Tax question for Per Diem RNs

[drenched]

Hi,

I've been having a really hard time understanding the tax withholdings in each paystub I get & was hoping someone would be able to illuminate me on this.

I'm a per diem RN in NYC and work anywhere from 11.5 to 46 hours per pay period (2 week periods). The percentage of tax wittholding varies drastically with each paycheck and leaves me scratching my head. I asked my hospital's payroll department and they just said that the more you work, the higher you get taxed. When I worked 1 shift, I was taxed about 8% (federal) and made about $460 for 1 shift. When I worked 4 shifts, I was taxed about 17% and my pay dropped to $380 for 1 shift. In fact, the % tax rate is different on every pay check. My hourly rate has been the same this entire time.

Per diem RNs - is this normal? It just seems ridiculous to me that my pay would drop that much when I work a few more days.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[JennRN65]

Sounds normal for any working person. The more you make, the more they tax....

You can change your number of deductions to bring home more each payperiod. Make sure you won't end up paying at the end of the year because of it though.

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf

Pages 39 to 60

Basically the weeks you work more shifts your pay puts you into a higher tax bracket, hence more withholding.

[dthfytr, ADN, LPN, RN, EMT-B, EMT-I]

Sounds about right to me. The tax tables are funny. Each check is treated as if that's how much you'll make on every check for the year. Say you make $50,000/year. If they gave you that in one check, you'd pay over 50% in taxes. If the 50 grand is given to you in 26 biweekly pay checks, they'd withhold a much lower percentage. When you do your taxes next April 14th it all evens out. Follow that? Hope it helps. May all your patients be compliant and orders legible.

[AgentBeast, MSN, RN]

Sounds about right to me. The tax tables are funny. Each check is treated as if that's how much you'll make on every check for the year. Say you make $50,000/year. If they gave you that in one check, you'd pay over 50% in taxes. If the 50 grand is given to you in 26 biweekly pay checks, they'd withhold a much lower percentage. When you do your taxes next April 14th it all evens out. Follow that? Hope it helps. May all your patients be compliant and orders legible.

There are different withholding tables based on how you are paid. Your example is incorrect. If your annual salary was $50,000 and you were paid that amount all at once your withholding would be calculated using the Annual Pay Period table. There are separate tables based on whether the pay period is weekly, bi weekly, monthly, quarterly, semiannually, and annually. The difference in pay come is when say you are paid $25 an hour and one week you work 20 hours. Your federal taxes withheld would be $53.40 or ($8.40 + 15% of $300) Now if the next week you work 40 hours your federal withholding would be $159.10 or ($82.35 + 25% of $303) Working the extra 20 hours increased person x's pay enough to bump them up into the 25% tax bracket. Basically how often you get paid is irrelevant to tax withholding. It's how much you get paid within a given pay period the determines the rate they are withheld at.

[drenched]

Great, thanks so much for the information you guys! I've never understood my paycheck fully even when salaried...so this really shed some light for me :)