Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

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webmaster
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Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2014 12:38 pm

Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

Hello,
We are using TT Community version 12.0.4 automatically installed on a windows server in the USA - ohio. Love it.

I created W2s using the Tax Wizard, and the local wages nor tax is showing up. My guess is that I screwed up because when creating the tax, instead of using the default Ohio District Tax pay stub account I created an additional pay-stub account called Municipal Taxes and used that one. To correct the previous accounts I tried just switching the pay-stub account to the default "District" account, however it does not apply the change retroactively. So my question is :
1) Is my assessment of why the local wages and taxes are not showing up on the W2s correct ? and
2) Is there a retroactive way to apply the change or set that box 18, 19, and 20 on the W2 should come from the municipal income tax info? Otherwise it seems my easiest fix is to print them all and manually write in the Local Tax info and submit all paper reports?

Thanks for reading
shaunw
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Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:22 pm

Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by shaunw »

If you changed the Pay Stub Account previously, you don't need to try and change it back now (which wouldn't take effect retroactively anyways), you just need to properly link it everything that is needed to the new pay stub account so it can be used now.

With the W2's you need to ensure the Form Setup (3rd button on the Tax Wizard after you select W2 Filing event) is correct, this maps Pay Stub Accounts to each box on the W2, then you need to also make sure the Payroll -> Remittance Agencies are linked to the corresponding Tax/Deduction records so State/Local IDs can be placed on the W2's as well.
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

Thank you for the fast reply shaunw, when I go to W2 form setup I get options to set Name and Includes / Excludes for W2 boxes 1 - 14 . Local taxes are on boxes 18, 19, and 20 on the W2, which the form setup does not show options for.

Interestingly State tax info are lines 15,16,17 , which the form setup also does not have the option to set, yet those are displaying correctly.

Under Taxes / Deductions I've ensured that the correct remittance agency is selected.

So I'm still unsuccessful at getting the Local Tax Info to show up on the W2s. Am I just somehow missing the form setups options for w2 boxes 15-20 somehow?
shaunw
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by shaunw »

State and Local taxes are automatically detected for W2's based on the Tax/Deduction records and remittance agency setup. So TimeTrex will check for any Tax/Deduction records assigned to the employees Legal Entity with a calculate type of "Provincial/State Income Tax Formula" and use those amounts in the State fields, then find Tax/Deductions records with calculation type "District/County Income Tax Formula" and put those into the Local Tax fields.

If you can attach a screenshot of your Ohio local tax Tax/Deduction record details so we can see how its setup, that may be helpful.
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

That is what I figured happened. So I understand how to fix it going forward.

Is there a retroactive way to apply the change or set that box 18, 19, and 20 on the W2 should come from the pay-stub account I made instead of the programmed in Oh-District Income tax?

Otherwise it seems my easiest fix is to print them all and manually write in the Local Tax info and submit all paper reports.
shaunw
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Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:22 pm

Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by shaunw »

As long as you used the same pay stub account all year for the same taxes, then its just a matter of linking that pay stub account to the proper W2 boxes and that will work "retroactively". However if you switched pay stub accounts mid-year and the same tax has amounts in two different pay stub accounts on employees pay stubs, then the problem is much more difficult to solve.

Because you have provided any actual details (ie: screenshots) as to what your setup actually is, its impossible to provide specific information to you.
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

Thanks shaunw how is " linking that pay stub account to the proper W2 boxes" done?
shaunw
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by shaunw »

The W2 report "Form Setup" tab, and the Tax/Deduction records themselves all contribute to specify which amounts go into which boxes.
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

When I go to W2 form setup I get options to set Name and Includes / Excludes for W2 boxes 1 - 14 . Local taxes are on boxes 18, 19, and 20 on the W2, which the form setup does not show options for.

Under Taxes / Deductions I've ensured that the correct remittance agency is selected, and tried setting it to other ones just to try, yet still to no avail.

so how is that " linking that pay stub account to the proper W2 boxes" done? Do you see setup entries for W2 boxes 18, 19, and 20 under your installation?

It seems timetrex just can't handle this specific situation and I'll just have to do paper. Though I've learned, and changed my local tax to use the default OH-District paystub account.
shaunw
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Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:22 pm

Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by shaunw »

TimeTrex definitely populates the local taxes on W2's if configured correctly to do so.

