My W-2 has Box 18 blank but Box 19 has an amount - What should I do?

This is actually a pretty common issue and nothing to worry about. Box 18 shows local income taxes withheld, while Box 19 shows your local wages (the amount of your income that's subject to local taxes). It's perfectly normal to have a value in Box 19 but have Box 18 be empty - this simply means you had reportable local wages but no local tax was withheld from your paychecks. The reason this happens is often because you either live or work in a location that doesn't have a local income tax, or your employer wasn't required to withhold local taxes for some reason. TurboTax is just flagging this for you to review since it's an unusual pattern, but it's not necessarily an error.

I had this exact same issue last year! Turns out my employer wasn't withholding my local taxes even though they should have been. I needed up using https://taxr.ai to review my W-2 and they confirmed my employer had messed up. Their system actually explained exactly what was happening with my withholdings and told me what I needed to do to fix it. Saved me from getting a nasty surprise at tax time!

Just wanted to update that I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and it totally worked for my W-2 issue! I was in the exact same boat with the Box 18/19 problem. Their system explained that I live in a city with local income tax but my employer hadn't been withholding it. The analysis showed exactly how much I would owe and even generated a letter I could send to my HR department to fix the withholding for next year. Super helpful and saved me from a surprise tax bill I wasn't expecting!

For anyone dealing with tax forms issues like this, I had a similar problem and ended up needing to talk to someone at the IRS to sort it out. Calling them directly was IMPOSSIBLE - kept getting disconnected after waiting on hold for hours. I found this service called https://claimyr.com that got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Turns out my employer had been using the wrong local code on my W-2 which is why the boxes were filled out wrong. The IRS agent walked me through exactly what to do and how to report it correctly on my return.

Ok I need to eat my words. I tried the Claimyr thing after posting my skeptical comment and IT ACTUALLY WORKED. Got connected to an IRS agent who explained that in my case, having Box 19 filled but Box 18 empty means I live in a jurisdiction with local income tax, but my employer isn't required to withhold it - I'm responsible for paying it directly. The agent said this is super common with certain municipalities that don't have withholding agreements with employers outside their jurisdiction. Saved me from potentially getting hit with penalties!

Just want to add one more thing for people with this Box 18/19 issue - you might need to file a separate local tax return depending on where you live. I'm in Ohio and we have RITA (Regional Income Tax Agency) forms that need to be filed separately from your federal and state returns. TurboTax might not even handle these for you depending on which version you have.

My question is whether this Box 18/19 thing will cause problems with the IRS accepting your return? Last year I had a different W-2 issue and my return got rejected twice before I figured out what was wrong.

I just want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread - it's been incredibly helpful! I was dealing with the exact same Box 18/19 issue and was getting really stressed about it. After reading through all the responses here, I now understand that this is actually pretty normal and not necessarily an error on my employer's part. The key takeaway for me was that Box 19 shows wages subject to local tax, while Box 18 shows what was actually withheld. Having an amount in 19 but nothing in 18 just means no local tax was withheld from my paychecks, but I might still owe local taxes depending on where I live. I'm going to check with my city's website to see if they have a local income tax and whether I need to file a separate return. It's a relief to know this won't cause my federal return to be rejected - I was worried about that after reading about other people's W-2 issues causing rejections. Thanks again everyone for sharing your experiences and solutions!

This thread has been such a goldmine of information! I'm dealing with this exact same Box 18/19 situation right now and was completely panicking when TurboTax flagged it. Reading through everyone's experiences has really put my mind at ease. What I found most helpful was learning that this is actually a common occurrence and doesn't necessarily mean there's an error. The explanation about Box 19 showing local wages subject to tax while Box 18 shows what was actually withheld makes perfect sense now that I understand it. I'm definitely going to follow the advice here and check my municipality's website to see if we have local income tax requirements. Better to be proactive about it now than get surprised later! Thanks to everyone who shared their stories and solutions - this community is incredibly helpful for those of us navigating tax season for the first time or dealing with unusual situations like this.