Indiana Paystub Generator

Most online stub tools ask for a state and stop. In Indiana that leaves the most important field empty, because an Indiana paystub showing only state tax is missing a line the Department of Revenue expects to see and the employee will notice within one pay period. This generator asks for the county, applies that county’s 2026 rate to the correct taxable base and prints the county line where a real payroll system would. Getting that second tax line right is the whole design brief for this pay stub tool.

How This Indiana Paystub Generator Handles County Tax

Which County Rate the Tool Applies for 2026

You choose the employee’s Indiana county and the tool applies the rate published in Departmental Notice #1 for the current year. Marion County (Indianapolis) is 2.02% for 2026, Allen County (Fort Wayne) 1.59%, Elkhart 2.00%, St. Joseph 1.75%, Vanderburgh 1.25% and Tippecanoe 1.28%. All 92 counties are covered and the rate is applied to Indiana taxable wages, gross pay reduced by the employee’s Form WH-4 exemption amounts, rather than to gross. The full rate range and the rules behind it sit on the Indiana pay stub and county tax hub.

Two Things Generic Stub Tools Leave Out

Both of these are presentation decisions and both are the difference between a document that reconciles at year end and one that does not.

Naming the County Instead of Labeling It Local Tax

The tool labels the county line with the county name, not just “local tax”. Information Bulletin #16 requires box 20 of Form W-2 to carry the letter C plus the two digit adopting county code, so Marion is C49 and Allen is C02 and a pay stub that names the county reconciles cleanly to that W-2 at year end.

Keeping State and County Withholding on Separate Lines

It keeps the state and county lines separate instead of merging them into one Indiana tax total, which is what makes a payroll stub impossible to tie back to a WH-1 filing.

What to Enter on Your Indiana Pay Stub, Field by Field

Have the employee’s current Form WH-4 to hand. Every Indiana-specific input comes off that form.

Where Do the County Fields on Form WH-4 Come From?

Three of the inputs are copied straight off the certificate the employee signed and each one behaves differently.

County of Residence as of 1 January

Copy it from the WH-4. If the employee lived in an Indiana county on that date, its rate applies regardless of where the work happens.

County of Principal Employment as of 1 January

Also from the WH-4 and it only drives withholding if the employee lived outside Indiana on 1 January.

Exemptions From WH-4 Lines 5 Through 8

Line 5 personal exemptions are worth 1,000 dollars each per year, line 6 and line 7 dependent exemptions 1,500 dollars each and line 8 adopted child exemptions 3,000 dollars each. The tool converts the annual total into a per period deduction constant using your pay frequency, as Departmental Notice #1 instructs.

Pay Frequency, Hours and Rate

Pay frequency can be weekly, biweekly, semimonthly or monthly. This changes the exemption constant, not the rates. Indiana also wants hours worked on the statement, so hourly records should carry regular and overtime hours on separate lines, each with its own rate.

Entering Only Deductions the Employee Authorized

Enter only amounts the employee authorized in writing. Indiana is unusually strict about what counts as authorization and the section below sets out the test each line has to pass.

Worked Example: A Semi-Monthly Paycheck

Here is a full semi-monthly stub for an employee in Indianapolis earning $50.00 an hour, with 80 regular hours and no overtime for the period.

Federal withholding depends on the employee's W-4, so treat that line as illustrative. FICA is fixed, and the Indiana line here shows only the flat 2.95% state rate. A real stub also adds the county rate for wherever the employee lived on January 1.

A Worked Weekly Paycheck Stub for a Marion County Employee

The Numbers Behind One 44 Hour Warehouse Week

A warehouse employee in Indianapolis is paid 22.50 dollars an hour and works 44 hours in the week. Her WH-4 shows one personal exemption on line 5 and one dependent on line 6, so 2,500 dollars a year, or 48.08 dollars a week. She has authorized a 12.00 dollar weekly uniform deduction in writing.

Federal income tax from her Form W-4 sits above this and is unchanged by anything Indiana does.

What Changes if the Same Worker Lives in Allen County

Now change one field. If her WH-4 named Allen County instead, the county line falls to 15.69 dollars and the same 1,035.00 dollar gross leaves 899.02 dollars rather than 894.77. Same hours, same rate, same employer, 4.25 dollars a week apart, which is why the county selector is the first thing to check when a paycheck stub looks wrong.

Deductions You Can Lawfully Show on an Indiana Payroll Stub

This is where Indiana employers get caught.

The Five Part Wage Assignment Test Under IC 22-2-6-2

Under IC 22-2-6-2 a wage assignment is valid only if it is in writing, signed by the employee personally, revocable at any time by the employee on written notice, agreed to in writing by the employer and delivered to the employer as an executed copy within ten days. A verbal agreement or a line in a handbook satisfies none of that.

