This happened to me and it turned out to be my student loan payment! The servicer had changed and it was listed as "DEPT ED/TAX" on my statement which I totally misread as a tax charge. Check if you have any student loans in repayment - the labels can be super confusing.

Isabella, I feel for you - this exact situation happened to me two years ago and I was terrified! In my case, it turned out to be an offset for unpaid back taxes from 2019 that I had completely forgotten about. The IRS had applied my expected refund to that old debt and then withdrawn the difference from my account. What saved me was logging into my IRS online account immediately - you can create one at irs.gov with your Social Security number and some identity verification. Once you're in, look at your "Account Transcript" which will show ALL recent activity including any offsets, adjustments, or automatic withdrawals. The transcript will also show if there are any notices that were supposed to be mailed to you. Sometimes these get lost or sent to old addresses. If you see notices listed there that you never received, you can actually view and download them directly from your online account. Don't panic about the rent money just yet - if this was an IRS error, they do reverse transactions, though it can take a few weeks. But getting into that online account should give you answers within minutes rather than waiting hours on the phone. Good luck!

I work in tax compliance and just wanted to add some reassurance here. The IRS's Wage and Tax Statement processing system has become very sophisticated at identifying duplicates over the years. When they receive multiple W-2s with identical EIN, SSN, and wage information, the system flags them during the initial processing phase and consolidates the records automatically. This happens before the information is made available for matching against individual tax returns, so your employee shouldn't encounter any issues when filing. One thing I'd add to the great advice already given - if you have access to the SSA's Business Services Online portal, you can actually view the status of your W-2 submissions there. It will show if any were flagged as duplicates or if there were processing issues. This can give you additional peace of mind that everything was handled correctly on their end. The most important thing is that you're being proactive about this. Many employers don't even realize when this happens, so you're already ahead of the game by addressing it directly.

I had a very similar experience last year when our payroll system double-submitted W-2s for about half our employees due to a software glitch. I was absolutely terrified about the potential consequences! Here's what I learned from going through it: The SSA and IRS systems are actually pretty robust when it comes to handling these duplicate submissions. In our case, all the duplicates were automatically identified and consolidated during processing, and none of our employees had any issues when filing their tax returns. I did follow the advice to call the SSA Employer Reporting Service, and they were incredibly helpful and reassuring. They explained that this happens more frequently than you'd expect, especially during busy filing periods when systems can have hiccups or when employers use multiple submission methods. The representative also mentioned that as long as all the information is identical (wages, withholdings, employee info), their automated systems are designed specifically to catch and handle these situations. It's when there are discrepancies between the duplicate filings that things can get more complicated. One additional tip - I documented everything about the incident, including the date I discovered it, which employees were affected, and the confirmation number from my SSA call. Having that paper trail gave me peace of mind and would have been helpful if any questions came up later (though thankfully none did). Your employee should be fine, but definitely let them know what happened so they're not confused if they see anything unusual when checking their records online.

Has anyone else noticed that the state withholding calculators online are basically useless for figuring this out? I tried using my state's official calculator and it gave me a completely different number than what's showing on my paystub.

This is actually a really common issue! State tax withholding calculations are much more complex than federal because each state has different rules about how they handle year-to-date calculations and tax brackets. Minnesota specifically recalculates your projected annual income with each paycheck, which can cause these fluctuations. A few things that commonly cause this: - Your YTD earnings crossing into different tax brackets mid-year - Payroll systems that use different calculation methods for state vs federal - Small changes in pre-tax deductions (health insurance, 401k) that affect taxable income differently for state purposes - Minnesota's specific withholding tables being applied with slight timing differences The good news is this usually evens out by year-end, but if you're seeing really dramatic swings (more than 10-15% of your normal withholding), it might be worth having a conversation with your payroll department to make sure there isn't a system error.

This is such a helpful thread! I was in the same boat as you @Alana Willis - totally confused about Line 26. Reading through everyone's explanations really cleared things up. Just to summarize what I learned from this discussion (and hopefully help other newcomers): Line 26 = Federal payments only: - Quarterly estimated tax payments (1040-ES) - Extension payments (Form 4868) - Any overpayment from last year's return that you applied to this year - Any additional estimated payments made during the year What NOT to include: - State or local tax payments (those go on state returns) - Payments made with your actual return submission - Payments for previous tax years The key insight that clicked for me was thinking of Line 26 as "money I already sent to the federal government for THIS tax year before filing my return." That simple way of thinking about it makes it much clearer what belongs there. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this community is awesome for helping navigate these confusing tax situations!

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm a first-time estimated tax payer and was completely lost on Line 26. What really helped me was @Ethan Wilson's summary about thinking of it as "money already sent to the federal government for THIS tax year." I had one additional situation that might help others - I made an estimated payment in January 2025 for my 2024 taxes (before the January 15th Q4 deadline). That payment also goes on Line 26 for my 2024 return, even though I technically made it in 2025. The key is that it was intended for the 2024 tax year. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and tools - this community really makes navigating tax season less stressful! @Alana Willis I hope you got your Line 26 sorted out!

Does anyone know if TurboTax makes this process easier? I used them last year and also forgot a W2... dreading having to figure this all out.

Don't stress too much about this - it happens more often than you'd think! I had a similar situation a few years back where I forgot to include a 1099-MISC from some freelance work. The key thing is to act quickly once you realize the mistake. Like others have mentioned, you'll need to file Form 1040-X (Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return). The IRS actually prefers when taxpayers voluntarily correct their own errors rather than discovering them during an audit. A few tips from my experience: - Gather all your original tax documents plus the missing W2 - You'll need your original tax return to compare against - The 1040-X asks you to explain the reason for the amendment - just be honest that you inadvertently omitted income - File as soon as possible to minimize interest charges Since you only made $5,000 from that job, the additional tax owed probably won't be huge, but you will need to pay interest from the original due date. The penalty for honest mistakes is usually pretty minimal, especially when you're proactively fixing it.