What's covered in this guide?
Federal income tax
My employee's federal income tax isn't what I expected — what's going on?
In almost every case, the calculation is correct and the surprise comes from how the IRS formula actually works. Workforce follows IRS Publication 15-T exactly. The full publication is at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15t.pdf — every percentage method bracket and wage-bracket table Workforce uses comes straight from there.
A few things that throw people off:
$0 of federal income tax can be the right answer. The IRS formula projects the period's wages out to a full year, subtracts the standard deduction implied by filing status (and any dependent / other-income adjustments on the W-4), and only then applies the tax tables. If projected annual wages land below the standard deduction, the formula returns $0. This is most common for part-time or new employees on a single W-4.
FIT is not a flat percentage of gross. Two pay stubs at the same hourly rate can have very different FIT if hours, bonuses, or pre-tax deductions changed the period's taxable wages.
Crossing a year-to-date threshold changes withholding mid-year. Social Security wage base and additional Medicare thresholds aren't FIT, but they show up on the same stub and look like "tax went up."
How do I troubleshoot an unexpected FIT amount?
Pull up the employee's most recent W-4 and walk through it field by field. The fields most likely to be wrong:
Filing status (Step 1). "Single or Married filing separately" uses a smaller standard deduction than "Married filing jointly" or "Head of household". A new hire who picked the wrong status will see lower withholding than they expect.
Multiple jobs / spouse works (Step 2). If the employee has a second job, or files jointly with a working spouse, they're meant to check the Step 2(c) checkbox (or use the Step 2(b) worksheet). Forgetting to check it is the single most common cause of "my withholding is way too low" complaints — without it, the formula assumes this is the only job in the household and under-withholds.
Claim dependents (Step 3). A dollar amount entered here directly reduces annual withholding ($2,000 per qualifying child, $500 per other dependent). A wrong number in Step 3 moves FIT noticeably.
Other adjustments (Step 4). 4(a) other income raises withholding, 4(b) deductions lowers it, and 4(c) extra withholding adds a flat dollar amount each pay period.
Exempt. If the employee selected "Exempt", Workforce withholds $0 FIT until they file a new W-4. Confirm this was intentional.
If the W-4 looks right but the number still seems off, the issue is usually something other than FIT — pre-tax deductions changing taxable wages, a tax carryover catching up (see the Tax Carryover article), or a bonus run using supplemental wage rules. Open the pay stub's tax section and the difference is almost always visible line by line.
Tip: The single highest-yield check for "Workforce calculated this wrong" tickets is to open the employee's W-4 and read it field by field. Filing status, the Step 2(c) checkbox, Step 3 dependent dollars, and Step 4(c) extra withholding explain the vast majority of FIT surprises before you ever need to look at the calculation.
State and local taxes
Why does state income tax look different from federal?
Each state writes its own rules. Some have flat rates, some are progressive, several have no personal income tax at all. State withholding is driven by the employee's state withholding certificate, which they sign in the Workforce mobile app from their tax forms list.
Why are local taxes appearing for this employee?
A handful of jurisdictions levy local income or wage taxes that depend on the employee's home address, work location, or both. Workforce derives these from the employee's address and their default payroll team's location. If either is wrong, the local taxes will be wrong — fix those records first and the calculation rerun will follow.
An employee lives in one state and works in another. How is that handled?
Workforce withholds for the work state by default and applies any reciprocal-state declaration the employee has filed. If their two states have a reciprocity agreement, the employee can claim it from the non-resident withholding section of their work-state tax form in the mobile app. See the State Income Tax Reciprocity article for the list of agreements and the mechanics.
Pay, deductions, and pay stubs
Net pay looks lower than expected — where do I look?
Open the pay stub. It lays out gross earnings, pre-tax deductions, taxable wages, taxes (federal, state, local), post-tax deductions, and net pay. Compare line by line against the prior period — the discrepancy is almost always a single line that changed (a benefit deduction kicking in, a one-time bonus pushing into supplemental rules, a garnishment starting).
Where do tips show up on the pay stub?
Tips entered through Workforce appear as their own earnings lines. Cash tips that the employee already received in person are reported (and taxed) but not paid through payroll, while paycheck tips are added to net pay. The exact behavior depends on how the tip earnings type is configured in your payroll setup. If a tipped employee's net pay can't cover the tax owed on tips, see the Tax Carryover article.
