How to Fill Out Form MW507: A Step-by-Step Maryland Guide (2026)

Starting a new job in Maryland involves a packet of onboarding paperwork. Alongside the federal W-4 form, you will be handed Form MW507 — the Employee's Maryland Withholding Exemption Certificate.

Form MW507 is one of the most important forms you will sign because it tells your employer's payroll department exactly how much Maryland state and county tax to deduct from each paycheck. Filling it out incorrectly can lead to either an unexpectedly small paycheck or a massive tax bill at the end of the year. This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough to ensure yours is accurate.

Which Version of the Form Do You Need?

Your employer normally hands you the current revision, but if you are downloading it yourself, get it from the Comptroller of Maryland — a copy saved from an old onboarding packet may not match what payroll expects. The official PDF is linked from the Comptroller's withholding forms page, alongside MW507M (military spouse) and MW507P (annuity and retirement distributions).

If you came here searching for a 2026-dated form: it exists. The 2026 revision of Form MW507 is posted and is the current form — two pages, with the Personal Exemptions Worksheet on page 2. We keep a copy of the Comptroller's own file at /forms/mw507-2026.pdf so you can open it directly; it is byte-for-byte the government PDF, not a redrawn lookalike. Maryland dates each revision by year and retires the previous one, so a 2025 PDF saved from last year's onboarding packet is no longer the live form.

One caution about the 2026 file specifically: the Comptroller publishes two different MW507s. The one linked above is the general form every private-sector employer uses. There is a separate version headed "FOR MARYLAND STATE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ONLY" with payroll-system checkboxes for RG, CT and UM — if your form asks which payroll system you are in and you do not work for the State of Maryland, you have the wrong one.

Whichever revision you are handed, do not hold off on submitting it. A missing MW507 is withheld at the worst possible setting (see the FAQ below).

What the PDF cannot do is show you the result before you sign it. Three tools here cover that gap:

• The MW507 exemptions worksheet runs the page 2 arithmetic and returns the number that belongs on Line 1 — then writes it into the Comptroller's own PDF for you, so you can download the completed 2026 form, sign it, and hand it to payroll. It fills the government file itself, not a redrawn copy.
• The MW507 withholding estimator shows what each exemption is worth per paycheck, so you can weigh claiming 2 against claiming 3 before you commit to either.
• Already had a paycheck and it looks wrong? The paycheck withholding checker works backwards from the figures on a real stub and tells you whether the MW507 you filed is withholding too much or too little.

---

What is Form MW507 and Why Does It Matter?

Form MW507 is Maryland's equivalent of the federal W-4 form. While the federal W-4 was redesigned in 2020 to eliminate withholding allowances, Maryland still uses the traditional allowance-based system.

Every allowance you claim on Form MW507 reduces the amount of state and county income tax withheld from your check.

• Too many allowances: You will not withhold enough tax, which could result in underpayment penalties and a tax bill when you file your returns.
• Too few allowances: Your employer will withhold too much money, giving you a smaller paycheck and forcing you to wait for a refund from the Comptroller of Maryland.

---

Step-by-Step Instructions: Filling Out Form MW507

Section 1: Personal Information

At the top of the form, fill in your name, address, Social Security Number, and county of residence.

• County of Residence: This is critical. Maryland county piggyback taxes (2.25% to 3.30%) are determined entirely by where you live. Make sure you enter your permanent home county, not the county where your office is located.

Your filing status is not a numbered line. It is the row of checkboxes directly above Line 1 — Single / Married (surviving spouse or unmarried Head of Household) / Married, but withhold at Single rate. Tick one there.

Section 2: The Two Lines Almost Everyone Fills In (Lines 1 and 2)

• Line 1 — Total number of exemptions. A count, not a dollar amount. It cannot exceed line f of the Personal Exemptions Worksheet on page 2 of the form, though you may claim fewer. You generally get one exemption for yourself (unless someone claims you as a dependent), one for your spouse if they are not claiming themselves, and one for each dependent on your return — with extra exemptions for anyone 65 or over or blind. Our MW507 exemptions worksheet runs the page 2 arithmetic and gives you the number.
• Line 2 — Additional withholding per pay period. A dollar amount, by agreement with your employer. Use it if you expect to owe — a side business, investment income, a second job. Leave it blank otherwise.

