2011 income taxes...

[HHSTigerFan]

Got my first payroll of 2011, my biweekly check has gone down about $21.. why???

 

[uk_wildcat]

Did your health insurance increase? Because of the change to the law, ours is going up for 2011 by about $50/month.

 

[MeekoB]

Also, with the late adoption of the continued tax reductions last year, I was told that for some people too much federal tax would be deducted for the first check this year. I was also told that it could take until the end of the month to get the paychecks correct.

If that is true, it is possible that you are paying more federal tax than last year.

 

[msmayor]

Got my first payroll of 2011, my biweekly check has gone down about $21.. why???

Compare the pay stub for this check to one from last year and you should see where the difference is.

 

[SassyLassy]

ditto PP, a couple of things probably changed with your check.

1) Social Security went from 6.2% of your paycheck to 4.2%, which would have caused your paycheck to go up.

but most likely it's

2) health care cost. Ours went up about 80 per paycheck.

As stated before I would pull it up to see where the difference is.

 

[MoniqueU]

My DH pays fica at the begging of the year or in his case last year he paid the higher amount at each of 3 jobs where if he had stayed with the same company it would of dropped off at a later point in the year.

 

[HHSTigerFan]

1. Will be a few days before I get the pay stub, was just curious..

2. Teachers health insurance premiums are adjusted on a school year calender, always goes up in September.

3. We don't pay social security taxes.

Whatever it is, I am sure the govt will spend that $21 more wisely than I would have..

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

Ha, ours was $75 less & we didn't have an increase of any premiums.

 

[WIDisneyFan]

the Making Work Pay tax credit expired at the end of 2010 - this credit effectively gave each worker a $400 credit the was included in their pay. So $400/24 = $16.67 reduction per paycheck with the expiration of the credit.

I am no expert on this so I can't offer too much information so hopefully others can add more to the discussion

 

[riley2008]

This is what we got from our payroll department yesterday:

Hello,
I just wanted to warn everyone that the tax rates have changed effective 1/1/11....
You will see more money withheld for taxes with this change. I have attached a copy of the IRS Tax Notice.
If you want to calculate your withholding you would use Table 4 on the notice. You will take your Monthly Withhold Gross and subtract $308.33 for each dependent that you claim on your W-4 and this will give you the taxable amount.


Attached was IRS Notice 1036. We get paid monthly, so I calculated a $75 reduction in my salary. We'll find out if I was about right at the end of next week.

ETA: I work in education too and don't pay into Social Security. For those that do, the SS contribution is going down, which should offset some of this, but not for us.

 

[princessbride6205]

The decrease is almost definitely due to the expiration of the Making Work Pay tax credit mentioned above. The tax cut that took it's place (compromise) is only for people who pay into Social Security. Check out the "2% raise for EVERYONE" thread in this forum for discussion on the Soc Sec tax cut if you're interested.

 

[gracie1]

I had the opposite problem, my check was more! I doubled my retirement fund money as to what I was putting in there last year and still came out $45 ahead.