What this line means
Federal income tax withheld from your wages, as shown in Box 2 of all your W-2 forms. This is only the withholding from W-2s. Withholding from 1099s, pensions, Social Security, and other sources goes on line 25b. The total of lines 25a through 25d is your total federal withholding for the year.
Does this apply to you?
- You received W-2 wages and had federal tax withheld
- You worked part-time or seasonally and had withholding
- You had tax withheld from W-2 wages at multiple employers
- You need to reconcile your total withholding against your tax liability
Easy to overlook
Withholding from pensions and Social Security goes on line 25b, not 25a Line 25a is exclusively for W-2 withholding. Federal tax withheld from 1099-R (pensions), SSA-1099 (Social Security), and other 1099 forms goes on line 25b. Seniors who receive income from wages plus pensions plus Social Security must split their withholding across the correct sub-lines. Combining all withholding on line 25a triggers a mismatch. 1 IRS Form 1040-SR Instructions — Line 25a
Verify W-2 Box 2 matches your pay stubs If your final pay stub shows a different withholding total than W-2 Box 2, use the W-2 amount. Employers sometimes make corrections between the last pay date and the W-2 issuance date. A discrepancy warrants contacting your employer for a corrected W-2 before filing. 2 General filing pattern — withholding from multiple income sources
Watch out for this
Entering W-2 Box 4 (Social Security tax withheld) or Box 6 (Medicare tax withheld) on line 25a. Those are payroll taxes, not income tax. Only Box 2 (federal income tax withheld) goes on line 25a. Entering payroll tax amounts inflates your claimed withholding and triggers a refund you are not owed.
Footnotes
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IRS Form 1040-SR Instructions, Line 25a. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sr ↩
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IRS Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p505.pdf ↩