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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2025-05-30
Setup Considerations: Multi-Jurisdiction Taxation (USA)

Setup Considerations: Multi-Jurisdiction Taxation (USA)

You can use this topic to help make decisions when planning your configuration and use of multi-jurisdiction taxation. It explains:
  • Why to set it up.
  • How it fits into the rest of Workday.
  • Downstream impacts and cross-product interactions.
  • Security requirements and business process configurations.
  • Questions and limitations to consider before implementation.
Refer to detailed task instructions for full configuration details.

What It Is

Multi-jurisdiction tax allocation is a group of solutions that you can use separately or in combination. These solutions give you the ability to configure taxes for mobile workers and reduce manual entries of tax jurisdictions. The solutions are:
  • Ongoing Multiple Work Jurisdictions (OMWJ)
  • Tax Location Mapping (TLM)
  • Payroll Input with worktags
When you configure any of these solutions, Workday withholds applicable state, county, city, and local other taxes accordingly.
Workday Solution
Description
Ongoing Multiple Work Jurisdictions (OMWJ)
Enables you to define tax allocations at the worker level. This solution is for workers with a set schedule and location assignments in differing tax jurisdictions.
Tax Location Mapping (TLM)
Enables you to define rules at a company level to allocate taxes based on time entry and payroll input with tax authority worktags.
Payroll Input with Worktags
Enables you to define tax allocations for one-off assignments based on payroll tax authority worktags you associate with payroll input.

Business Benefits

You can streamline the payroll process using any combination of these tax allocation solutions, which:
  • Helps ensure compliance by automatically taxing wages based on where they’re earned.
  • Increases the accuracy of worker tax calculations.
  • Reduces the amount of manual effort required to assign tax authority worktags to payroll input.
  • Reduces the number of manual adjustments to taxes.
  • Reduces the number of amendments to tax reports due to adjustments.

Use Cases

Solution
Use Cases
OMWJ
Salaried workers with a set schedule, assigned to multiple states.
Example: A pharmaceutical representative assigned to a tri-state area.
TLM
Worker with unpredictable percentages of work performed in various tax jurisdictions.
Example: A technical support representative who travels only when technical issues arise.
Workday withholds taxes for all time entry or payroll input transactions with payroll tax location worktags. Tax allocations include payroll tax authorities mapped to the location.
Payroll Input with worktags
Workers with infrequent one-off assignments in different tax jurisdictions.
Example: A worker who, on rare occasions, works out of an office in a different tax jurisdiction.

Questions to Consider

Before deciding to use OMWJ, TLM, payroll input with worktags, or any combination, consider:
Question
Considerations
Does the worker work in multiple tax jurisdictions for unpredictable percentages of time?
You can set up TLM so that Workday splits wages according to the location worktag entered on earnings. Workday withholds taxes for all Time Tracking entries or payroll input transactions with payroll tax location worktags.
If you have pretax deduction calculations enabled, Workday applies the percentages to taxable earnings, imputed income, and pretax deductions.
Do your workers have different tax rates for supplemental earnings?
Workday allocates supplemental earnings and pretax deductions according to the specified percentage splits (OMWJ) or payroll tax location worktags (TLM) before applying the supplemental tax rates.
Do workers enter their time in Workday Time Tracking?
These considerations apply with or without Time Tracking:
  • If their work locations are consistent each pay period, you can use OMWJ to split hours automatically.
  • If their work locations vary from period to period, you can use TLM so they can specify their work location when entering time.

Recommendations

Analyze your requirements and select the solution, or solutions, that require the least manual intervention.

Requirements

Understand how Workday calculates and withholds taxes when you:

Limitations

Regardless of how you set up tax allocations, Workday doesn't apply percentage splits to State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) taxable and subject wages. Workday always applies SUI and other taxes based on SUI to the primary work state.
Workday doesn't support OMWJ elections for workers who have an international assignment position in the U.S.
Examples:
Workday:
  • Doesn’t support OMWJ elections for a worker with a regular position in Canada and an international assignment position in the U.S.
  • Does support OMWJ elections for a worker with a regular primary position in the U.S. and an international assignment position in Canada.

Tenant Setup

No impact.

Security

Users with security enabled for these domains can view and set up taxes and worker tax elections:
  • Set Up: Payroll - Company Specific (Taxes) - USA
  • Worker Data: Payroll (Company Specific) - USA

Business Processes

No impact.

Reporting

Reports
Considerations
Company US Tax Reporting
Displays company-level tax setup.
Payroll Tax Mapping Inactivation on Worker
Use to view or inactivate TLM for workers.
Payroll Tax Mappings on Location
Displays Tax Location Mappings.
Worker US Tax Elections
Displays worker tax elections.

Integrations

Web Service
Description
Get Payroll USA State and Local Tax Elections
Put Payroll USA State and Local Tax Election
Use these web services to load and retrieve state tax elections.
Get Payroll Payee Tax Location Mappings
Put Payroll Payee Tax Location Mapping
Use these web services to update tax location configurations for workers.
Get Payroll Payee Ongoing Work Jurisdiction Tax Election
Put Payroll Payee Ongoing Work Jurisdiction Tax Election
Use these web services to load and retrieve ongoing work jurisdiction tax election data.

Connections and Touchpoints

Features
Considerations
Time Tracking
Workday uses payroll location worktags and time entry codes set up in Time Tracking to allocate tax allocations.
Workday offers a Touchpoints Kit with resources to help you understand configuration relationships across your tenant. Learn more about the Workday Touchpoints Kit on Workday Community.

Other Impacts

No impact.