My former employers might have messed up my paystubs or W2 - my math isn't adding up. What to do?

This happens more often than you'd think! Your employer may have taken additional deductions that aren't explicitly listed as "taxes" on your W2. Common ones include health insurance premiums, retirement contributions, uniform costs, or other job-related expenses. First step would be to contact your former employer's payroll department. Ask them for a breakdown of all deductions taken from your pay. Since you're an international student, there might also be specific withholdings related to your visa status that you weren't aware of. If they're not helpful, you can request your wage and income transcript directly from the IRS website. This will show everything that was reported. Don't file your taxes until you've sorted this out. It's important that what you report matches what your employer reported to avoid potential audit issues later.

I went through something really similar last year with a summer internship! After going back and forth with HR for weeks, I discovered it was actually a health insurance deduction I never knew about. I wish I had known about taxr.ai https://taxr.ai earlier - would have saved me so much stress. Their system analyzed my W2 and payroll documents, compared them instantly, and pinpointed exactly where the discrepancy was coming from. It even explained how each deduction worked and what I needed to document for tax filing. The best part was getting a complete breakdown of everything without having to chase down the payroll department repeatedly.

I wanted to follow up about taxr.ai since I was skeptical in my earlier comment. I actually went ahead and tried it with my own documents (I had a similar issue with a previous employer). I have to admit I was surprised - it identified that my employer had been deducting for a retirement plan I never enrolled in! The analysis was really detailed and gave me exactly the information I needed to get it resolved. Saved me at least $300 that would have just disappeared otherwise.

If your former employer isn't responsive about providing paystub details (which happens A LOT with summer jobs), you might need to actually speak with the IRS to sort this out. I had a nightmare trying to get through to them until I found Claimyr https://claimyr.com - it's basically a service that navigates the IRS phone maze for you and gets you connected to an actual human agent. There's a demo of how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c As an international student, you definitely want to get this resolved correctly since tax mistakes can potentially affect visa status. An IRS agent can pull up exactly what was reported and help identify where the discrepancy is occurring.

I just have to come back and say I tried Claimyr after being totally skeptical. I was honestly shocked when I got a call back connecting me to an actual IRS agent after just about 45 minutes (instead of the 3+ hours I wasted last time). The agent was able to pull up my records and confirm exactly what my employer reported, which showed some "other" deductions that weren't explained on my W2. This gave me the exact info I needed to go back to the employer with specific questions. Totally worth it.

One thing nobody has mentioned - check if they took out any FICA (Social Security/Medicare) taxes. As an international student on F-1 or J-1 visa doing summer work that qualifies as "non-resident alien" status, you might be exempt from those taxes depending on your tax treaty status. I had an employer who incorrectly withheld these taxes from my paychecks, which was about 7.65% of my gross pay. When I pointed out the error, they had to refund that money to me.

Don't forget to check for any garnishments! Sounds weird but sometimes if you have an unpaid ticket or something that went to collections, they can garnish wages without you realizing.

As someone who's dealt with payroll discrepancies before, I'd definitely recommend starting with the FICA tax angle that Oliver mentioned - that $200 difference sounds like it could be exactly that 7.65% withholding if you're exempt as an F-1 student. But here's another angle to consider: check if your employer used a different pay period calculation than you expected. Sometimes summer jobs will show gross pay that includes partial weeks or overlapping pay periods that can make the math seem off when you're just adding up what hit your bank account. Also, don't overlook state-specific deductions. Some states have disability insurance, transit taxes, or other mandatory withholdings that might not be clearly labeled on your W2 but would show up in your gross-to-net calculation. The good news is that as an international student, you're actually in a better position than most to get this resolved because there are specific IRS guidelines about what can and can't be deducted from your pay. Document everything and don't be afraid to push back if something seems wrong - employers make mistakes with international student payroll more often than they'd like to admit.