County income tax not showing on W2/W3 forms

[noamparn]

I can't get the local county tax to show up on the W2/W3 reports for end-of year.
In Maryland, there is both a state tax, and a county tax (3.2% for Montgomery county, in this case).
I set up the County tax as a "Districy/County Income Tax", chose "Maryland," for the state, and entered the county name in the box.
I added the "County Rate" of 3.2%.
and I set the pay stub account to "EE DED - County income tax"
I set the calculation order to "201"
I included the paystub account "Total - Gross"

The amount shows up on the employee's pay stub, just not on the W2/W3 forms when I generate them.

What am I doing wrong?

[shaunw]

Please provide a screenshot showing all details of your County Tax / Deduction, and a sample of the W2 that was generated.

[shaunw]

Disregard my last message, I just tried to replicate this on our end and there appears to be a bug that is causing the County / District taxes to not appear on W2's in some cases. A fix will be released for this before the end of the year along with other tax table updates in v3.3.1.

[noamparn]

Thanks.
I also noticed that for Maryland, the state deduction wasn't showing up correctly.
From checking one of the many free online "paycheck calculator" sites (I mainly used http://www.paycheckcity.com/NetPayCalc/ ... ulator.asp), I only see one "Married" option (not Married filing Single or Married filing joint). Same for the county taxes. However, TimeTrex shows both those options.
Now, I'm not a tax expert, but when I put in "Married" in the online calculator, I came up with the same number as I did for "Married filing single" in TimeTrex. "Married filing joint" withholds less.
I don't know which one is correct, but I would like to have them all match up if possible.

Thanks.

[shaunw]

Be VERY cautious with online withholding calculators, in our experience they are rarely correct.

Even some that the governments supply themselves are often out of date or incorrect.

Here is the official Maryland witholding calculator for 2010, which is much closer to TimeTrex then the one you linked to:

https://interactive.marylandtaxes.com/b ... lc2010.asp

[noamparn]

The link you sent me came up with the EXACT same number as the other online calculators.
I used $475 as the weekly wages, 1 exemption, "married filing jointly", and set the county to "Montgomery."
The "official" Maryland calculator came up with $29.81.

In TimeTrex, when I set it to "Married filing Jointly," I got:
State: $16.26
County: $12.00
Total: $28.26

If I changed the state to "married filing separately," THEN I got:
State: $17.81
County: $12
Total: 29.81 (the same as the official MD one)

Thanks.
--Noam

[shaunw]

I will pass this on to our developers to investigate further.

[noamparn]

Thanks.
I don't think it will be too much of an issue if it doesn't get into this update, since the amounts are really close, and I would be reporting the actual amount I withhold, anyway. Just that if I withhold too much, she gets more of a refund (or owes less), and if I withhold too little, she gets less of a refund (or owes more). I don't think an annual difference of about $50 will be too much of an impact, but I would like the numbers to all match, of course.

[shaunw]

We always strive to get the numbers to match as close as possible, sometimes just due to rounding its not possible, but we still try to get as close as possible. It will be investigated and any corrections will be made before January 1st.

[noamparn]

Thanks.
Let me know if you need more numbers from me (I didn't try comparing with 2 exemptions, for example).

[noamparn]

I have not heard any update on this tax calculation problem.
I have a single employee, earning $380 per week.
She is married, filing jointly in Maryland.
She has one exemption for both Federal and State.
Montgomery County tax is 3.2%.

TimeTrex accurately calculated the following:
Federal Withholding $15.69
Social Security $15.96
Medicare $5.51

The state withholding was calculated as $16.80
The county income tax was calculated as $8.96.
Those total to $25.76

However, when I use the official MD state tax calculator, I come up with a total MD (state and county) tax of $22.26.

Am I doing something wrong, or is there a problem with the calculation in the program?

[shaunw]

What version of TimeTrex are you using now?

[noamparn]

What version of TimeTrex are you using now?

I am using 3.3.1

[noamparn]

Here's a minor update:
The employee actually earns $475 per week (I was doing the calculations on thursday night, before Friday's hours were in her timesheet).

Here are the correct weekly numbers:
Gross: $475
Federal Withholding $25.19 (accurate)
Social Security $19.95 (accurate)
Medicare $6.89 (accurate)

The state withholding was calculated as $22.50
The county income tax was calculated as $12.00.
Those total to $34.50

However, when I use the official MD state tax calculator, I come up with a total MD (state and county) tax of $29.81. It doesn't break it down to show me the individual numbers for state vs. county, so I don't know if one or both of TimeTrex's numbers are incorrect.

TimeTrex is having me withhold $4.69 more per weekly paycheck than Maryland says I should.
Now, I know this will all work out in the end (since the state will refund the extra at the end of the year), but I would prefer to have it correct from the beginning.

[shaunw]

I've passed this on to our developers, it will be corrected in the next version of TimeTrex. Maryland was delayed a little because it required additional changes to calculate properly, so in the next version you will no longer need a separate County Tax / Deduction, the county rate will be specified in the State Income Tax / Deduction instead.

[noamparn]

Thanks.
Do you have an ETA on when the next version will be released?
I'm not worried about correcting previous time sheets, but will the YTD calculations get messed up if the employee's tax settings get changed mid-year?
Is there anything special I need to do to avoid messing it up?

[shaunw]

We're expecting to release it in the next week or two.

You can continue with the same Tax / Deduction system you're using now if you like, it will just calculate slightly more tax then necessary, although it shouldn't be as high as what its currently calculating.

If you decide to change, the County Tax YTD amounts would need to be combined with the State YTD amounts at the end of the year to get a total. Which is essentially what you need to do anyways.

[noamparn]

Thanks.

If I don't mark the pay stub "paid" yet, and wait until the new update comes out, will I be able to recalculate this week's pay stub using the correct formula?
If I were to manually edit the pay stub this week to show the correct amounts, would that prevent me from re-calculating them using the correct formula when the new version comes out?

I can calculate the correct amounts using the official state calculator, and just make out the check for the correct amount in the meantime.

[shaunw]

If you haven't paid the employees for the first pay period in 2011, then yes you could edit the pay stubs and correct the tax amounts and remove the County Tax / Deduction or line item from them. Then once you install the new version it should continue to match up.

[noamparn]

If you haven't paid the employees for the first pay period in 2011, then yes you could edit the pay stubs and correct the tax amounts and remove the County Tax / Deduction or line item from them. Then once you install the new version it should continue to match up.

Thanks.
I just left the pay period open, and didn't mark the pay stub as "paid."

I wrote the check for the correct amount, and fixed the printed pay stub by hand (with a pen).
Once the fix is installed, I'll recalculate the pay stub (make sure it is correct), print it, mark it paid, and close the pay period.