W-2 Box 1 / zero wages override?

[OrganizedInk]

Is there a way to override PayWindow to print 'exempt' employees total wages paid-out in box 1 of the W-2?

Background - a recently hired employee is a college student & claimed 'exempt' from Federal withholding on her 2015 W-4.
No wages were printed in Box 1, but the restaurant's accountant wants her total wages paid-out entered in this box.
His interpretation is she's exempt from withholding - but not exempt from taxes.
I've already adjusted the total wages on the 941 - I just need her W-2 & W-3 to match.
I guess I could hand-write the amount into the empty box 1, and white-out & write the amount on the W-3, etc -
but I'd rather not do this method.
Would it be better to go back & uncheck her FIT exempt box, and change her allowances to a high # such as 20 -
then re-open the W-2 report?
Or is there another route I'm missing?

I've read all the related previous posts I could find -but couldn't locate a work-around.

Thank you in advance for any advise.

[Paul Mayer]

There is no work around as the exempt option is in the stored the payroll transactions, not just the employee settings.

Going forward, you can uncheck that box and in the settings mark the employee as Married in Federal and enter like 10 exemptions to reduce the Federal Withholding to zero.

[Renn0033]

Hi Paul,

Is this a program update from 2014? I have two employees that are exempt from state and federal taxes as they are pastors. In the past their gross wages have always been included on their W2 and in the total wages on the W3. I did not change their exempt status. Just wondering.

Thanks
Matt

[Paul Mayer]

It is a 2015 update we added when the IRS allowed people to claim they are exempt from FIT. If you have employees marked as exempt from FIT, there are no wages subject to FIT for the W2, W3 and 941 Form.

[pHumphrey]

As long as I remember, we had been fixing this thing with pdf editing tools. Mostly it was Adobe Acrobat, later - this one for the W2 exactly: https://fillable-form-w2.pdffiller.com/ but it was just a hit or miss solution because I'd been filing my taxes on the night before the deadline, so..

[Paul Mayer]

Then that's what you need to do if it works for you.