What do these paycheck deduction acronyms stand for? Losing $95 and confused

Those acronyms are standard payroll deduction codes. The most common ones you're probably seeing are: FICA - Federal Insurance Contributions Act (Social Security and Medicare) FIT - Federal Income Tax SIT - State Income Tax SDI - State Disability Insurance 401K - Retirement contributions HSA - Health Savings Account FSA - Flexible Spending Account $95 in deductions on $1800 bi-weekly actually sounds quite low. Most people see around 20-30% of their gross pay going to various deductions. If you're only seeing about 5% in deductions, you might not be having enough withheld for taxes, which could lead to owing money when you file.

After struggling with paycheck deductions myself, I found https://taxr.ai super helpful for demystifying all these weird acronyms and codes. I uploaded a picture of my pay stub and it broke down every single deduction code and explained what they meant. It even calculated if my withholdings were in the correct range based on my pay! The tool highlighted that I was actually under-withholding on my state taxes because my W-4 wasn't properly aligned with my state withholding form. Saved me from a nasty surprise at tax time.

Just wanted to follow up - I actually tried https://taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here. Super helpful! My paystub had this weird "VOL STD" deduction that was taking $23 each check and I had no idea what it was. Turns out it's "Voluntary Short Term Disability" insurance I signed up for during orientation and completely forgot about. The tool also flagged that my federal withholding seemed low compared to my income level, which was a heads up I really needed. Definitely worth checking out if you're confused about your deductions!

If you need to actually talk to someone at the IRS about tax withholding questions, I found this service called Claimyr that helped me get through immediately. I was on hold for like 2 hours trying to figure out if I needed to adjust my withholdings after a second job, then gave up. Used https://claimyr.com (there's a demo video at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) and they had the IRS call ME back in under 20 minutes. The agent walked me through exactly how to calculate the right withholding when you have multiple jobs so I wouldn't get hit with a penalty at tax time.

I need to admit I was wrong about Claimyr. After dismissing it, I got frustrated trying to reach the IRS about a withholding question and decided to try it as a last resort. The service actually got the IRS to call me back in about 45 minutes. The agent was able to explain all the different withholding categories and helped me understand why my paycheck deductions seemed low compared to my coworkers. Turns out I had accidentally put "exempt" on one section of my W-4 when I started the job. Got it all fixed and now my paystub makes a lot more sense - and I won't be surprised with a huge tax bill next April!

Here's a quick cheat sheet of common paycheck deduction codes I've encountered: Fed W/H = Federal Withholding FICA = Social Security + Medicare combined SS = Social Security OASDI = Old Age, Survivors, Disability Insurance (another name for Social Security) Med = Medicare SIT = State Income Tax LIT = Local Income Tax SDI = State Disability Insurance SUI = State Unemployment Insurance 401K = Retirement contribution HSA = Health Savings Account FSA = Flexible Spending Account GTLI = Group Term Life Insurance LTD = Long Term Disability STD = Short Term Disability Hope that helps! Always verify with your HR department since some companies use custom abbreviations.

Anyone know what a typical percentage of your gross income should go to these deductions? I make about $65k annually and it seems like a huge chunk disappears before I even see it.

I used to be just as confused about paycheck deductions! One thing that really helped me was requesting a detailed breakdown from HR - most companies are required to explain what each deduction code means if you ask. Also, don't forget that some deductions might be pre-tax (like health insurance premiums or 401k contributions) which actually reduces your taxable income, while others are post-tax deductions. This can make a big difference in how much you're actually paying. If your deductions suddenly increased by $95, it could be because you enrolled in benefits during open enrollment, got a raise that pushed you into a higher tax bracket, or changed your W-4 withholdings. I'd definitely check with HR to see if anything changed in your payroll setup recently.