A client of mine was concerned that the W-2 was printing an amount for total wages (box 1) that was larger than the medicare wage amount (box 5). After analyzing the report, I was able to determine that the amount was off by the Pretax insurance amount. The social security wages (box 3) and medicare wages (box 5) were correct, reduced by the pretax insurance deductions. However, total wages (box 1) includes this insurance amount. I have tried everything in the payroll item field to extract the amount from total wages. How do I get total wages, tips and other compensation to print on the W-2's and W-3, reduced by the pretax deductions?
A client of mine was concerned that the W-2 was printing an amount for total wages (box 1) that was larger than the medicare wage amount (box 5). After analyzing the report, I was able to determine that the amount was off by the Pretax insurance amount. The social security wages (box 3) and medicare wages (box 5) were correct, reduced by the pretax insurance deductions. However, total wages (box 1) includes this insurance amount. I have tried everything in the payroll item field to extract the amount from total wages. How do I get total wages, tips and other compensation to print on the W-2's and W-3, reduced by the pretax deductions?
If the pretax deductions are for a dependent care or a section 125 cafeteria plan, you should change the payroll deduction item and select Dependent Care FSA in the Tax Tracking Type field. This makes the deductions reduce box 1, 3, and 5. However, these deductions show in box 10 "Dependent Care Benefits" on the W-2. If the benefits don't equal the deductions, then this will be technically incorrect on the W-2. As long as the total is under 5,000 though, it shouldn't matter since those benefits become taxable only after $5,000. If the pretax deductions are not for a dependent care section 125 plan, and you want box 1, 3, and 5 to be reduced by the deduction you can select Compensation in the tax tracking type field. Be careful though. Make sure that these deductions should really reduce box 1, 3, and 5 according to the IRS.