Box 18 on W2

carmichaels · ‎February 08, 2021

I have called Quickbooks payroll 3 times and tried to chat, so please don't suggest that...it's beyond frustrating.

Our W2's have box 18 blank although we have the taxes properly entered into quickbooks and each employee does show an amount that was deducted for local taxes in box 19 on their W2. We cannot upload our W2's to the local tax agency with box 18 blank. I cannot figure out how to make a wage amount appear in that box.

BigRedConsulting · ‎February 08, 2021

Box 18 is Local Tax wages, Box 19 is the tax amount, and Box 20 is the Local name or code.

If you're seeing taxes with no wages then the local tax item is probably set up with the local tax tracking type of "Secondary Loc. Tax".

When you set up or edit and item of this type, QB explains that it will have exactly the impact you're seeing:

It's unusual to use such an item. It's useful if you have two of the same type of item used on the employee on the same paychecks - for some reason - and you don't want to double-up wages.

If you want the item to report wages, then pick "Local Income Tax":

Luckily, the way to fix this is to change the tax tracking type and then the W-2 will change without any additional editing of data.

View solution in original post

JonpriL · ‎February 08, 2021

I wish I could make it better, @carmichaels.

Let's pull up and customize one of your payroll reports to identify the payroll items used in your employee's paycheck. This way you can determine why some of your payroll entry is not showing on the corresponding boxes on their W2 forms.

Go to Reports.
Under Employees & Payroll, select Payroll Summary.
Select Customize Report.
On the Date menu, select Last Calendar Year.
Click OK.

In the same manner, here's an article you can read to learn more about how your form is generated: W2 form boxes explained.

On top of that, I've got you this helpful article for guidance in preparation for the 2020 tax season: Year-end Checklists for QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

If there's anything else that I can help you with, please let me know by leaving any comments below. I'll be here to lend a hand.

BigRedConsulting · ‎February 08, 2021

Box 18 is Local Tax wages, Box 19 is the tax amount, and Box 20 is the Local name or code.

If you're seeing taxes with no wages then the local tax item is probably set up with the local tax tracking type of "Secondary Loc. Tax".

When you set up or edit and item of this type, QB explains that it will have exactly the impact you're seeing:

It's unusual to use such an item. It's useful if you have two of the same type of item used on the employee on the same paychecks - for some reason - and you don't want to double-up wages.

If you want the item to report wages, then pick "Local Income Tax":

Luckily, the way to fix this is to change the tax tracking type and then the W-2 will change without any additional editing of data.

BigRedConsulting · ‎February 08, 2021

@JonpriL

RE: Let's pull up and customize one of your payroll reports to identify the payroll items used in your employee's paycheck. This way you can determine why some of your payroll entry is not showing on the corresponding boxes on their W2 forms.

Actually that won't work at all. You cannot see the tax tracking types for payroll items on a Payroll Summary report, and without them it does not and cannot help anyone understand the numbers on their W-2, or any other tax form.

In this particular case for example, none of the local taxes will look any different than the others. All the report shows is the tax item's name, not how it impacts tax forms.

carmichaels · ‎February 10, 2021

A million thanks! This was set up before I owned the company so I had no clue.

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Box 18 on W2

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