Section 3: Claiming Exemption from Withholding (Lines 3 to 8)

These lines remove Maryland withholding entirely, each for a specific circumstance. Write “EXEMPT” on the line that applies:

• Line 3 — No tax liability. You owed no Maryland income tax last year and had a right to a full refund, and you expect the same this year. Enter the year and write EXEMPT. This is the line for students and seasonal employees earning below the filing threshold. This one expires: a Line 3 exemption is good for the calendar year only, and you must file a fresh MW507 by February 15 of the following year to keep it. Miss that date and payroll reverts you to single with zero exemptions. Note too that if you claim it and your wages are expected to exceed $200 a week, your employer has to send a copy of the certificate to the Comptroller's Compliance Division — that is routine, not an audit.
• Line 4 — Domiciled in DC, Virginia or West Virginia. For residents of those three who work in Maryland and do not keep a place of abode here for 183 days or more. Note this line is not for residents of other states working in Maryland — they owe Maryland tax and withholding is required.
• Line 5 — Domiciled in Pennsylvania. Exempts you from the Maryland state portion only. You are still liable for the county rate where you work unless Line 6 or 7 applies.
• Line 6 — Pennsylvania resident in York or Adams county. Exempts you from Maryland local tax. You must also write EXEMPT on Line 4.
• Line 7 — Pennsylvania resident elsewhere in a jurisdiction that does not tax Maryland residents. Also exempts local tax, and also requires EXEMPT on Line 4.
• Line 8 — Military spouse. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act as amended by the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. Enter your state of legal residence, write EXEMPT, and attach Form MW507M plus a copy of your spousal military ID card.

---

How Many Exemptions Should You Claim on Line 1?

Claim the number the page 2 worksheet entitles you to — and if you have a second job or a working spouse, claim it on one certificate only. The worksheet already handles the high-income phase-down for you, provided you actually turn the page and complete it. Overlapping jobs are the one thing it cannot see. The rest of this section covers both.

What one exemption is actually worth

Up to $100,000 of federal AGI single, or $150,000 filing jointly, each exemption on Line 1 knocks $3,200 off the wages your employer runs Maryland tax against. (Above those thresholds the figure shrinks — see the phase-down below.) That $3,200 is then taxed at nothing, so the exemption is worth $3,200 multiplied by your combined state and county rate. For almost every Maryland worker the state marginal rate is 4.75%, so the whole answer is your county:

That is the entire stake. One exemption is worth under $10 a paycheck. People agonise over this box as though it were the difference between solvency and a tax bill, and it is not — which cuts both ways. Leaving Line 1 blank out of caution costs you real money for no benefit, and claiming one too many is a couple of hundred dollars, not a catastrophe.

Take a married couple earning $75,000 in Baltimore County with two children. Four exemptions on Line 1 exempts $12,800, leaving a Maryland withholding base of $55,500 and $167.68 of state and county tax per biweekly paycheck. Claim zero and the same couple has $206.82 withheld — $1,017.60 more per year, all of it refunded eventually, none of it available in the meantime. You can run your own figures on the MW507 withholding estimator; it reports the per-paycheck value of your allowances directly.

Why the page 2 worksheet is not optional above $100,000

Here is the part of the form almost everybody skips, and the reason a careful high earner can still end up owing in April.

Above $100,000 an exemption stops being worth $3,200 — and page 2 of the form is where that gets handled. Maryland phases the per-exemption value down as federal AGI rises, and the table is printed on page 2 of the MW507 itself:

This table is exactly why the form tells you to complete the page 2 worksheet if you expect AGI above $100,000 single or $150,000 joint. Line a of that worksheet multiplies your exemption count by the phased value rather than by $3,200, while line f divides the total back by a flat $3,200 — so a high earner's permitted count legitimately shrinks, sometimes all the way to zero.

