Problem with W-2, any advice?

Question

My husband is the one in the family who works, I stay home with the kids. We have received all of his W-2's and while double-checking the name,SS# and the such I noticed something on one of them. The little box where it says how much federal taxes were taken out, well it's empty. I KNOW they took out federal taxes. But, it's been a while since he worked there and I doubt I have any check stubs to prove it. How do I go about getting this taken care of? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

Got taxes done today, everything is fine! Although I had found a few check stubs from that job, just in case. Thanks for the input everyone.

Got taxes done today, everything is fine! Although I had found a few check stubs from that job, just in case. Thanks for the input everyone.

Answer 1

If he didn't make much money there, then it would not be unusual for them to not take out federal tax. Sure - he had tax taken from his paycheck - social security, medicare, possibly state and local...but if the amount of the individual checks were not large - the tax table will assume he won't make enough during the year to owe federal tax, so none would be taken out. This will be especially true if he filled out his W4 to show married, with 4 or more exemtpions.

Answer 2

If box 2 is blank or shows $0.00 it means that no taxes were actually withheld. If this was a part-time job with relatively low income it's entirely possible that no Federal income tax was withheld.

If you have 3 children and are married filing jointly the first $26,800 in earned income is tax free. That's the combination of the MFJ standard deduction of $10,300 + your personal exemptions of $6,600 for you and your husband + $9,900 in dependent exemptions for the 3 kids. If he had a part-time or low-pay job that paid less than about $500 a week and his W4 reflected Married + 5 (correct) then no Federal income tax would have been withheld.

If you feel that an error was made, contact the employer and ask the payroll department. (He'll probably have to contact them for privacy reasons.) If the income was relatively low and / or the W4 exemptions were high it's very likely that no tax was actually withheld.

Furthermore, every employer assumes that they are the only employer and withholds taxes as if they were unless the employee tells them otherwise on Form W4. Our income tax system is a progressive, graduated tax meaning that the tax rate % goes up as income goes up (and that the lowest earners pay little or no tax -- that's the progressive bit). For this reason, many folks who work several jobs often don't have enough tax withheld during the year. It's the EMPLOYEE'S sole responsibility to ensure that sufficient tax is withheld to cover the tax liability for the year.

One more reason to save all pay stubs -- and review the numbers a few times a year!

Answer 3

You may be confusing federal withholding taxes with Social Security/Medicare taxes. But the best way to sort it out is to have your husband call the company and ask them to check it for him. I say have him call because many companies will not respond to anyone but the employee/former employee for legal reasons.

Answer 4

you'll have to manually calculate it if you don't have checkstubs