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Paycheck Deduction Audit
$9.99Two lines on a payslip are exact percentages set by statute and identical for every employer, which makes them checkable rather than merely recordable. This recomputes Social Security and Medicare from your own gross — subtracting the Section 125 health premium and HSA that reduce the FICA base, and pointedly not the 401(k) deferral that does not — then compares both against what was actually withheld and names the difference. It handles the pay period that straddles the Social Security wage base, ties your computed net against the printed net before it will let you read anything else, and is explicit about which lines cannot be checked here and why.
Format: Excel (.xlsx)
Look inside
Preview only — scroll to read it. The file you download is fully editable.
| Paycheck Deduction Audit | |||
| Two of the lines on your payslip are exact percentages set by statute, so they can be CHECKED rather than trusted. This worksheet recomputes Social Security and Medicare from your own gross, compares them to what was actually withheld, and flags a mismatch. Everything else it lays out so you can see… | |||
| Part 1 — From one payslip | |||
| Pay periods per year | 26 | 52 weekly, 26 biweekly, 24 semi-monthly, 12 monthly. Biweekly and semi-monthly are NOT the same and the difference shows up here. | |
| Gross pay this period | 3846.15 | Before anything comes out. Straight from the payslip. | |
| Year-to-date gross on this payslip | 46153.8 | Needed for the wage-base check in Part 3 — the Social Security cap is annual, not per period. | |
| Annualised gross | ƒx | What this period implies for the year. Overtime or commission will make this wrong; use it as a guide, not a forecast. | |
| Part 2 — What came out, as printed | |||
| Federal income tax withheld | 412 | Set by your W-4, not by a fixed rate. Not checkable here — see Part 5. | |
| Social Security (may print as OASDI or FICA) | 220 | CHECKED in Part 3. | |
| Medicare | 53.08 | CHECKED in Part 3. | |
| State income tax withheld | 131.54 | Zero in nine states. See Part 5. | |
| Local / city / occupational tax | 0 | Twelve states permit one. Many payslips bury it — look for a city name. | |
| Pre-tax retirement (401k, 403b, 457) | 230.77 | Reduces federal taxable income. Does NOT reduce Social Security or Medicare — that is the point of Part 4. | |
| Pre-tax health / dental / vision premium | 185 | Generally reduces the FICA base too, unlike retirement. Section 125. | |
| HSA / FSA contribution | 100 | Also generally pre-tax for FICA. | |
| After-tax deductions (Roth, life, parking, union) | 42 | Comes out of what is left, changes no tax. | |
| Garnishment / other | 0 | ||
| Total deductions | ƒx | ||
| Net pay this period — computed | ƒx | ||
| Net pay this period — as PRINTED on the payslip | 2471.76 | Enter it. The row below is the whole reason this worksheet exists. | |
| Does it tie out? | ƒx | A mismatch means a line above is missing or mistyped. Find it before going further — every figure below assumes this row says YES. | |
| Part 3 — The two lines that can be checked exactly | |||
| Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to an annual cap; Medicare is 1.45% of all wages with no cap, plus an extra 0.9% above a threshold. These are statutory rates, identical for every employer, so a figure that does not match is a genuine error worth raising with payroll. | |||
| Social Security wage base for the tax year | 184500 | $184,500 for tax year 2026, from the Social Security Administration's Contribution and Benefit Base. Yellow because it rises most years — confirm it for the year you are checking. | |
| FICA-taxable gross this period | ƒx | Gross less the Section 125 health premium and HSA/FSA. Pre-tax RETIREMENT is deliberately not subtracted — it does not reduce the FICA base. | |
| Social Security that SHOULD have been withheld | ƒx | Zero once year-to-date gross passes the cap, and partial in the period that crosses it. | |
| Difference vs. the payslip | ƒx | ||
| Medicare that SHOULD have been withheld | ƒx | No cap. An employer must also start withholding an extra 0.9% once your year-to-date pay passes $200,000 — see Part 5. | |
| Difference vs. the payslip | ƒx | ||
| Part 4 — What your pre-tax deferral is really doing | |||
| Annual pre-tax retirement contribution | ƒx | ||
| Federal taxable income reduced by | ƒx | Dollar for dollar. | |
| FICA base reduced by | ƒx | Zero, always. A 401(k) deferral comes out before income tax and AFTER Social Security and Medicare — you pay FICA on money you never see. | |
| Employer match, per period | 115.38 | From the payslip if it is shown there, or from the plan document. This is pay that never appears in your salary figure. | |
| Employer match, annual | ƒx | ||
| Your contribution as a % of gross | ƒx | Compare this against whatever percentage your employer matches to. Contributing below the match threshold leaves money on the table; the annual figure is in the row above. | |
| Part 5 — What this worksheet cannot check, and why | |||
| Federal income tax withheld | |||
| Withholding follows your W-4 and IRS tables, not a flat rate. Too much or too little is settled at filing rather than being an error. If it looks badly wrong, the IRS publishes a free Tax Withholding Estimator. | |||
| State income tax withheld | |||
| Fifty different rulebooks. Nine states levy no broad income tax at all, and several of the rest apply a state-specific standard deduction and their own brackets. | |||
| Local / occupational tax | |||
| Set by city ordinance, not state statute — no single source enumerates the rates. Twelve states permit one. If a city name appears on your payslip, that line is real. | |||
| Additional Medicare (0.9%) | |||
| Starts once year-to-date wages from ONE employer pass $200,000. Two jobs can each stay under the threshold while your total is over it, in which case nothing is withheld and the balance is due at filing. | |||
| Imputed income (group life over $50,000, domestic partner cover) | |||
| Adds to taxable wages without adding to your pay, so gross can exceed what you were actually paid. It is not an error. | |||
| IF A LINE DOES NOT MATCH, RAISE IT IN WRITING AND KEEP THE PAYSLIP. Payroll errors are usually genuine mistakes and are usually fixed without argument — but they are fixed from the date they are reported, so the cost of noticing late is yours. | |||
Preview shows the first 60 rows. The full worksheet continues for 9 more — the complete worksheet is in the download.
This template is general information, not financial, legal, or tax advice.