Confused over EXEMPTIONS & ALLOWANCES?

It sounds like your employer's website uses the wrong term. Technically they are not the same thing, but for this purpose you should put the number of allowances you want in the box where it asks for "exemptions"

My guess is that your employer's website was built by a computer science major who isn't fully trained on taxes, and they built a website where you enter a number and that number feeds directly into the payroll system which then determines the withholding rate for your paychecks. They just labeled that entry field with the wrong word when they built the website, but functionally you are setting your W4 allowances with that entry.

Technically, exemptions are a thing you get for each person on your return, generally one for yourself (if you're not dependent under someone else), one for your spouse (if married and filing jointly), and one for each dependent that you can claim. Exemptions will actually be going away for the 2018 tax year - they were rolled into the increased standard deduction and increased child tax credit (and the new non-child dependent credit) as part of the tax overhaul bill.

Allowances are the things you claim on your W4. You can get allowances for more than just your exemptions. For example credits such as child tax credit, childcare credits etc can increase your number of allowances.

As a result, a married couple with 2 children would generally claim 4 exemptions on their tax return, but would need to claim as many as 8-9 allowances on their W4 form in order to have accurate withholding rates.

But the bottom line is that you should put the allowances you want, into the box which is incorrectly labeled "exemptions"

You company's online form is using incorrect terms.

There has NEVER BEEN any such thing as exemptions on a W-4. The ONLY thing ANYONE can claim on the W-4 is withholding allowances, or COMPLETE exemption from withholding. The later requires having a ZERO tax liability in the prior year, and expecting the same in the current year.

The DIRECT answer to your question is enter the withholding allowances where the form say exemptions., even though there is NO SUCH THING on an actual W-4.

No, it is not the same. The reason you don't see it might be because you are trying to change it online. You might have to use the hardcopy paper form.

Same thing.

On the W-4, exemptions and allowances are the same thing.

For W-4 forms, they are one and the same.