Form W-2 boxes and codes

maltermatt · ‎January 10, 2019

I have a staff member that I deduct 403(b) additions into a retirement plan. Box 12a indicates the appropriate dollar amount to the plan. Box 1 (wages, tip, etc) deducts the appropriate retirement dollar amount from the total federal wages but the North Carolina (box 16) wages do not deduct any of the retirement plan dollars. Box 16 does not match Box 1. How did I goof the payroll setup and how would I fix this discrepancy?

Anonymous · ‎January 10, 2019

It sounds like the deduction does not reduce the wages for state taxes. If you review it is the state tax checked on the tax-ability slide of the item?

Box 1 will be impacted either way, as it is the sum of amounts from various tax tracking types (e.g. Compensation, 401k, 403b,...), regardless of tax-ability.

Box 16 is, like most other boxes, based on the actual wages taxed (wage base), which depends on the taxable settings.

maltermatt · ‎January 13, 2019

Thank you for your response. We do subscribe to the enhanced payroll module from Intuit. From your response I went to the payroll item I initially setup for the 403b entry and checked the "NC - Income Tax" entry in the "Taxes" window. This did not change the W-2 box entry probably since it is not retroactive. For this year I will override the box 16 entry to the correct wage value. Do you agree or am I still in left field?

Joyce_P · ‎January 14, 2019

Hello there, maltermatt.

You'll need to run a payroll checkup. Before doing so, let's create and save a backup of your company file.

Here's how to run payroll checkup:

Go to Employees.
Select My Payroll Service.
Choose Run Payroll Checkup.

You can also check the screenshot below:

Let me know if you have other questions. Have a good day!

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Form W-2 boxes and codes