The wages and salaries section of our 2018 income picture is $3,500 higher than our wages and salaries.

[andrewwaller]

Our 2018 income picture accurately lists our taxable state refund, our dividends and interest, but our wages and salaries line is exactly $3,500 higher than the amount on our W-2s and in our income summary.

[rjs]

There are a number of different kinds of income that get added into the wages on your Form 1040, but do not come from W-2 box 1. Many, but not all, of these types of added wage income are indicated by an abbreviation and amount shown to the left of the total wages on the tax return. Do you have an abbreviation to the left of the amount of wages? The most common of these are the following.

• SCH - Taxable scholarship income
• HSH - Wages earned as a household employee but not reported on a W-2
• DCB - Taxable dependent care benefits from W-2 box 10

Some other types of income that might be added into your wages, without an abbreviation, are the following.

• Tips that you did not report to your employer.
• Allocated tips from W-2 box 8.
• Disability payments from a pension plan from Form 1099-R with distribution code 3 in box 7, if you are below the minimum retirement age for the plan.
• A corrective distribution or return of excess contributions from a retirement plan, from Form 1099-R with distribution code 8 in box 7.

Since you are using the CD/Download TurboTax software, go to forms mode and open the Wages, Salaries, & Tips Worksheet. It will show you everything that is included in the wages on your tax return, and where it comes from, including all of the possibilities mentioned above.

[mklem9]

I have a similar issue, and I have determined that the difference can be accounted for by scholarship income, in particular, the difference between box 6 and box 1 on Form 1098-T. But I am confused why my scholarship is counting as taxable income. I did a one-year degree during the 2019–2020 academic year. Of roughly $26,000 total tuition, about $22,000 of the $26,000 total tuition was accounted for in box 1 on the 2019 1098-T, and only $4,000 of that $26,000 was on the 2020 1098-T. But the scholarship was evenly divided, about $6,000 in box 5 of both 2019 and 2020 1098-T. So it ends up looking like I made about $2,000 in income for 2020 and like I paid about $16,000 for 2019. But really I paid about $7,000 in 2019 and $7,000 in 2020. Am I basically paying this year for benefits I didn't deserve last year? Or does my form need to be corrected?