tax due or assessed vs tax actually paid

taxquestion685372935

Hello, I lived in Pennsylvania for all of 2025 but spent some time doing W-2 work in Virginia. While trying to finish up my return it flagged the Virginia return for discrepancies in the "Enter the amount of tax due or assessed in Virginia" and "Enter the amount of tax actually paid to Virginia" boxes. For both I put the amount of Virginia State Tax paid as listed on the W-2, which it says is unusual. For the first box, should I include Social Security, Medicare and Federal Tax withholdings that were assessed in Virginia? Or is there another issue?

kiarab

Hello taxquestion685372935,

There is indeed a difference between the amount of taxes actually paid to VA and the amount of tax due/assessed.

The amount of taxes you had withheld is an estimate of what you will owe. So these are the taxes you paid. However, when you file your VA return, you may realize that you owe more or you are getting a refund of your taxes paid. In that case, the amount of taxes withheld is not the amount of VA taxes due or assessed. It is extremely rare for the estimates to be exactly the same as what is due, hence the alert.

If you haven't already, I would recommend finishing your VA return before claiming the taxes paid to another state on your PA return. That way you know exactly how much VA taxes you actually owed vs paid. If you are still unsure, I'd recommend that you contact customer support. They'll be able to view your alerts and see what you need to do to resolve them.