Salary/Wages

Employment compensation, or a salary, is taxed at marginal graduated rates, meaning income earned over certain levels set by the U.S. tax authorities is taxed at progressively higher rates. Please see the section on income tax withholding tables in IRS Publication 15 to get an idea of how your salary will be taxed by Harvard.

  • If eligible for tax treaty benefits, both nonresident aliens and resident aliens can claim exemption from tax withholding by submitting completed tax treaty exemption forms and attachments to our office.
  • Tax withholding can also be adjusted by submitting a completed W-4 and/or M-4 (Federal and State tax withholding allowance forms). Nonresident aliens are required to indicate "Single" as their marital status, and a maximum of 1 allowance, when completing  the W-4*. Resident aliens are considered U.S. persons for tax purposes, and have not such restriction.
  • If your School or Unit offers full or partial remote work and you’ll begin or continue such an arrangement in California, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, or Maryland, Harvard will need to withhold taxes for these states (where applicable) from your paycheck for the amount of time you work there. Your Massachusetts state tax withholding will be adjusted accordingly. Please review information about working in states outside of Massachusetts.
  • There are Special Withholding Rules for employees from Canada, Korea, Mexico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and students from India. Please refer to IRS Notice 1392.

Disclaimer

The information contained within this website is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice.  All information in this site is provided "as is", with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of performance and fitness for a particular purpose.