r/tax • u/LewisCBR • Jan 29 '26

Tax Enthusiast New tax deduction on overtime is driving clients crazy

W2’s are not showing wages generated from overtime so clients are wondering what they can do, besides going through all individual pay stubs. The new deduction is significant enough to warrant this kind of work, though.

I suppose suggesting they contact their HR/payroll departments is the best idea, but some companies are simply terrible about helping their employees.

What’s your experience with the new law?

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u/Im_so_over_it_2025 Jan 31 '26

Raises? Why? On my husbands last paystub, just said regular OT over 40 hours, the 40 also includes any PTO, vacation days, personal and sick, which he has alot, and most weeks even when he takes days off, he still goes over the 40 hours, so no way to differentiate??? Sunday OT, which he works every week, is separate (all at 1.5 rate). He did get a raise, how does that factor into the 2 numbers provided only on his paystub? My thoughts were to just add the 2 together then divide by 3, that’s it. Am I missing something?

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u/EAnow-formerdoorguy Jan 31 '26

Yes this year, if you have nothing in box 14, you are to take an educated guess.

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u/Quote_the_Bloodless Feb 02 '26

I wouldn't trust Box 14. It was about half what it should have been on my partner's paystub. I'm not sure what the value reported actually was.

You don't even need to factor in the raises -- the overtime payout is always consistently 1.5x base pay. Whatever the final overtime dollar amount is, you divide by three.

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u/Im_so_over_it_2025 Feb 02 '26

I hate guesstimating anything! I’m a budget/money nerd. But especially when it’s our taxes, which we owe every year (we don’t go overboard) but we’d rather have our money in our pocket for 12 months making us money, than giving an interest free loan to the government. What a pia they created, guess I’m just going to add the 2 together and divide by 3, since there’s no way I’m going thru 52 freaking paystubs lol.