I’ve not done payroll since the advent of computers, so we used these books of tables. If your pay period is twice a month, then you’re taxed as though you earned the payroll amount every pay period for the entire year. This can greatly inflate the taxes withheld from your paychecks especially if you only work part of the year. Try increasing the number of exemptions on your W-4 to the maximum your employers is allowed.
The good news is that when you file your returns after the end of the year, everything gets corrected and if you’ve paid too much in withholding taxes you’ll get the money back.
It still sounds screwball and as long as you pay my fair share of the tax burden who am I to complain?
I could be wrong–I’m no tax/paycheck expert. However, is there a reason why the same error (withholding the amount for a standard pay period from a much shorter actual pay period) couldn’t account for over-withholding for social security?
Yes, the reason is that FICA withholding is a straight percentage. No figuring of pay periods or anything else required, just $X of pay times whatever the current percentage is. Simple math.
Bob gets hired, and his income is $5,000 a month. Let’s say the FICA withholding for him is 6.2%; each month, $310 should be withheld. Yes? His boss calculates that.
His first paycheck covers the last four days of August; he only works 20% of a normal pay period, earning only $1,000. His boss screws up, though, and withholds $310 from the check, as if he’d worked a full pay period.
Again, I’m not describing what SHOULD be done. I’m describing a way an error could appear.
It’s not the amount, it’s the RATE. The rate shown is what the employer and employee pay *combined. * No payroll dept could make this mistake, unless it was one person, my hand, and drunk.
However, that rate is commonly used in blogs and such like to show how much “THE GOVERNMENT IS STEALING FROM US”, which is exactly the point the OP is trying to make.
Thank you for reminding me why I don’t post here anymore, much less start threads. I temporarily forgot.
I left a message, but for some reason, they didn’t answer Saturday or Sunday. Weird.
Ding ding ding ding! Winners! I had the same thought in the car this morning, so I punched it into the calculator and got the most likely explanation: They deducted as if it were a two-week period.
I earned $100 (4 days) but they treated it like it was $250 (10 days).
On $250, they would take:
$31.56 Federal (13.1% of post-insurance amount)
$14.92 Soc Sec (6.2%)
$3.49 Medicare (1.45%)
$12.56 State tax (5.25%)
$9.66 insurance (4%)
But when I only earned $100 and they still took the same dollar figures, the percentages shoot up. I leave it to Antibob, math wonder, to calculate what percentage $14.92 of $100 is.
It should be a percentage, but it looks like they jacked it up.
Special thanks to Damuri Ajashi, who made me realize not only are the taxes jacked up, but they charged me 2 weeks of insurance for 4 days of coverage! That’s the only charge that can’t be sorted out April 15th, worst-case. Someone owes me a refund!
It’s a coincidence I worked 4 of 10 days, or damn near half. My rate looks damn near double. You could get the same thing if you assume the doubling is due to my adding the employer and employee together, but the fact is my rate is more than double because I worked less than half.
But hey, that’s entirely unsatisfactory a resolution to you because then you don’t get to talk about how much you hate those sites that babble about how much “Uncle Sam is stealing from your paycheck” with made up super high end numbers. And if Deth doesn’t get to talk about those, what good is this thread, anyway?
It is possible. Just happened. Empirically possible.
DrDeth, I hope you take this opportunity to reflect on what an inflexible idiot you are. Exactly what I described happening is what happened, despite all your insistences to the contrary.
Go forth and idiot no more.
Edit: Chessic, I do believe you owe the government an apology.
Sure. Just quote the post you want me to apologize for. Is it “The government took 62%.”? Cuz it did. Or technically, payroll kept 62% on its behalf. I don’t care if payroll says “our bad” or “the government makes us do that.” Someone’s to blame. I’m still missing half a paycheck.
All these folks saying I’m saying “Rawr! The gubmint took my money!” (lookin’ at you, Deth and Euphonious) are reading what they want into it. Someone took my money, cuz I sure as f don’t have it.
I’ll report back whether payroll takes the blame or if they point a finger up the chain. I’m interested to know which it’ll be. Anyone wanna predict?
Working on the assumption that that’s correct, and quickly, the math does appear correct. I assume you’re on a salary AND your payroll department hand enters your tax numbers (or hand writes your checks).
After contacting them about the error, if they are doing it by hand, it should be trivial for them to fix it on your next paycheck and then set it correctly from there on out.
However, if they made that mistake, I’d make sure the stop taking taxes when when you hit certain ceilings (such as $7000 for FUTA).
You should be embarrassed for yourself, making your poor overwork boss have to pay your taxes … what is he your mother or something. That’s what makes middle class so damn middle class … someone else has to pay their taxes, they don’t know enough to do so themselves …
And you think the gubberment is the problem here …
Like I also said "No payroll dept could make this mistake, unless it was one person, by hand, and drunk." True, since the Op blamed this on the government, and I knew it could not be the Governments fault I imputed incorrect motives to the OP. I was wrong. * Mea culpa* for that.
Still, the government made no mistake, the government is not getting this money* (they will only get the correct %, not the errors) and indeed the Op’s payroll dept is one drunk idiot who does payroll by crayon.
My Bro worked 20 years for the IRS. When I contacted him about the OP, he said “Impossible, no withholding table or program in the world would do this. This can not be a IRS error. I think your Op is pulling your leg.”
*When the person who does the IRS taxes pays the IRS, they should do it by the overall correct rate. Errors like this are not sent to the IRS, they should be refunded to the employee. If this error shows up on the OP’s W-2 then he needs to contact the IRS who will send a carload of agents at their earliest convenience to assist the payroll dept in correcting this oversight.
I could not believe any payroll department could possible make any error of this magnitude. I was incorrect. But still, it is not the Governments fault. The Op is incorrect. The government will not get the overwitholding.
