My box 1 wages are higher than my salary. My annual salary before taxes is $36,000 and this box is $38,692. Why would this be?

[nicole-a-forbes]

Not sure why this amount would be way more than I take home?

[AnnaB]

You may have had a taxable fringe benefit.  Do you have any codes/amounts in Box 12 or Box 14?

[nicole-a-forbes]

No, nothing after Box 6 is filled out.

[AnnaB]

My best guess would be a taxable benefit, but you would need to contact your employer for a breakout of the difference.

[AnnaB]

They can also verify that its correct and if not, issue you a corrected W-2.  Your Box 4 and Box 6 are the proper amounts?

[SweetieJean]

First, your taxes are based on your gross wages, not your tax home pay. Secondly, some employee benefits are taxable, as are bonuses, cashed in vacation time, etc.  Ask your employer for an explanation of the difference.

[nicole-a-forbes]

right, my gross wages are $36K and it's saying my wages were $2,692 more than that.

[Huero222]

I am having the same issue this year. Overtime is not a factor since it is salary, and anything else is deductions. The net paid is showing my bonus I got and vacation pay etc. The gross pay is showing $5k over my total paid(total paid is what I make in my salary). Not sure where they are getting this extra 5K in a year over my salary+bonus pay especially since I am salary..

[BillM223]

First, is this gross pay in box 1 or box 16 of your W-2? In some states, the box 16 amount is larger than the box 1 amount because some deductions don't count in that state. What state are you in?

Second, have you asked your payroll department? We could spend days guessing why your employer might have done this, but just asking your employer would save you and us a lot of time.