What is gross income for tax and payroll purposes?
Gross income for tax purposes is total income from all sources before any adjustments or deductions, as defined in IRC Section 61. For payroll specifically, gross income usually means the total compensation earned by an employee in a pay period before withholdings: wages, salary, overtime, bonuses, commissions, and certain taxable benefits. The figure appears in different forms on W-2 (Box 1 for federal taxable wages, Box 3 for Social Security wages), with differences explained by pre-tax deductions and taxable benefit treatment.
.svg)
.svg)
