Taxes Taxes Taxes - What Do They Want From Us?

April 16, 2011 11:11 AM

You Are Not My Employer's Accountant: My W-2 this year has an entry in Box 18, which is preventing me from e-filing because Boxes 19 and 20 are (correctly) blank. There's a mistake here somewhere... but where?

My work situation has not changed. My W-2's for the past three years have no entries in Boxes 18, 19, and 20. No local tax was withheld in Box 19, therefore no locality reported in Box 20.

This year, my total wages from Box 1 appear in Box 18 (Local wages). Because of this, TurboTax will not let me e-file because there is no locality name in Box 20. I managed to get out of my employer's accountant that if there were no local taxes withheld, there should be no locality name. So according to him, Boxes 19 and 20 are correctly blank.

I have asked him this next question twice without receiving a reply, so now I'm asking you (for your opinion): is the entry in Box 18, reporting all my wages as local wages (despite the fact that no locality received any local tax), a mistake on his part? Should that box be blank? And if so, can I safely leave that box blank in TurboTax while awaiting a corrected W-2?

posted by Devoidoid to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Probably a mistake. The "local wages" or "state wages" box is just there to tell you what was reported to that taxing authority as your wages. Some localities have different rules as to what counts as wages for them- before or after various deductions like SSA or health insurance or whatever.

If your local government doesn't have an income tax, then you don't have to worry about it.
posted by gjc at 12:20 PM on April 16, 2011

If your locality has no income taxes or it Turbo Tax is not going to prepare your local return, just don't enter the local wages in Turbo Tax.

If you are preparing your local return through Turbo Tax, enter the locality in the turbo tax W-2 even though it is not on the W-2.
posted by dzot at 12:41 PM on April 16, 2011