How to use pay stub to file taxes

But, if youre going to help your employees this tax season, you must comprehend gross pay vs W-2 wages. Weve created this article to help you understand the difference between a pay stub and a W-2, so you can help your employees navigate tax forms successfully. Before we dive into your contractor pay stub needs, lets discuss how employers typically address pay stubs and all considerations around this.

A pay stub is a document that summarizes an employees wage and deductions for a given pay period. It can be used for many different reasons, such as payroll tax calculation, reporting to government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service , and employee benefits tracking.

Employers may also provide pay stubs as a way of providing transparency to employees about how their wages are computed. Employers use a variety of methods for generating pay stubs. Some choose to generate them in house while others use a third party vendor like Paychex or ADP. Regardless of who generates the pay stubs, employers with a payroll service provider generally provide information on their employees total hours worked and other information like itemized deductions up front to the service provider, which generates the paycheck and pays the employer after withholding any taxes due from gross wages.

Some employers print out paper pay stubs for their employees while others print them out through an online portal that they access through an app on their mobile phone. The decision to print paper pay stubs is often based on how many employees are being paid each paycheck because it can be costly to print a large amount of copies at one time. Out-of-date checks and late payments can present challenges for collecting payment from clients or customers. If you are unable to obtain your W-2 form, you might be able to file online using your final pay stub for the applicable year.

This is because your December stub shows your cumulative figures as well as figures withheld. However, you will need to have your employers unique Employer Identification Number, and since it is not typically printed on pay stubs, you will have to request it from the employer.

Providing an incorrect Employer Identification Number could see to your processing period being lengthened or getting audited. If you have this information, you can start filling out your tax return. If you earn more than that figure in a year, you are required to file taxes by printing and mailing the return. The service is also unavailable to those under the age of S Virgin Islands, or American Samoa, you might also not be able to file.

You will be able to prepare your tax return online but will need to print and mail it. A W-2 , Wage and Tax Statement, is issued at the end of the year as a legal tax document. It summarizes the entire years worth of paycheck information in one document. Employers send one copy to the IRS and employees use their copies to file their personal income taxes.

Each time an employee receives a paycheck, he or she should review the pay stub and ask questions if something doesnt make sense or is possibly incorrect. The longer any error is unfixed, the greater the potential tax and financial implications. For example, if the income tax withholding isnt high enough, the employee will face a larger personal income tax bill.

Or, if the employer isnt contributing the right payroll tax amounts, itll cost more to fix the longer it goes on undetected. In terms of record keeping, employees should keep pay stubs for about a year and W-2s should be kept a minimum of three years. The standards for employers are more difficult to define due to the many labor and tax laws involved.

The IRS recommends that employers keep payroll tax records for a minimum of four years. However, as payroll records touch so many areas of compliance, employers should be sure to check all the applicable guidelines. Also Check: Www. For example, how much of their pay was taken out for income tax? How many hours were they compensated for in the pay period? Or how much have they been compensated this year? Your last paycheck stub is not guaranteed to be an accurate statement of your annual earnings, and it could be missing some information that you need to file a full tax return.

If you file a return that has inaccurate or missing information, you could be required to file an amended return. That could cost you more in tax preparation fees and could increase the amount of time it takes for the IRS to issue a refund. Employers must furnish Form W-2 to employees by January However, many employers now provide electronic W-2s that can be accessed earlier in the month.

Houston, TX. Los Angeles, CA. Jamaica, NY info paystubdirect. Forgot your password? Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password. This article will get into how to file taxes with your last pay stub. Can you File your Taxes using your Pay Stub?

The information on your paystubs will help you learn how much to deduct from your gross pay. Make sure to run the information through several times in order to confirm that your result is accurate. If you find that you're owed a particularly large refund, it may be that your employer is withholding too much from your paycheck for deductions.

Likewise, if you're unfortunate enough to owe a lot of extra money to the IRS, you should consider arranging more to be withheld from your paycheck for tax purposes. The only things in life that are certain are death and taxes. Over a third of Americans file their own taxes, and none of them enjoy doing it.

However, with the right tools and information, filing taxes with last pay stub can be a simple and quick process. Create your paystubs today with our paystub generator to file your taxes easier!

Try our instant paystub generation tool. Flip through our templates page to chose your best match and receive your stub instantly. Read More. Having employees who feel unappreciated and underpaid can be detrimental to staff retention and productivity.

Although there are many reasons why workers may feel demotiv First time creating a stub. I had a few self-induced issues and customer support was there from start to end. Filing Your Taxes Online For those wondering "can you file taxes with your last pay stub? What Else You'll Need The information listed above will all be on your pay stub.