Payroll Deductions

This section covers the employee-side amounts taken out of pay and the rules that explain when those amounts reduce taxable wages and when they do not.

Start here when an amount is being taken out of pay and you need to know what it is doing inside payroll.

Current pages:

• Payroll Deduction explains the broad category of employee-side reductions.
• Pre-Tax Deduction explains deductions that can affect taxable wages before payroll calculates certain taxes.
• Post-Tax Deduction explains deductions that lower net pay after the applicable tax calculations.
• Voluntary Deduction explains deductions the employee chose or authorized.
• Involuntary Deduction explains deductions payroll must process because of a required obligation.
• Deduction Arrears explains previously unpaid deduction amounts that payroll still needs to recover.
• Benefit Arrears explains the benefit-related subset of deduction arrears.
• Carry-Forward Deduction explains when payroll moves an unresolved deduction amount into a later cycle.

In this section

• Benefit Arrears
  What benefit arrears mean in payroll, why they happen, and how payroll handles previously missed benefit-related deductions.
• Carry-Forward Deduction
  What a carry-forward deduction means in payroll, why it happens, and how it relates to arrears handling.
• Deduction Arrears
  What deduction arrears mean in payroll, why they happen, and how payroll handles previously missed deduction amounts.
• Involuntary Deduction
  What an involuntary deduction is, why payroll must apply it, and how it differs from employee-elected deductions.
• Payroll Deduction
  What a payroll deduction is, where it appears in payroll, and how it differs from withholding and employer payroll taxes.
• Post-Tax Deduction
  What a post-tax deduction is, how it affects net pay, and why it differs from a pre-tax deduction.
• Pre-Tax Deduction
  What a pre-tax deduction is, how it affects payroll, and why it can change taxable wages without changing gross pay.
• Voluntary Deduction
  What a voluntary deduction is, how it differs from required payroll reductions, and where it appears in payroll.