Can I correct clergy housing already paid under an incorrect category on a direct deposit paycheck to avoid having to issue a corrected W-2 after year-end?

Thanks for posting in the Community, @akrodavidmn.

Yes you can correct clergy housing that is already paid under an incorrect category on a direct deposit paycheck, @akrodavidmn. First, you'll need to void the paycheck and recreate a correct paper check instead of a direct deposit so that you won't pay the employee twice. There it will automatically correct your W-2 without amending it after the year-end.

Follow these steps in correcting clergy housing:

1. Go to Workers and then select Employees.
2. Choose an employee, then click to open the profile.
3. Click the Pencil icon next to Pay.
4. Under How much do you pay Employee?, edit the category of the pay type.
5. Click Even more ways to pay Employee.
6. Choose either Clergy Housing (Cash) or Clergy Housing (In-Kind).
7. Hit Done.

Use this article as your reference: Clergy and church payroll. It includes how to exempt a clergy employee from FICA and/or FUTA and information in setting up clergy housing.

Should you add something to your employee's paycheck, check this article: Add fringe benefits to paychecks. It covers the steps and guidelines on how to set it up.

I'll wait for your respond if there's anything else. I'm always here to help and guide you. Take care and have a good one!

The answer I received will only correct the future Clergy Housing amount. And it will not even correct the original one that was set up when transferring from Desktop to Online Payroll as that one does not appear anywhere in the available edit fields. This is what caused the initial problem as I tried to adjust it and have now ended up with two Clergy Housing amounts available every time I run payroll so I have to remember to zero out one of them. Unfortunately, I forgot to do that once and now have two separate Clergy Housing categories for year-end. And I am very leery when changing anything in payroll because my previous questions to QB Support have never received an answer other than "we don't know". I had to do handwritten corrected W-2s last year because of Clergy Housing issues. The only offer of help for that was to upgrade to a higher priced subscription service with Intuit with no guarantee the answer would actually be forthcoming at the higher price. So I am therefore assuming I will probably need to do handwritten corrected W-2s again for 2019.

Thanks for getting back to us, akrodavidmn.

Yes, you're right. The answer that my colleague shared above will only take effect moving forward. Since it's a direct deposit (DD) paycheck, the ability to change it is currently unavailable.

However, instead of making a handwritten corrected W-2s, I highly suggest contacting our Payroll Support team. They have the tools that can help transfer the amount to the correct pay type. They're also able to pull up and check your account in a secure environment.

Here's how to reach them:

1. Open QBDT, then go to the Help menu at the top to get to the QuickBooks Desktop Help.
2. Click Contact Us at the bottom to connect with our live support.

Just in case, I'll add these article for future reference:

• Add or Change Pay Types in Online Payroll.
• Clergy and church payroll.

Please let me know in the comment section if you have any other issues or concerns. I want to make sure everything is taken care of for you. Have an amazing weekend!