What Are Reported W/2 Wages?
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- 1) Know the basic gross pay. The gross pay on a paycheck is.
- 2) Add any bonuses or taxable fringe benefits.
- 3) Calculate Fica and Medicare taxable wages: subtract any pre-tax (section 125) benefits.
- 4) Calculate the Federal and State withholding taxable wages: subtract any pre-tax retirement contributions.
How do you calculate total salary on W-2?
You may use either of those boxes to calculate your total salary. Box 1 of the W-2 shows your taxable wages for federal income tax purposes. To arrive at your total salary using Box 1, add your federal taxable wages shown in that box to your nontaxable wages plus your pretax deductions that are exempt from federal income tax.
What do I need to know about my W-2?
Your W-2 gives a lot of information, but the most important is that it shows your total income and your salary as taxable wages. If you have pretax deductions or nontaxable wages, these are not included in your taxable wages.
What happens if gross pay is not reported on W2?
For example, no tax form contains a line to claim a deduction for 401 (k) or 403 (b) contributions, so if your company fails to properly calculate the W-2 wages from gross pay, the employee could lose the deduction. More likely, however, is that the employee would require you to print a corrected W-2 form.