Why weren't federal taxes withheld from the payroll checks I filed for this period?

Let me share some information on why the federal taxes were not withheld from the payroll checks you filed for this period. 

The income tax calculations in QuickBooks Online (QBO) are derived from your employee's payroll information. In QuickBooks Online (QBO), a paycheck shows $0.00 or no income tax withheld, because of the following reasons:

• Employees are not meeting the taxable wage base.
• Employees were set to Do Not Withhold for federal and state income taxes in the employee setup.

To verify if they are set to Do not Withhold, you can check their profile. Let me guide you on how:

1. Go to the Payroll menu and select Employees.
2. Click the name of the employee.
3. Select the edit (pencil) icon beside Pay.
4. Then, click the edit (pencil) icon next to the withholding section.
5. From there, check the Federal Filing Status/State Filing Status.

To learn more about why your employee’s federal or state income tax is $0.00 in QuickBooks, you can check out this article: Troubleshoot no income tax withheld from a paycheck. If the same thing happens, we can log in to your account using an incognito browser. Private browser prevents saving cache and cookies that sometimes cause errors when running frequently visited websites. Here are the useful shortcut keys you can use to access one:

• Ctrl+ Shift + N for Google Chrome
• Ctrl + Shift + P for Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge
• Command + Shift + N for Safari

Once done, try creating a payroll to check the changes. If it works, return to your default browser and clear its cache. Every so often the cache becomes overwhelmed with older data which can potentially cause viewing and performance issues. Clearing it will refresh the system, and you'll be able to work with a clean slate. Switching to another compatible one to help rectify the issue.

Since the paychecks are already submitted, you can consult with your employee on when to deduct the Federal Tax. This way, you can apply the taxes on the next payroll. As always, feel free to read the topics from our help articles in case you need tips and related links while working with QuickBooks in the future.

I'm always around if you have any other concerns about your employee paychecks. Feel free to post your reply below. Have a good one.