I got two. One that you might call the “standard” one, the one we all expect. I noticed that the wages section was way low, about 1/3 of what it should be. A few days later, I got a second form, with the rest of my wages. It says at the top, "The chart below indicates your 2014 voluntary payroll adjustments which are included (+), excluded (-), or did not affect (N/A) your federal wages and state wages.
I am assuming I should combine the two. Why did this happen?
So what did the HR department say when you asked them about this?
To ask the Straight Dope, because they have no clue.
I’ve worked from tenth grade in high-school until today nonstop (I’m 56). I’ve never encountered this HR thing. Just sayin.
Given the OP’s legal liability for both accurately paying their tax as owed and their practical liability for matching the numbers the IRS believes (rightly or wrongly) are correct, it seems clear to me that the only entity who can safely answer this question is whoever issued the W2.
Whether or not the employer has a dedicated department called “HR” is immaterial. Somebody somewhere in whatever passes for the employer’s bureaucracy is responsible for creating this mess. And they’re the only ones competent to clean it up or advise the OP.
I apologize for the snark, but the point was that the W2 was issued by the OP’s employer (perhaps the HR or payroll department) and they will best be able to answer the question. But a Google search indicates that the “voluntary payroll adjustments” may represent money that doesn’t affect your wages for tax purposes.
No worries. Saturday, you know, nobody at work right now. Just curious about this.
Hazarding a guess, despite my earlier warning. …
If the OP has a low-paying job, and IF he/she took out the max for FSA / HSA, and the max for 401K, and as many other tax-exempt deductions as may exist, THEN it’s possible the W-2 top-line number could be a lot lower than he/she expected.
The best answer for the OP is to 1) Get your questions answered by whoever issued the W2. 2) Enter the numbers from the W2 blindly into the corresponding slots on the tax return.
“Combining” anything else is a sure problem. Your goal is to match what the IRS thinks is correct, and they think the W2 is the whole story, at least as far as tax compliance is concerned.
Is the little box next to “Corrected” checked on the 2nd form?
403(b), I’d think. But 1/3 of the other figure?
Yeah we can’t really figure it out unless you post the things. If there is a separate payroll department, contact them. See if you can make the second one total the first one through additions or subtractions. I shall presume nothing was changed this year in your situation.
Any chance that the two W-2s were issued by different corporate entities? (That is, was there a change in ownership or corporate structure such that you worked for what are legally two separate entities?) Check the Employer Identification Number on the two forms to be sure they are the same.
this happened to us a few years ago. The company he worked for changed official names or was somehow reorganized, so 2 W-2s. We weren’t expecting it, even though I think there was a letter some time earlier in the year. Had to go back to HR to see what the official instructions were, but it would have been nice if they had sent a note or email at tax time telling us what to do.
This is one possibility that occurred to me. I worked for the same company all throughout last year, but about halfway through they changed from an LLC to an incorporated company, so I got two W-2s with different EINs.