

An employee can also use Form W-4 to tell you not to withhold any federal income tax. To qualify for this exempt status, the employee must have had no tax liability for the previous year and must expect to have no tax liability for the current year.
https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc753
I’m not sure why you thought I was making this up.
Because the IRS says so? Did you not read the quoted passage?