Please attach screenshots of your Ohio local Tax/Deduction record details, and corresponding Remittance Agencies so we can see how you actually have things setup.
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

Just to close this out, what I ended up doing to remedy the issue was :

1) Used TT to print the employee copies without the local tax info, wrote in the local tax info manually and mailed
2) Used TT to generate the reporting file for the SSA, the SSA rejected the format, which I fixed by using notepad to insert my SSA reporting number in the correct character spaces then deleting that same number of spaces so the character length of the line was still the correct number of bytes.
3) Set the local taxes to use the default OH district withholding tax paystub account so it doesn't happen again.
shaunw
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by shaunw »

webmaster wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:59 am Used TT to generate the reporting file for the SSA, the SSA rejected the format, which I fixed by using notepad to insert my SSA reporting number in the correct character spaces then deleting that same number of spaces so the character length of the line was still the correct number of bytes.
If you edit the "US - Internal Revenue Services" remittance agency, there is a field for the "eFile User ID", which will automatically populate that information for you in the future too.
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

Unfortunately the fix for this did not work. For the whole year, the City Taxes were setup to be under the TimeTrex default paystub account 'OH - District Income Tax' , but the local tax info still did not populate on the w2s. The w2 form setup will still not allow setting what goes in w2 boxes 18,19,20 (the local income tax info). Any input on how to fix this for 2020 or going forward is appreciated.
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

OK I think i may have figured it out for next year at least. I think I need to make a new tax for the local tax and set the formula to local (city / district / county) income tax formula. Note that this can't be changed after the tax is created! Then I'll replace the old tax for each employee with the new one. Looks like for this year its manual data entry again .
shaunw
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by shaunw »

Tax/Deduction calculation types can't be changed on existing records, but you can use "Copy as New" on the old (incorrect) record to copy it to a new (soon to be correct) record, then you can change to the proper calculate type.

As long as you don't change the selected Pay Stub Account (where the tax amounts were associated with for the last year), it should work retroactively for you. Remember to disable the old (incorrect) Tax/Deduction record as well.
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

Holy Smokes , that helps! Thank you! Doing that got the local taxes on retroactively. The only catch is I have 2 different local taxes setup (ie. A and B) and the w2 is listing them both with totals for employees. Even if local tax B is not enabled on the employee, the w2 is showing local tax A - $xx.xx and local tax B $xx.xx. I tried disabling tax B, but it would still show on the w2s. I'm guessing this is happening because I have both tax A & B going to the same paystub account OH - District... (which i think i later read is against your recommendation) . Looks like for this year, maybe I just manually strike out the other local tax. Going forward I'm guessing I should make a separate paystub account for each local tax and direct the tax to that paystub account. Does that sound right?
shaunw
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Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:22 pm

Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by shaunw »

Currently each District/Locality does need to be assigned to separate Pay Stub Accounts, however that restriction will be relaxed somewhat in the near future. If you need to retroactively move tax amounts from one Pay Stub Account to another, you can create Pay Stubs of type "Year-to-Date Adjustment" in the last pay period of 2020 and move amounts between the accounts like this:

OH - District A: - $100.00
OH - District B: +$100.00
webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

Well, it worked in 2023 for 2022 taxes, but unfortunately this problem has happened again. No local tax info is displayed on W2s. I am using the same setup as last year - 2 different Local Income Taxes using the OH - District Income Tax paystub account. All year the system has been withholding and providing interim numbers correctly but nothing is showing up on w2s again. Any ideas? Was there an update that would have affected this? Or if I made a change somewhere else in the system would it cause this to happen again?
mikeb
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Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:58 am

Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by mikeb »

Can you please post screenshots showing each of the Tax/Deduction record settings for the District Income Taxes?
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webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

Thanks for the fast reply Mike,
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mikeb
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by mikeb »

I see v16.10.0 release notes mention this issue, so it appears its already corrected in that version. It will be available for download later today.
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webmaster
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Re: Getting Local Taxes onto W2s - kinda Urgent please

Post by webmaster »

By George you've done it! Spectacular! Looks to be working perfectly now! Many thanks.
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