Error: Form W-2 Box 16 State wages cannot be less than State withholding. Box 13 (third party sick pay) is checked. State tax was withheld. How do I proceed?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 25, 2025
1 reply
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State of NJ does not tax sick pay. W-2 provided by third party insurance company policy provided by employer. The error prevents return from being submitted. Why should it matter to the software that box 16 is less box 17?

DianeW777

Level 15

The software is assuming there should be no withholding if there are no wages. You can try putting the wages in Box 16, then review your New Jersey (NJ) return to remove this amount as the questions come up. Or try entering $1 in the wages box.

NJ has a screen where you can make adjustments as you go through the state interview. The example is below for your convenience.

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dbbennett7Author

Level 2

for the W-2 I have $0 state wages (Box 16) I was advised to report 0 taxes withheld (Box 17). That solved the problem of wages less than withholding.

Then I used the TT option for reporting other taxes - withholding not already entered on a W-2. There is a placeholder to report amount actually withheld to the State. See image below.

This a much cleaner solution and does not require the additional calculations that follow from the above answer.