We pay commission to employees monthly. This month I noticed the federal tax withholding was double what it was last month on their checks. Does anyone know why? Help!

Let's investigate why the federal tax amount was doubled on your employee’s paycheck, SuzyWolfe.

The income tax calculations in QuickBooks Online (QBO) are derived from your employee's payroll information. There are several factors that affect the calculation of federal taxes.

Among these are:

• Taxable wages
• Number of allowances/dependents
• Pay frequency
• Filing status 

For more information about tax calculation and rates, check out this article: Payroll tax wage bases and limits. 

To check why the federal tax amount was doubled up, let's try running the Paycheck List report. Then, let's review if there are paychecks not withholding federal taxes. It's possible QBO automatically applies the adjustment to the next paycheck period causing the federal taxes to double the amount.

Here's how:

1. Click Reports on the left side menu.
2. Choose Reports.
3. Enter Paycheck List in the search field.
4. Go to the last month's period and look for the paychecks where there are no taxes withheld. 

If there are no discrepancies on the transactions, I'd suggest contacting our Payroll Support Team. They'll pull up your account in a secure environment and investigate what's causing this issue. Then, they'll help you do a payroll adjustment to correct the paycheck.

Here's how to reach them:

1. Click the Help icon on the top right. 
2. Tap the Contact Us button at the bottom. 
3. Enter a short description of your concern. 
4. Tick Continue. 
5. Choose Message an agent to connect with our support. 

I've got a link here that provides you with articles about managing your payroll: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/payroll-and-workers/07?product=QuickBooks%20Online.

Feel free to go back to this post if you need a hand with processing your payroll forms and payments or any QBO related. I'll be here to help. Have a great day ahead. 

RCV, thank you for your response.  Unfortunately I have already checked the employees commission checks last month as well as this month and there was the correct amount withheld last month.  I have attached one of the employees paycheck stub from last month and the paycheck stub from this month (dated 5/21/20 and 6/12/20 respectively).  There you will see that the amount of fed tax withheld was more than double what it was last month.  And she has not had any changes in her W4 or her allowances. :( I'm just dumbfounded and have no idea who to contact about it.  Also this employee was not the only one like that.  ALL of the commission employees had their withholding almost or over doubled.

Thanks for following up with us, @SuzyWolfe. 

I recommend reaching out to our Payroll support team, as mentioned by my colleague above. They can securely review your account and conduct further investigation of this issue. You can use the steps provided above to chat or get a call back from an agent. 

If you have further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let me know. You can always reach out to us here in the Community anytime you need a helping hand. Take care and have a great weekend ahead. You certainly deserve it!