The trap is that page 1 gives no hint of it. Line 1 just says "total number of exemptions," and the household arithmetic most people do in their head — one for me, one for my spouse, one per child — produces the unphased number. Fill in Line 1 that way at $160,000 single and you have excluded $9,600 from withholding that the worksheet values at $0: roughly $670 to $770 of Maryland tax, depending on your county, that never comes out of your paychecks and is due in April instead.

So above those thresholds, turn the page. The MW507 exemptions worksheet applies the phase-down and tells you the value it used per exemption; the withholding estimator reports the same figure as "value per exemption at your income," which reads $0 for a single filer over $150,000. If your count comes out lower than you expected, that is the table doing its job — and if you would rather claim your full household count anyway, put the difference on Line 2 as additional withholding instead of overstating Line 1.

Correction (September 2026): an earlier version of this section claimed that "payroll withholding values every exemption at a flat $3,200" and that "Form MW507 has no mechanism" for the phase-down. That was wrong — the phase-down table above is printed on page 2 of the form and is applied by the page 2 worksheet. The risk is skipping that worksheet, not a gap in the form. What it costs to get Line 1 wrong is unchanged; only the explanation of where the phase-down lives has been corrected.

The second-job problem

Every employer you hand an MW507 to applies your exemptions in full, independently, as though that job were your only income. Claim two exemptions at two jobs and $12,800 gets excluded from withholding rather than $6,400.

The fix is to claim your exemptions at the higher-paying job and put zero on Line 1 for the second. The same logic applies to a married couple where both spouses work: exemptions belong on one certificate, not duplicated across two.

If your count comes out above 10

Large families and itemizers can legitimately land above ten exemptions. Nothing is wrong with that, but it triggers a paperwork step: when Line 1 exceeds 10, your employer is required to forward a copy of your MW507 to the Comptroller's Compliance Division. It is a routine verification, not an audit — just don't be surprised by it, and make sure the page 2 worksheet actually supports the number you wrote.

Once you know your count, the MW507 exemptions worksheet confirms the ceiling from page 2 of the form, and the withholding estimator shows what claiming one fewer does to your paycheck before you commit.

---

Common Mistakes When Filling Out Form MW507

• Confusing Line 1 with Line 2. This is the costliest slip on the form. Line 1 is a count of exemptions; Line 2 is a dollar amount of extra withholding. Writing 3 on Line 2 does not claim three exemptions — it asks your employer to take an extra $3 out of every paycheck, and leaves your exemptions at zero.
• Using the Federal W-4 Logic: Since federal forms dropped allowances in 2020, people often leave Line 1 blank. Blank defaults to 0 exemptions, which means the highest possible withholding and a noticeably smaller paycheck.
• Entering the Work County Instead of the Home County: If you live in Carroll County but work in Baltimore City, you must write "Carroll" on the form. Writing "Baltimore City" will cause your employer to withhold the higher Baltimore City rate (3.30%) instead of the lower Carroll County rate (3.05%).
• Forgetting to Update the Form After Life Events: The rule is asymmetric, and worth knowing which half is mandatory. If a change reduces the exemptions you are entitled to — a divorce, a dependent who is no longer yours to claim, a spouse who starts claiming themselves — you are required to file a new MW507 within 10 days. If a change increases your entitlement, or you simply move to a cheaper county, filing a new form is optional but in your own interest: nobody at payroll will update your county rate for you, and the old rate keeps coming out until you do.

---

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What happens if I do not submit Form MW507?

If you do not submit a completed Form MW507, your employer is legally required to withhold taxes at the single rate with zero allowances and apply the maximum county rate (currently 3.30%). This will significantly reduce your take-home pay.

Can I change my allowances at any time?

Yes. You can submit a revised Form MW507 to your employer's payroll department at any time during the year. The updates will typically take effect within 1-2 pay cycles.

Is Form MW507 filed with the state?

No. Your employer keeps Form MW507 in your payroll files. It is not sent to the Comptroller of Maryland unless requested for verification.