Mississippi Payroll Instructions

Mississippi has five state payroll withholding tax tables (including a special 'zero deduction' tax table for those not claiming any exemptions). State withholding tax tables did not change in 2023. Withholding formulas have changed only 4 times in the past 33 years. The most recent were in 2000 and 2020, so they must like tweaking things on even decades.

HINT: TurtleSoft provides free annual updates for US federal and Mississippi tax withholding rates.

Mississippi State Withholding Instructions

To enter withholding information for an employee in your Goldenseal company file, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Payroll tab on the left, and choose Employees.
  2. Locate the employee's record.
  3. Click the Payroll Setup button.
  4. Enter the employee's marital status into the Marital Status field (see note below).
  5. Enter the number of federal dependents into the Federal Exemptions field.
  6. Enter the number of Mississippi state dependents into the State Exemptions field.
  7. Enter a Mississippi Tax Package into the Tax Package field, based on the employee’s W4 form. Choose Old W4 for pre-2020 forms. Choose New W4 Step2- if they did not check the box in step 2 of the new form. Choose Step2+ if they did check it. HINT: If you don't see Mississippi packages in the list, you'll need to import 2022 tax info first.
  8. Click OK.

Mississippi State Unemployment Tax Instructions

In 2023, the Mississippi SUTA tax applies to the first $14,000 in wages for each employee (in 2011 it made a big jump from the $7,000 cutoff that was used for many years, but it has stayed constant since then). The starting rate is 2.7% for a new business. After the first year, the rate depends on past experience-- it may vary between .4% and 5.4%.

To enter your Mississippi state SUTA tax rate into Goldenseal payroll software, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Payroll Setup from the Costs menu, and choose Tax Items.
  2. You'll see a list of Tax Items. Open the Mississippi SUTA item. HINT: If you don't see SUTA in the list, you'll need to import the Mississippi state payroll info first.
  3. Enter the percentage rate that you pay into the field to the right of Calculation method.
  4. If the cutoff amount has changed, enter it into the field to the right of First Adjustment.

Mississippi Marital Status

Enter each employee's marital status into the Marital Status field in the employee record. Choose one of the following:

If your employee’s marital status is married, filing jointly, you may need to make adjustments to the Mississippi Married 2 Income Tax Table. Goldenseal uses a default Personal Exemption Allowance (subtracted as the First adjustment), which is equal to half of the total Personal Exemption Allowance available to the employee and her spouse.

The employee and spouse may elect to split up this Personal Exemption Allowance in increments of $500 in any way they so choose. If your employee is claiming a different for her Personal Exemption Allowance, you will need to create a duplicate copy of the tax package and tax item, and then change this amount in the First adjustment field on the Mississippi Married 2 Income Tax Table.

The first state exemption claimed by the employee will deduct either $6000 (Single or Married 2 Income), $9500 (Head of Household), or $12000 (Married 1 Income) from the gross wages to compute taxable income. Each additional exemption will deduct $1500 from wages.

State Tax Contacts

Website

Little Known Mississippi Tax Fact

The Mississippi State Sonic SibilanceTax (MSSST) on the letter 's' was repealed in 1995. There is still a 2.5% excise tax on the letter 'i', except after 'p'.

Official State Lawn Ornament

Hound dog.