W2 shows $0 Federal Withholding despite taxes being taken from paychecks - What to do?
Just got my W2 and its showing 0 federal income tax withheld but I know for a fact they took taxes out of every single paycheck. I checked all my pay stubs and they clearly show federal taxes being withheld. Anyone else run into this? What should I do about this mismatch?
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Kaiya Rivera
Tax professional here. You need to contact your employer's payroll department immediately. This is likely either a reporting error or a serious payroll issue. Get copies of all your paystubs showing the withholdings and request a corrected W2 (Form W-2c) from your employer. Keep documentation of everything.
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Amelia Dietrich
•Thanks! Do I need to wait for the corrected W2 before filing my taxes?
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Kaiya Rivera
•Yes, definitely wait for the W-2c. Filing with incorrect info will just cause headaches later 😫
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Katherine Ziminski
Instead of stressing about this, I'd recommend using taxr.ai to analyze your situation. It's only $4.99 and it'll tell you exactly what's wrong and what steps to take. I used it for a similar W2 issue and it was super helpful. https://taxr.ai
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Noah Irving
•Never heard of this. Does it actually work? Sounds too good to be true 🤔
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Katherine Ziminski
•Oh man it's legit! Saved me hours of research and stress. It analyzes everything and gives you step-by-step instructions. Best 5 bucks I ever spent fr fr 💯
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Vanessa Chang
omg literally dealing with this rn! My employer is being sketch about it too 🤮
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Madison King
•Document everything! They tried this with me last year and tried to gaslight me about it
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Julian Paolo
Had this happen in 2023. Turned out the payroll company messed up big time. Affected like 50 people at my work.
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Ella Knight
your employer is probably pocketing your withholdings. time to call the IRS and maybe get a lawyer tbh
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William Schwarz
•woah lets not jump to conclusions here. could just be a system error
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Ella Knight
•nah fam this happens more than u think. seen it b4 👀
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Lauren Johnson
PSA: Always keep your paystubs! I learned this the hard way lol
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Amelia Dietrich
•fr fr lesson learned. gonna save everything from now on
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Diego Rojas
This is actually more common than people think! I work in HR and we see this issue pop up a few times each tax season. Usually it's either a payroll system glitch or the employer coded the withholdings incorrectly. Definitely follow the advice about contacting payroll ASAP and getting that W-2c. Also, if your employer gives you any pushback, you can file Form SS-8 with the IRS to report the discrepancy. They take this stuff seriously.
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Yuki Tanaka
•Thanks for the insider perspective! Really helpful to know this happens more often than I thought. Quick question - how long does it usually take to get a W-2c once you request it? And is there a deadline I need to worry about for filing?
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Zara Ahmed
I went through this exact same situation last year! Turned out my company's payroll software had a glitch that was coding federal withholdings as state withholdings. Took about 3 weeks to get the corrected W-2c, but once I had it everything was smooth sailing. Definitely don't file without the correction - I almost made that mistake and it would have been a nightmare to fix later. Stay on top of your employer about this because sometimes they drag their feet on issuing corrections.
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