Payroll deduction abbreviations are the short codes on your pay stub that identify where each piece of your gross pay is going: to a tax agency, an insurance carrier, a retirement account, or a court-ordered creditor. Most stubs cram a dozen or more of these into a narrow column, and a misread code can hide an overcharge for coverage you never chose or a withholding error that quietly shrinks your take-home pay. The codes below cover what shows up on U.S. pay stubs, along with the 2026 dollar figures to check yours against.
Federal Tax Withholding Codes
FIT, FED, or FWT stands for Federal Income Tax. This is what your employer withholds each pay period based on the filing status, dependents, and adjustments on your W-4.1Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate It isn’t a separate tax from what you owe on your annual return. It’s a prepayment. Withhold too much and you get a refund; too little and you owe the difference at filing time.
Because federal rates are progressive, the FIT amount looks different from person to person. If you recently changed jobs, married, or had a child, this is the first line to check after updating your W-4. Withholding that matches your old job’s is probably wrong now.
FICA: Social Security and Medicare
FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act and funds two programs. Some stubs use one FICA line; most break it into two.2Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates
SS, OASDI, or SOC SEC is Social Security tax, formally Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. The withholding rate is 6.2% of gross wages up to an annual wage base. For 2026 that cap is $184,500.3Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base Once your year-to-date wages reach that number, the SS line drops to zero for the rest of the year. Switching employers mid-year restarts the count at each new job, which can produce over-withholding you claim back on your return.
MED, MCARE, or HI is the Medicare portion. The rate is 1.45% of all gross wages with no cap, so this line never stops.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 3101 – Rate of Tax
High earners will see an extra line labeled ADDL MED or MED SURTAX. That is the Additional Medicare Tax of 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for single filers, $250,000 for joint filers, or $125,000 for married filing separately.2Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 751, Social Security and Medicare Withholding Rates Your employer must start withholding it once your wages pass $200,000 in a calendar year, regardless of filing status. Household income differences get settled on your return.
State and Local
SIT or SWT is State Income Tax. Rate and structure depend on where you work. Some states use a flat rate, others use brackets, and a few have no income tax. If you live in one state and work in another, you may see two SIT lines or a credit arrangement between the states.
SDI is State Disability Insurance, which pays partial wages during a non-work-related illness, injury, or pregnancy. Only a handful of states require an employee-paid SDI deduction. SUI or SUTA is State Unemployment Insurance; employers usually pay the full cost, but a few states require a small employee share. LIT or LOCAL is Local Income Tax, and it appears only if your work location or residence imposes one.
Retirement Contribution Codes
Retirement lines are voluntary, and the amounts should match your enrollment paperwork exactly. If a number looks unfamiliar, pull up your benefits election form before assuming the payroll system is wrong.
401K, 403B, and 457B each name the section of the Internal Revenue Code that governs the plan. A 401(k) is the standard private-sector plan; a 403(b) covers public schools and certain nonprofits; a 457(b) is for state and local government employees.5Internal Revenue Service. IRC 403(b) Tax-Sheltered Annuity Plans TSP is the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan.6U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Thrift Savings Plan
For 2026, the employee contribution limit across these plans is $24,500. Workers age 50 and older can add $8,000 in catch-up contributions, and those turning 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the year qualify for a higher catch-up of $11,250 under SECURE 2.0.7Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
IRA on a stub means your employer is forwarding part of your pay to an Individual Retirement Account through payroll deduction.8Internal Revenue Service. Payroll Deduction IRA The 2026 IRA limit is $7,500, with an extra $1,100 catch-up at age 50 and older.7Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
ROTH beside any retirement code (ROTH 401K, ROTH IRA) means the contribution is after-tax. The money is taxed on the way in, so qualified withdrawals in retirement come out tax-free. A traditional pre-tax deduction reduces taxable income now and gets taxed at withdrawal. Both types share the same annual limit, so a $10,000 Roth 401(k) contribution plus a $14,500 traditional 401(k) contribution together hit the $24,500 cap.
Health and Welfare Deduction Codes
Health deductions are usually the biggest voluntary lines on a stub, and they change most often at open enrollment. What you elected in November is what should appear starting in January. The first stub of the year deserves a careful look.
