Add paycheck deductions

Add paycheck deductions to a W-2 income source to track 401(k) contributions, health insurance, HSA, and other amounts that come out of your pay. Beyond Payday uses them to estimate your take-home pay and warns you before you hit an IRS contribution limit.

Before you start

• Deductions only apply to W-2 income — 1099 and self-employment income use an Estimated Tax Rate instead (see Add an income source).
• You need a W-2 income source already added before you can add deductions to it.

Steps

1. Go to Income (opens in a new tab), open a W-2 income source (click Add Income for a new one, or select an existing one to edit), and click the Deductions tab.
2. Click Add Deduction and choose a category — for example 401k, HSA, Health Insurance, or Dependent Care FSA. There are 24 categories in all, covering retirement accounts, insurance, withholding, union dues, commuter benefits, an employee stock purchase plan, and more.
3. Enter the amount under Per Pay Period. For retirement and health-account categories, toggle $ or % to match how your employer takes it.
4. For categories that can go either way, choose Pre-Tax or Post-Tax — a 401(k) shows this as Traditional 401k vs Roth 401k, and a pension shows Pre-Tax Pension vs Post-Tax Pension.
5. If you picked HSA, set HSA Coverage Type to Individual Coverage or Family Coverage — this determines your IRS contribution limit.
6. If your employer matches your 401(k), 403(b), 457, TSP, or SIMPLE IRA contribution, turn on Employer Match and enter Match % and, if it applies, Limit % of Salary.
7. Click Add Another Deduction to add more, or Save when you're done (Add for a new income source).

How it works

• In the retirement projection, payroll savings and employer match follow the recurring income’s saved start/end dates and the owner’s retirement month. This includes savings built up before the detailed forecast begins.

• Use Linked Account on a retirement or investment deduction to choose an enabled personal account you already added in Assets, such as a 401(k), IRA or HSA. Business-owned and disabled assets are not offered. The link identifies where the contribution goes; it does not replace the deduction amount.

• A life or disability insurance deduction can belong to a work policy you track in Assets. Add it from the policy with Add it to my paycheck deductions and it stays linked, so the policy shows what it costs per paycheck and the cost is never also counted as a bill.

• ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase) money always comes out after tax. It lowers your take-home pay but not your taxable pay. To tie it to your ESPP account, open the account on the Assets page and select Link the paycheck contribution. The ESPP deduction added there stays linked to the account.

• Pre-tax deductions reduce the taxable income Beyond Payday uses to estimate your take-home pay; post-tax deductions don't. "Taxable income" is the part of your pay that taxes are actually calculated on.

• Social Security and Medicare: pre-tax health, dental, vision and other cafeteria-plan insurance, HSA, FSA, dependent-care FSA and commuter benefits also lower the pay those two taxes are figured on. Pre-tax 401(k), 403(b), 457, TSP and SIMPLE IRA savings don't: you still pay Social Security and Medicare on that money.

• IRS limit warnings: once a capped category — like a 401(k) or HSA — is on pace to hit that year's IRS limit, its row shows a Maxed by [Month] badge (for example, "Maxed by October"). Hover it for a breakdown of the limit by age bracket. Catch-up eligibility uses the age you reach by December 31 of the tax year, including the enhanced 401(k) catch-up at ages 60–63 and HSA catch-up at 55. The row badge uses the same stop month as Compare Months, including deductions at your other jobs. Already maxed means those jobs have used the allowance for this row.

• One 401(k) limit per person. Traditional (pre-tax) and Roth 401(k), 403(b), TSP and SIMPLE IRA deductions share a single yearly IRS limit. They're added together, not given a full limit each — and if you have more than one job, your deductions at all of them count toward that same limit. Contribution insights show the room remaining across those jobs, even when a source filter hides one of them.

• 457 has its own limit. A 457 plan gets a separate limit of the same size, so you can max out a 403(b) and a 457 in the same year.

• SIMPLE IRA uses its own plan limit. Its badge and income insights show the SIMPLE IRA reference limit, including any applicable catch-up allowance. SIMPLE IRA deductions share that lower limit across your jobs and also count toward your overall workplace-plan limit. A saved SIMPLE employer match shows as Employer Match under Additional Compensation.

• Compare Months: click the Compare Months card on the Income page, pick a month, and Beyond Payday shows your standard paycheck next to that month's numbers — a quick way to see exactly when a contribution will get excluded once it's maxed out for the year.

Good to know

Connected assistants and snapshots include your complete saved deduction list. If a required read fails, they show an error rather than calculate a partial total. With Read & write on, Beth and a connected assistant can also add, change or delete a deduction; Beth shows a card you confirm first. An ESPP is always saved after tax.

• Deductions are W-2 only. If you have 1099 or self-employment income, use its Estimated Tax Rate field instead.
• The app uses its reference limits for the selected tax year. If that year is not available, it uses the latest known reference year; it does not automatically inflate future limits. Check irs.gov for official numbers.
• Only 401(k), pension, life insurance, disability insurance, and Other deductions show a Pre-Tax/Post-Tax toggle. Others use a fixed default — for example, HSA and health, dental, and vision insurance are pre-tax; additional federal withholding, hospital indemnification, critical illness, and accident insurance are post-tax.
• Employer match tracking is only available for retirement categories (401(k), 403(b), 457, TSP, SIMPLE IRA) on W-2 income.