When your payroll check is done, are the taxes calculated on total earnings – even with pre-tax deductions?

I have pre-tax medical and retirement taken out but when I calculate out how much of my total gross I take home, the percentages indicate the taxes ar...


I have pre-tax medical and retirement taken out but when I calculate out how much of my total gross I take home, the percentages indicate the taxes are being calculated on total earnings, not the total after pre-tax deductions. I thought that was the benefit of pre-tax deductions – you didn’t get taxed on it. If anyone knows of the legal writings for payroll practices, I would like to know, thanks.

One Response to “When your payroll check is done, are the taxes calculated on total earnings – even with pre-tax deductions?”

  1. vegas_iwish says:

    Tish is correct + don’t get hooked staring at the stub. You find out how much you really pay by doing the return. Only if the W-2 seems to have too much gross fed taxable (ie Pre-tax items not excluded) should you even pay any attention at all.

(Disclaimer: Some posts are user derived / user submitted / views found around the web. So some views expressed on this website do not necessarily reflect the views of the owners of BusinessTaxDeductions.net Copyright 2010,2011)