Salaried EE change in federal and CA state withholding - with no change input by me

[JPR]

I have an employee that is paid the same $1000 semi-monthly. Through 10/15/13 she earned the same net pay. All of a sudden the federal and state withholding amounts have risen from $68.91 to $93.28 and from $7.81 to $12.57 without me changing anything in the deduction area. She has 1 federal and 1 state withholding. Please help me figure out what could have happened. I am using the most recent update (11.0.26). Thank you.

[Paul Mayer]

My guess is that you have a deduction that was non taxable and they passed the threshold where the pay is now taxable as the figures are 100% correct for your settings for that employee with no non-taxable deductions. I assumed you are in California and worked both out with a calculator and the results are: Federal $93.28 and State $12.57

[JPR]

I have an employee that is paid the same $1000 semi-monthly. Through 10/15/13 she earned the same net pay. All of a sudden the federal and state withholding amounts have risen from $68.91 to $93.28 and from $7.81 to $12.57 without me changing anything in the deduction area. She has 1 federal and 1 state withholding. Please help me figure out what could have happened. I am using the most recent update (11.0.26). Thank you.


Do fed & state taxes change when income reaches a certain level? Or is it possible it changed since I added an hourly employee who has a health insurance deduction? The salaried person has no health ins. deduction. Thank you for any help.

[Paul Mayer]

Yes that health plan is what changed the taxable wages if it is non-taxable. The rates I posted after testing was on $1,000 being the taxable wages, not modified by a non-taxable deduction.

But going back to January 1st, the taxes were both Federal $93.28 and State $12.57. The only other problem would have been if you just recently updated PayWindow and had been using last year's tax tables all year.

[JPR]

Yes that health plan is what changed the taxable wages if it is non-taxable. The rates I posted after testing was on $1,000 being the taxable wages, not modified by a non-taxable deduction.

But going back to January 1st, the taxes were both Federal $93.28 and State $12.57. The only other problem would have been if you just recently updated PayWindow and had been using last year's tax tables all year.


I update the rates/program every time there is a window that pops up before the program opens. I thought it was automatic to ask me. You are probably right about using last year's tax tables - however, I have updated the program/rates several times this year. I am a bit upset. I will contact my accountant and see what I need to do to fix this. Thank you for your reply.

[Paul Mayer]

I am starting to guess it may have to do with the way the deductions are setup. I can check if you send me a backup of your company database following the instructions at this link:

http://zpay.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?1449-How-to-Send-us-your-Backup-Database

In the email, make sure you reference this message thread and give me the name of the employee to check.