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Course: Financial Literacy Library > Unit 1
Lesson 4: Hiring process: forms and documentsThe hire package: A look at hiring forms
Get to know the basics of new hire paperwork: The W4 form helps employees adjust their tax withholding to avoid surprises at tax time, while the I9 form is a critical step in verifying an individual's authorization to work in the U.S. Created by Sal Khan.
Video transcript
- [Instructor] This right over here is an image of an I9 form, which is one of the two forms which you will have to fill out when you take a new job. The other one is a W4, we talk about that in other videos. The W4 form is all about how much taxes the employer should
withhold from every paycheck based on things that you fill out. But the I9 here, this is
crucial for the employer to be able to say, okay, I can hire you. It does two things: it verifies identity, who you are or that you are
who you who you say you are. And the other one is eligibility to work. You could verify your identity, but what if you actually aren't allowed to work in the United States? Now, there's a bunch of forms here, and at some point they ask for documents, and you could either do
list A or list B and list C. The general notion is when
you fill out these forms, you should have documents that, valid documents that
validate both your identity and your eligibility to work. In terms of identity, it should be government issued and have a picture and have
personal information on it. So things that validate your identity. Examples are driver's license, driver's license. It could be a military ID, a Native American tribal document. It could be a passport, and passports are useful
because it does both. It established both your identity and your eligibility to work, because you won't get a passport unless you are eligible to
work in the United States. Now, if you only have,
say, a driver's license, you still have to have some document that shows your eligibility to work. That could be, let me do that over here. Not as organized as I like. This could be something
like a birth certificate, and you might say, why isn't that enough
for even your identity? Well, a birth certificate
doesn't have a picture of you, so they don't know whether it's definitely your birth certificate, but if you have, say, a driver's license, then they know who you are, and then you also have
the birth certificate and it shows that you were
born in the United States. Well, then you would
then be eligible to work. It could also be a social security card. It could be a green card for residents, or it could be some type
of work authorization card. So the big picture here is, when you see these forms, it's good to go in prepared knowing that you're going
to have to fill them out and to bring the supporting documents, so that you don't get stuck or your employment doesn't
have to get delayed in some way, shape, or form.