MED INS, HMO, or PPO is your medical insurance premium. DEN or DNTL is dental. VIS or VSN is vision. The amounts show only your share; your employer’s contribution usually doesn’t appear on the stub. Coverage tier (employee-only, employee-plus-spouse, family) drives the number.
HSA, FSA, and HRA
HSA is a Health Savings Account, available only if you’re enrolled in a high-deductible health plan.9Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 – Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans The 2026 contribution limit is $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage, with an extra $1,000 allowed at age 55 and older.10Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2025-19 HSA money rolls over indefinitely.
FSA is a Flexible Spending Account (sometimes HCFSA or MEDFSA for the healthcare version). FSA funds generally must be spent within the plan year, though many employers offer a grace period or a small carryover. The 2026 healthcare FSA cap is $3,400. DCFSA or DEPCARE is a Dependent Care FSA for childcare or elder care, with its own separate limits.
HRA is a Health Reimbursement Arrangement, funded entirely by your employer. You won’t see an HRA amount deducted from your pay, but it may appear as an employer contribution line.
Section 125 Flags
CAF125, S125, or POP (Premium Only Plan) next to a health premium points to Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code, which allows premiums to be paid with pre-tax dollars. The code itself isn’t a separate deduction. It’s a marker showing the associated premium came out before taxes were calculated, which is why the taxable wages on your stub run lower than gross pay.
Insurance Codes and Imputed Income
LIFE or GTL is Group Term Life insurance. Most employers provide a base amount at no cost. Here is the piece that surprises people: if employer-paid coverage exceeds $50,000, the IRS treats the cost of the excess coverage as taxable income to you. You’ll see this labeled GTL IMPUTED or IMPUTED INCOME. It raises your taxable wages even though no extra cash arrived in your account.11Internal Revenue Service. Group-Term Life Insurance The imputed cost is based on your age and calculated from IRS tables, so it rises as you get older.12Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15-B (2026), Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits
LTD is Long-Term Disability insurance, which replaces part of your income during an extended inability to work. STD is Short-Term Disability, for shorter absences. AD&D is Accidental Death and Dismemberment, which pays benefits for fatal accidents or serious injuries such as loss of a limb. Individual premiums are usually small, but they add up over a year, so confirm you actually enrolled.
Commuter Benefit Codes
TRANSIT, COMM, or TRN is a pre-tax deduction for public transportation like subway passes and vanpools. PARKING or PARK covers qualified parking at or near your workplace. Some stubs use QTF (Qualified Transportation Fringe) as a single label for both.
For 2026 the monthly tax-free limit is $340 for transit and $340 for qualified parking. Those are separate limits, so someone who rides transit and parks at a commuter lot could shelter up to $680 per month combined.12Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15-B (2026), Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits Pre-tax commuter deductions reduce taxable income the same way a traditional 401(k) contribution does.
Garnishments and Union Dues
GARN or GRN indicates a wage garnishment. This is an involuntary deduction, usually ordered by a court, requiring your employer to withhold part of your pay and send it to a creditor. Common causes include unpaid child support, defaulted student loans, tax debts, and consumer judgments.13U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #30: Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
Federal law caps garnishment for ordinary consumer debts at the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings or the amount by which your weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment Child support garnishments can run higher, up to 50% or 60% of disposable earnings depending on the circumstances. A garnishment line you don’t recognize is worth an immediate call to payroll, because employers sometimes receive orders with mistakes in employee identification.
UN DUES or UNION is labor union membership dues, deducted through a written authorization between you and the union to fund collective bargaining and representation. If you’ve left the union or opted out under applicable law, this line should disappear. If it doesn’t, treat it as a payroll correction you need to request.
Structural Labels That Help You Check the Math
A few labels aren’t deductions themselves but tell you how to read the numbers around them. EE means employee (your portion), and ER means employer (their contribution, shown for reference but not taken from your pay). YTD is year-to-date, the running total since January 1. The YTD column is where small per-period errors become visible; a slight overcharge on dental insurance is easy to miss on one stub but obvious when the annual total runs $200 over your enrollment amount.
The stub also shows the difference between gross pay (total earned before anything is removed) and net pay (what actually reaches your account). Every abbreviation above sits between those two numbers. Add up the deductions; if they don’t bridge gross to net, something is either miscategorized or missing, and payroll can tell you which.