{"id":4926,"date":"2011-01-28T17:35:21","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T22:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/?p=4926"},"modified":"2011-02-02T13:34:56","modified_gmt":"2011-02-02T18:34:56","slug":"question-of-the-week-why-don%e2%80%99t-my-massachusetts-wages-equal-my-federal-wages-on-my-w-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/2011\/01\/question-of-the-week-why-don%e2%80%99t-my-massachusetts-wages-equal-my-federal-wages-on-my-w-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Question of the Week: Why Don\u2019t My Massachusetts Wages Equal My Federal Wages on My W-2?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"img alignright size-medium wp-image-4928\" style=\"width:300px;\">\r\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Businesswoman-in-Office-Asian.jpg\"><img src=\"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Businesswoman-in-Office-Asian-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"Why Don\u2019t My Massachusetts Wages Equal My Federal Wages on My W-2?\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/a>\r\n\t<div>Why Don\u2019t My Massachusetts Wages Equal My Federal Wages on My W-2?<\/div>\r\n<\/div>This week\u2019s question comes from Jordan, a company controller. For most employees in our company, the Massachusetts wages reported on the Form W-2 equal the federal wages on the Form W-2. My Massachusetts wages, however, are higher than my federal wages. Why don\u2019t my Massachusetts wages equal my federal wages on my W-2? Answer: There may be several reasons why Massachusetts wages don\u2019t equal federal wages on a Form W-2.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Differences Between Federal Wages and Massachusetts Wages on Form W-2<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Although Massachusetts generally follows federal law on income taxation of wage benefits, certain items may increase or decrease Massachusetts wages as compared to federal wages. Among the differences are the following:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Employee and employer contributions to Massachusetts governmental unit \u00a7414(h) retirement plans are taxable for Massachusetts purposes and not for federal purposes,<\/li>\n<li>The value of an employer-provided monthly transit pass in excess of $120 and not in excess of $230 per month is taxable for Massachusetts purposes and not for federal purposes,<\/li>\n<li>Imputed income from cost of health insurance coverage of former spouses and non-dependent children as required under Massachusetts law is taxable for federal purposes and not for Massachusetts purposes (prior to the change\u00a0included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act),<\/li>\n<li>Employee contributions to cafeteria plans for the benefit of a same-sex spouse and that spouse\u2019s children when the same-sex spouse or that spouse\u2019s children do not qualify as a dependent of the employee are taxable for federal purposes and not for Massachusetts purposes,<\/li>\n<li>Qualified tuition reduction that an educational organization provides to the same-sex spouse of an employee is taxable for federal purposes and not for Massachusetts purposes, and<\/li>\n<li>Employer contributions to an accident or health insurance plan for the benefit of a same-sex spouse and that spouse\u2019s children when the same-sex spouse or that spouse\u2019s children do not qualify as a dependent of the employee are taxable for federal purposes and not for Massachusetts purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Contact Vision Payroll Now<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Contact <a href=\"mailto:info@visionpayroll.com\" target=\"_blank\">Vision Payroll<\/a> if you have further questions on the differences between federal wages and Massachusetts wages on Form W-2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why Don\u2019t My Massachusetts Wages Equal My Federal Wages on My W-2? This week\u2019s question comes from Jordan, a company controller. For most employees in our company, the Massachusetts wages reported on the Form W-2 equal the federal wages on the Form W-2. My Massachusetts wages, however, are higher than my federal wages. Why don\u2019t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[376,224,567,13,1223,513,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4926"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4932,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4926\/revisions\/4932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.visionpayroll.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}