Box 16 state wages did not include Fringe Benefit but Box 1 did. Why?

Hi there, @jann.

Let's work together and get this resolved.

I'm going to be explaining the differences between Boxes 1 and 2 for the W2 forms below.

Box 1:

• For Box 1 the total overtime, bonuses, wages, and tips, etc., that are subject to federal income, and paid to an employee during the year. There's certain deductions like 401(k), fringe benefits and pre-tax medical can affect this box.

Box 16:

• QuickBooks generates total wages, tips, overtime, etc., that are subject to state income taxes and paid to the employee during the year. Wages earned in the reporting year, but paid in the following year, are not included.

If you would like to learn more about how QuickBooks populates these boxes on the IRS Form, I'm providing a link below with some additional information:

W2 Form Boxes Explained

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. If you have any more questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to Reply to this thread. Take care!

This suggests the fringe benefit is not or was not set up as taxable for state withholding.

In turn this may or may not be correct.  If not, then you can fix this by entering a liability adjustment for each impacted employee to increase the taxable wages for the state withholding item, by the amount of the fringe benefit.