Employee exempt from FICA all year except one paycheck. Can I override the FICA exemption on one check?

Hello there, McClerk.

I understand your need to override the FICA exemption for a specific paycheck for your poll workers.

In QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), you can mark the employees as exempt from FICA withholding and manually enter the correct figures for their last paychecks. It'll override both the employee and employer portions.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Employees menu.
2. Select Employee Center.
3. Find the employee you want to mark as exempt.
4. In the employee profile, go to the Payroll Info tab.
5. Click the Taxes tab.
6. Tap the Form W-4 drop-down arrow, then choose 2020 and Later.
7. Choose Single or Married filing separately in the Filing Status.
8. Check the boxes included in FICA.
9. Once done, hit OK twice.

For more details, check this guide: Exempt your employee from Federal or State withholding.

Additionally, it's important to double-check the calculations to ensure accuracy and compliance with tax laws. Additionally, you may want to consult with a tax professional or accountant to ensure that there are no unintended consequences or potential issues with overriding the FICA exemption for these specific paychecks.

Furthermore, you can bookmark this guide for the complete steps in dealing with a refund check from a tax agency: Handle a payroll tax refund from an agency.

Please visit this thread if you still have concerns about payroll taxes. I'll be right here to continue helping. Take care.

I have already marked the employee as not subject to withholding, however, I cannot manually add withholdings for the one check that they ARE subject to withholding. 

My next idea is to mark them as subject to withholding on all checks and then manually override to zero on the checks that they should have no withholding on. Will that mess anything else up?

Thanks for getting back here in the thread, @McClerk. We'll provide more details about overriding the FICA exemption inside QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) Payroll.
 

Before anything else, please know that overriding and zeroing a check can mess up your data. Upon reading through your post, In your current situation, you can create an Addition item to use when paying employees and control which field you want to zero out. We'll write down the steps to get you going:

1. Access your QuickBooks Desktop company.
2. Go to the Employees menu, and then select Payroll Center.
3. Click Start Scheduled or Unscheduled Payroll.
4. Select the Employee, and then in the Other Payroll Items. Click a blank line item and choose New.
5. Choose Addition, and then click Next. Enter the name of your addition and then click Next.
6. Select Next, and then in the Tax tracking type page. You can choose None or Other and then select Next.
7. Click Next and choose Neither.
8. Choose Gross pay and select Next.
9. Click the Finish button.

If you're unsure of the process, you can contact your Tax ProAdvisor so they can guide and get you out of this situation.

Furthermore, here are some articles to help you keep your data accurate and wrap up this year's payroll:

• Understand reports.
• Year-end checklist for QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

Feel free to comment below if you need further assistance managing an employee's paycheck inside QuickBooks or if you have any additional concerns. We'll be here, ready to help you out. Keep safe.

Thanks! I think we're on the right path now. I have created this new payroll addition, however it is still not withholding the payroll taxes (most notably FICA). The employee file for this employee has "subject to: medicare, Social Security" unchecked. Will that override my payroll addition?

Is the solution to have two payroll additions: 

 - election work (and disable withholding taxes)

 - plan commission (and enable withholding taxes)

Is there any significant difference between running hours worked through "earnings" at the top of the preview paycheck vs through the "other payroll items" additions that we've been talking about? Both show up on 941 and W-2s it appears. 

Thanks! I think we're on the right path now. I have created this new payroll addition, however it is still not withholding the payroll taxes (most notably FICA). The employee file for this employee has "subject to: medicare, Social Security" unchecked. Will that override my payroll addition?

Is the solution to have two payroll additions: 

 - election work (and disable withholding taxes)

 - plan commission (and enable withholding taxes)

Is there any significant difference between running hours worked through "earnings" at the top of the preview paycheck vs through the "other payroll items" additions that we've been talking about? Both show up on 941 and W-2s it appears. 

I'm here to provide some clarification on your query, @McClerk. 

If the checkbox for Medicare and Social Security option is left unchecked in the employee file, it means that the employee is not eligible for Medicare and Social Security taxes. This setting will override your payroll addition. To resolve the issue, you can create two separate payroll additions. 

Regarding your question about running hours worked through earnings at the top of the preview paycheck versus through "other payroll items" additions, both methods will show up on the 941 and W-2 forms. However, it's essential to ensure that the correct taxes are being withheld and reported for each employee. If you're unsure about the differences, it's recommended to consult with a tax professional or your payroll software provider for guidance. 

You'll want to check these help articles for more insights on what's affecting the calculations and some easy steps to fix issues when taxes calculate incorrectly:

• Payroll items on a paycheck are not calculating or are calculating incorrectly
• QuickBooks Desktop calculates wages and/or payroll taxes incorrectly

If there's anything else that I can assist you with, let me know. I'm always up for further assistance. Have a great week ahead!