USA Tax Withholding Procedures

[salmichaels]

Hi everyone,

I work live and work outside the U.S. and have had issues with employers "withholding" money from monthly salary, and keeping the money withheld. The amount can be between 6 and 20 percent of gross income. It is a common practice for employers here to withhold the money and just keep it.

I stomped over to the tax department a couple years ago and asked them to show me an accounting of the money sent by my employer to date (it was April at that point, and they follow 1/1 to 12/31), and the tax dept was like, no, we can't show that - we can only show a lump sum that they send over. The accounting, they implied, would have to come from the employer.

My question is, how does this work in the U.S.? When they deposit tax withholdings, don't they need to account for how much was withhold for each employee?? Or is it also a lump sum?

I'm in Taiwan, btw.

Thanks for your help!
Sal

 

[salmichaels]

Anyone??

 

[kirby]

In the US, when an employee is paid, there is a "paycheck stub". This shows the gross amount earned and the deductions from that amount to arrive at the net amount paid.

 

[salmichaels]

Yes I understand that. What I'm asking is, when your employer gives the money to the IRS or state tax dept, do they have to account for how much is being sent on behalf of each employee? And, does the IRS itself have an accounting showing how much John Q. Citizen's employer has sent over on his behalf?

 

[rfpro]

It's called a W2. the employer reports at the end of the year how much he withheld from each employee. He gives this to the employee. This will add up and match the deposits the employer has made on form 941's that are reported to the IRS during the year. Yes, the employer does "Lump sum" deposits each payroll period but those lump sums get reconciled in various ways with the W2's and W3. Hope that helps