PA state return box 1 different than box 16

[xnickygx]

I am having an issue in the application for filing a Pennsylvania state return. When I get to the Compensation Summary page I check the wage amount for PA and it shows what is in box 1 instead of what I entered in my W2 for box 16. The issue is that Box 1 is less than box 16 because of 401k contributions. The website is forcing me to make these match on the PA state return. How do I get it to reflect the actual amount in box 16? Every time I try to change it on the state return  Verify this income page it tells me "Can't be more than your federally reported wages."

I have confirmed that the difference between box 1 and 16 is the amount in box 13 for 401k contributions. 

Example:

box 1 is 50000 box 16 is 53000 and box 13 is 3000. 

[SteamTrain · Accepted solution]

it's box 12  = 3000  Correct?

Make sure PA is in the box 15 state

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1) You could try deleting the W-2 entirely, and re-entering it from scratch..

or

2)  If you are using the desktop software, there were some software updates issued last night...run your updates and try again

or

3)  You might need to call Customer Support, and have them check it out and issue a ticket:

What is the TurboTax phone number? (intuit.com)

[xnickygx]

Apologies, it is 12b not 13.

Box 15 does show PA and all the information that is entered on the W2 is the same as what is on my actual W2.

1. I haven't tried this. I will try it and see what happens. I did also noticed that on my wife's and my own that it also does not pull the Employer ID for box 15 into state return and puts the FED EID in there instead. 

2. Using the web version not desktop

3. If all else fails I will contact.

[SteamTrain]

Not sure how the State ID thing happened.  Make sure it's changed to whatever is on the actual W-2 forms.

I think that a few states do also use the Fed ID as the state ID number,  but I don't know what PA uses.  None of the several state's I've lived in use the Fed ID for the State ID number.

[xnickygx]

Yeah I am not sure. When I looked at the W2 that was pulled in it shows all the correct information in the correct fields. The ID in box 15 is the state ID which is different than the FED ID. TurboTax was pulling the FED ID in instead of whats in box 15. 

But for now I will re-enter the W2 manually and see what happens.

Thank you again!

[xnickygx]

I entered in the W2's manually and that put the correct amount into the PA state return from box 16. The employer ID was still being pulled in as the FED ID and not the State ID from box 15, but I changed it on my wife's. Mine I went to change it and when I continued it didnt like that the dollar amount was more than the reported Federal amount for wages but I backed out and looked to have changed the ID.

Thank you again!

[BillM223]

xnickygx

Could you please confirm that this is still an issue for you? My test (TurboTax Online, Basic Edition) has $56,000 in Box 1 (reflecting the removal of the $4,000 401(k) contribution), $4,000 in box 12 with a code of D, and $60,000 in box 16 - all on the W-2. These numbers are correct.

I can't be sure but it seemed to me that at the end of the posts, your concern was more about the state ID and not the income amount. Could you confirm that the PA state income number is what it is in box 16 of your W-2, and that you no longer have an issue with this?

@xnickygx

[xnickygx]

I ended up removing my W2 completely and manually entering in all the information. This allowed the amounts to show correctly on the PA state return. Originally I had allowed TurboTax to pull the info in automatically. I also had an additional concern that the state ID was incorrectly pulled into the State return as the FED ID instead of the State ID. 

[SteamTrain]

@xnickygx 

Yeah, I had wondered how you originally got your W-2 into TTX.  Getting the data in the right spots really does depend on the W-2 provider getting their W-2 import format perfectly aligned with the proper standard format.  That's a special file format, and is not the same as the PDF of your W-2 that you might download to print yourself

I kind-of wonder if your co-workers for that employer are also having the same problem when they import their W-2's from whoever is providing the specially-formatted W-2 import files.

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[xnickygx]

Second guessing myself now, I might've imported the PDF version haha. I can't remember now. Either way, manually re-entering it worked out fine, except for the Employer ID transferring into the State return.

[Rlpaul]

Same issue here for both me and my husband. I called customer service tonight and they said that it’s a known issue with the importing of some W2’s. Solution is to delete, the W2’s, clear cache, use Chrome browser and manually enter all fields on both W2s. I’m going to wait a week before I do this as I can’t believe this is the workaround.