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 23 categories in all, covering retirement accounts, insurance, withholding, union dues, commuter benefits, 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

• 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, since retirement accounts allow higher contributions starting at 50 and again at 60-63.
• One 401(k) limit per person. Traditional (pre-tax) and Roth 401(k), 403(b) and TSP 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.
• 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.
• 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

• Deductions are W-2 only. If you have 1099 or self-employment income, use its Estimated Tax Rate field instead.
• IRS contribution limits shown in Beyond Payday reflect the current tax year and are kept up to date — check irs.gov if you need the official published 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.