half. Once the agent came on the line, they did not speak excellent English, so there was quite a language barrier. After telling me several times to "do as the letter says" he asked me if I had power of attorney for my employee. I told him no, but I'm the employer, and I need to know how to enter this. He told me to call back and hung up on me. I really do not want to call back and go through waiting on hold forever again, so I'm hoping someone here can help me.
The letter says to enter the W4 as single/married filing separately. But the second line indicates the checkbox for step 2(c), and it's unclear to me if I would enter it to my system as if the employee checked that box or if it should be blank.
Has anyone had experience with receiving a letter which indicates that the box should be checked? Or do I assume that this means the box is not checked? Perhaps I'm overthinking this, but I do not want to make a simple error that might cause issues for my employee or, worse, our company.
Thanks so much in advance!