An employee has a new garnishment — how do I add it?
Garnishments (child support orders, IRS levies, creditor garnishments, student loan administrative wage garnishments) are set up as deductions on the employee's profile and are managed by an admin, not the employee. Use the order from the issuing agency to set the amount or percentage and any maximum-take limits, and attach a copy of the order to the employee's record. Once configured, Workforce applies the garnishment automatically on every on-cycle pay run, in the priority order federal rules require.
Direct deposit and payment timing
When does direct deposit actually hit the employee's bank account?
Workforce funds direct deposits via ACH, and ACH credits post on the payment date set on the pay run, not the day you posted the run. To meet that payment date, the pay run has to be posted before the cutoff in your eligibility window — Workforce will block a pay run with a payment date that's outside the window, or that falls on a weekend or federal banking holiday. The receiving bank then makes the funds available to the employee on payment date, though the exact time of day depends on the receiving bank.
An employee says they didn't receive their pay. What do I check?
Most "missing" deposits resolve themselves once the receiving bank posts later in the day. Before escalating:
Confirm the pay run is posted (not still draft) and the payment date is today or earlier.
Open the employee's pay stub and check the bank account shown — if it's the wrong account, the funds are going somewhere else, not nowhere.
Have the employee check with their bank for a pending ACH credit; same-day visibility varies by bank.
If the bank confirms no deposit was attempted and the employee's ACH details on file are correct, contact your Workforce.com representative.
What happens if a direct deposit bounces (NSF)?
An ACH return on Workforce's debit from your company account leaves an open NSF on the affected pay run. Workforce will block the next pay run from posting until the NSF is cleared — that one shows up in the Payroll Blockers article as Open NSF. Resolve it from the affected pay run and you're free to run payroll again.
Off-cycle, retro, and voided pay
Can I run an extra pay run between regular payrolls?
Yes — start a new pay run with the appropriate type (for example, a one-off bonus run) and an eligible payment date. Off-cycle runs follow the same eligibility window, banking-day, and posting-cutoff rules as regular runs. Bonuses paid on their own typically use the IRS supplemental wage rate (currently 22% federal flat), which is why a bonus pay stub often looks heavily taxed compared to a regular paycheck.
An employee was underpaid in a prior period. What's the right fix?
Add the missing earnings (back pay, missed hours, retro pay rate change) on the next regular pay run, or on an off-cycle run if it can't wait. The wages are taxed in the period they're paid, not the period they were earned. Don't reach back and edit a posted pay run — recreating a posted run causes downstream issues with tax filings and payment history.
An employee was overpaid, or paid by mistake. Can a posted pay run be voided?
Follow the Overpayment Corrections process to reverse a posted pay stub and correct the employee's record.
Year-end and W-2s
When are W-2s available?
By the IRS deadline of January 31. All employees can view their W-2 electronically in their tax forms list in the Workforce mobile app once it's published. Employees who opt in to electronic delivery (from Payroll Settings in the app) will not receive a paper copy.
An employee's W-2 looks wrong. What do I do?
Contact support@workforce.com with the issue. It may require a W-2c and amendments to quarterly tax filings.
Why did a worker get a 1099-NEC instead of a W-2?
Because they're set up in Workforce as a contractor rather than an employee. See the Contractor Payroll article. Misclassification is expensive — make sure the worker's classification matches their actual relationship with your business before year-end.
There's a code A or code B amount in Box 12. Where does that come from?
That's uncollected Social Security (code A) or Medicare (code B) tax on tips — the FICA the employer wasn't able to recover through payroll by December 31. The Tax Carryover article explains how the balance accumulates and how to avoid it landing on the W-2.
When to reach out to support
Contact support@workforce.com when:
A pay run won't post and the blocker isn't obvious — start with the Payroll Blockers article first; escalate if it's one of the company-level blockers (Payroll shut off, Exposure limit, Open NSF, Missing registration) that only Workforce can clear.
You receive correspondence from a tax agency.
A bank or ACH return needs investigating beyond the open NSF on the pay run.
A prior-year W-2 needs correcting.
An agency audit is asking for filed-form copies you can't locate yourself.