If your Box 1, W-2 amount is less than your salary, it is because you have pre-tax deductions from your salary under one or more employer plans. Both your pre-tax health insurance and your 401(k) would reduce your Box 1 amount compared to your gross salary.
What if my W-2 is less than 600?
This is true for companies paying independent or self-employed contractors as they are not required to issue a 1099-MISC for jobs less than $600. Workers who receive a W-2 from a company with less than $600 in wages are still responsible for reporting it, as there is no W-2 minimum amount to file.
Why are my W-2 wages lower than my salary?
What you see on your W-2 is your taxable income, not your total salary. What’s more, the amount shown in Box 1 for “wages, tips and other compensation” may be different than the amount in Box 3 for “Social Security wages” or the amount in Box 5 for “Medicare wages,” and all three sums may be less than what you actually earned in 2015.
What’s the difference between social security and W2 wages?
The most common questions relate to why W-2 Wages differ from your final pay stub for the year, and why Federal and State Wages per your W-2 differ from Social Security and Medicare Wages per the W-2. The short answer is that the differences relate to what wage amounts are taxable in each case.
How to calculate W2 wages for the year?
The following steps will walk you through the calculations of the W-2 wage amounts and enable you to reconcile these to your final pay stub for the year. Use your last pay stub for the year to calculate the taxable wages in boxes 1 and 16 in your W-2. Begin with the Gross Pay YTD (year-to-date) and make the following adjustments, if applicable:
When to call central payroll for W2 wages?
The resulting amount should equal Box 3 Social Security Wages and Box 5 Medicare Wages on your W-2. If you find that after making these adjustments to your Gross Pay YTD per your final pay stub, the result does not match Box 3 Social Security Wages and Box 5 Medicare Wages on your W-2, call Central Payroll, 617-495-8500, option 4 for assistance.
