You can update your phone, address, and emergency contact from My Profile in the Employee Portal. The click-by-click steps are in Profile & W-4 — this article is about why it's worth doing the day something changes, not six months later.
Your address drives your taxes
The state on your profile is the state Payrollix withholds income tax for. Move from Texas (no state income tax) to California (up to 13.3%) and forget to update it, and your paychecks keep coming out as if you still lived in Texas. Come tax season, you owe California the tax that was never withheld — sometimes a four-figure surprise. It runs the other way too: an old high-tax address means money coming out that shouldn't be.
Some states also assess local income tax on top of the state — Ohio school districts, Pennsylvania local services tax, and jurisdictions in IN, KY, MD, MI, NY, MO, AL, CO, DE, and OR. Those are tied to your address too. When you change your state in the portal, watch for the local-tax panel that appears and fill in the jurisdiction it asks for.
Where your W-2 goes
Your W-2 — the wage statement you need to file your taxes — is sent to the address on file. Most of the time you'll grab it from the portal under Tax Documents, but if it's printed and mailed and your address is stale, it goes to the wrong place. Update your address before you move, not after.
Name and SSN are different
You can edit your phone, address, and emergency contact yourself. Your name, SSN, and date of birth are read-only in the portal — those go through your employer's accountant, because a name that doesn't match your Social Security card causes problems on your W-2. If your name legally changed (marriage, court order), tell your employer so they can update it on the backend.
Emergency contact
This one isn't about taxes. It's who your employer calls if something happens to you at work. Keep the name, phone, and relationship current — it takes ten seconds and it's the field people forget.
Related: Profile & W-4 · Paystubs & tax documents · Setting yourself up as a new hire.