Payee Tax Information
How Greenroom collects tax IDs and handles W-4/W-9 tax forms
Greenroom handles two different kinds of tax information very differently: the payee's tax ID (SSN or EIN) lives directly on the payee record, while the W-4 / state withholding elections are handled entirely through Check, Greenroom's payroll provider — Greenroom itself never sees or stores filing status, dependents, or withholding allowances.
Tax ID and tax form by payee type
| Payee type | Tax ID | Tax form |
|---|---|---|
| Employee | SSN | Federal W-4 (plus state, if applicable) |
| Loan-out | EIN | Signed W-9 |
| Contractor | SSN | Signed W-9 |
| Vendor | EIN | Signed W-9 |
Loan-outs and vendors are treated as businesses and carry an EIN; employees and contractors are treated as individuals and carry an SSN, regardless of how either has actually structured their own tax affairs. A loan-out specifically must have an EIN — a single-member LLC filing under the owner's personal SSN can't be saved as a loan-out; see Payee Types for that rule.
The W-9 for loan-outs, contractors, and vendors is a signed document you upload, collected alongside the payee's other startwork paperwork — not an interactive form inside Greenroom. See Payee Onboarding for where that fits in the setup flow.
Where the tax ID is entered
The tax ID lives as a field labeled SSN or EIN inside the Personal info (or Business info, for loan-outs and vendors) card on the payee detail page — it isn't a separate "Tax ID" page or tab. While a payee is still being set up (before approval), that card deliberately shows only name and contact info; the tax ID, date of birth, and address are collected later, in the finish-setup flow.
Only a manager can enter the tax ID directly
A payee completing their own setup through their self-service portal never sees an SSN/EIN field — Greenroom leaves that capture to the W-4 step with Check instead (below). If a payee is handling every other step themselves, a manager still needs to add the tax ID directly on the payee's record — either during the manager's own "finish setup yourself" path, or afterward on the approved payee's Personal info card — or the payee will never clear the tax-setup requirement for payroll readiness.
Once a tax ID is on file, it's shown masked (•••-••-1234 for an SSN, ••-•••1234 for an EIN) with a Replace option — Greenroom never redisplays a stored number by default. An audited view action reveals the full value when you genuinely need it. Replacing a number is a clean overwrite: there's no way to recover the previous value once it's replaced.
The W-4 and state withholding are Check-hosted
For employees, the actual federal W-4 and any state withholding forms are completed directly with Check — not inside Greenroom.
Only the payee can complete this step
A manager can open the tax-setup link on the payee's behalf, but can't fill in the W-4 for them — Greenroom's own copy is explicit that filing status and withholding elections are never collected by Greenroom or enterable by a manager. If a manager is finishing setup for a payee who isn't available to do this part themselves, they can skip it — it's optional and doesn't block approval — and follow up with the payee directly afterward.
What Greenroom shows instead of the actual elections is a status per jurisdiction (for example, "Federal" or a state) — Complete, Needs attention, or Not started — reflecting what Check has on file. There's no Greenroom screen listing filing status, dependents, or additional withholding amounts, because Greenroom doesn't hold that data.
State and local tax
Which state and local taxes apply to a payee is worked out automatically from the payee's address and the jurisdictions Check (or, before a company is fully connected to Check, Greenroom's own estimate calculations) determines apply — there's no screen where you manually pick a payee's tax jurisdictions. If a payee's address changes in a way that affects their tax jurisdiction, update their address on the Personal info card; there's no separate jurisdiction field to maintain alongside it.
Best Practices
- Get the tax ID entered as early in setup as possible — payroll readiness depends on it being on file
- Double-check SSN/EIN entries before saving; a replaced value can't be recovered once overwritten
- Follow up directly with a payee who skipped their W-4 during setup — Greenroom won't chase it for you
- Confirm loan-out EINs are genuinely the entity's EIN, not a rekeyed SSN
- Consult a tax professional for complex multi-state situations or unusual classifications
Next Steps
Continue with Role & Pay to configure pay rates and benefits, or see Union Configuration for union-specific settings.