Which Deduction Purposes Indiana Actually Permits

The statute also limits what the deduction may be for. Permissible purposes include insurance premiums, charitable contributions, union dues, employer-sold merchandise or food bought at the employee’s request, employer loans, hospital, medical or pension plan contributions, credit union payments, uniforms and job-related clothing at direct cost only, employment equipment or tools at direct cost only, education or skills training reimbursement and payroll or vacation pay advances. If a line on your paycheck stub does not map to one of those categories, the authorization behind it is likely invalid even if the employee signed something.

How to Recover an Overpayment Without Breaking IC 22-2-6-4

Overpayment recovery has its own rule and it runs in three parts.

Two Weeks Notice Before the First Deduction

Give the employee two weeks notice before you take anything back. Amounts the employee disputes cannot be deducted at all.

The Cap on Each Period’s Recovery

Cap the per period deduction at the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings for that week or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage.

The Misplaced Decimal Point Exception

The single exception is an overpayment equal to ten times the employee’s gross wages caused by a misplaced decimal point, which may be recovered immediately.

Indiana Check Stub Codes for Deduction and Employer Tax Lines

Tax line codes are covered on the hub page. The codes below are the deduction and employer side abbreviations you set up inside the generator.

Deduction Codes and the Statute Behind Each One

Code names are chosen by each payroll provider, so the middle column is the usual meaning rather than a fixed standard. The statutory column is the test the deduction has to pass.

Why an Unemployment Premium Never Belongs in the Employee Column

An employer-side unemployment amount sitting in the employee deduction column is a setup error, not a rounding difference. If you see one, the fix is in your payroll setup, not on the document.

Who in Indiana Needs a County Aware Stub Builder

Employers Running Payroll Across Several Counties

One payroll run in Indiana can carry several different county rates, because the rate travels with the employee rather than with the worksite.

Multi County Contractors Based in Fort Wayne

A contractor headquartered in Fort Wayne with crews in Allen, Whitley and DeKalb counties needs three county rates on one payroll run, which is why the county is chosen per employee.

Recreational Vehicle and Supplier Shops Around Elkhart

Heavy overtime weeks mean hours and rate must appear correctly on every paycheck stub, the field Indiana’s statement rule names first.

Restaurants in Indianapolis, Bloomington and Lafayette

Tip credit arrangements need the cash wage and the tips as distinct lines, not merged into one gross figure.

Contractors and Household Employers

Two other groups reach for an Indiana check stub maker and each needs a different output.

1099 Contractors in Evansville and South Bend

A contractor is not subject to employer withholding, so the honest output is an earnings record with no state or county tax lines rather than a pay stub inventing withholding nobody remitted.

Household Employers Who Withhold and File WH-1

If you pay a nanny or caregiver in Indiana and withhold, you owe the county line too and you file Form WH-1 for the period plus Form WH-3 at year end, with Schedule IN-WH3 on paper. Late WH-3 filings carry a 10 dollar penalty per withholding document.

Mistakes the Indiana Paystub Generator Is Built to Catch

County Selection Errors the Tool Flags

• Picking the county the office sits in rather than the county on the WH-4. For an Indiana resident, residence on 1 January governs.
• Switching counties mid-year after a move. The rate is locked for the calendar year, so a corrected stub should not quietly change counties in July.
• Assuming last year’s rate, when six counties moved for 2026 and Indiana can revise again in October.

Calculation and Reconciliation Errors

• Running the county rate on gross pay instead of on the same base as the state tax, after the WH-4 exemption amounts.
• Rolling state and county into one “IN tax” line, which breaks reconciliation to your WH-1 remittance and to boxes 17 and 19 of the W-2.
• Adding a deduction with no signed, revocable authorization on file. Under IC 22-2-6-2 the missing paperwork, not the amount, makes it unlawful.

What the Finished Indiana Wage Statement Shows

Preview on Screen, Then Download the PDF

Fill the form, preview the whole document on screen before paying, then download a print ready PDF for 4.99 dollars. It carries employer and employee details, pay period and pay date, hours and rate, gross, each tax line separately including the named county, each authorized deduction, net pay and year to date columns. If you want to model take-home before you build the document, run the figures through the Indiana paycheck calculator first.

Generating Records From Payroll You Actually Ran

Generate stubs from payroll figures you actually paid. If you are rebuilding a lost document, work from bank records and your WH-1 filings so the county line matches what you remitted for that employee that year. Indiana’s 1 January rule makes a fabricated record unusually easy to disprove, because the county rate on the pay stub, the county on the WH-4 and the code in box 20 of the W-2 all have to agree and the same county figures resurface on the annual return covered under Indiana income tax.