How Do I Recover My Lost Pay Stubs?
If you’re thinking of buying a new home or applying for a business loan, you will need pay stubs to provide proof of income and employment.
Although many people try to keep their old pay stubs filed in a safe place, they often get lost, destroyed or accidentally thrown out.
In this article, we provide a step-by-step guide on how to recover lost paycheck stubs. This includes who you will need to contact and which documentation is usually required.
Firstly, What Is a Pay Stub?
Pay stubs are physical, itemized records of an employee’s wages and deductions for a specific pay period.
A paycheck stub documents:
- The number of hours the employee worked, including overtime.
- The total wages or salary that the employee was paid before tax deductions.
- All current and year-to-date federal, state and local taxes withheld from the employee’s gross pay.
- Other withholdings, such as the employee’s share of insurance premiums.
- The employee’s net pay. This refers to the total amount earned after deductions.
What Are Pay Stubs Used For?
Employers
Although there is no federal law that requires employers to issue their staff with pay stubs, the Fair Labor Standards Act states that employers should “keep employee time and pay records.”
Many employers use pay stubs to compare wage and salary expenses with other labor costs in their accounting records.
Employees
For employees, pay stubs are used as proof of stable income when applying for credit, taking out a loan, renting or buying a property.
It’s also important that employees have access to their pay stubs when filing their tax documents and returns.
Independent contractors and self-employed workers
By definition, contractors are not employees and do not have taxes withheld from their pay. Instead, contractors receive 1099 forms at the end of the year to verify their income.
In these cases, pay stubs are necessary to verify that the amount on the 1099 form is accurate.
Self-employed people also use pay stubs to keep track of their business and personal expenses for their tax returns.
It’s also important that they have records of their pay stubs when they apply for business funding, make decisions about spending and if they are audited.
How to Recover Lost Pay Stubs
Option 1: Download a Copy from the Company’s Payroll Software
Many companies use payroll software to generate pay stubs for their employees.
All you would need to do is sign into the payroll software and download a copy of the missing pay stub.
However, this is not always possible due to security, technical or privacy issues.
Option 2: Request a Copy from the Payroll or Human Resources Department
Compared to the option above, recovering a lost pay stub this way is a bit more complicated. Below, we have provided a step-by-step guide to help you make sense of the process.
Step 1:
The first step is to contact human resources or the payroll office where the pay stub was printed.
You will need to ask them what the process is for requesting copies of pay stubs, if there is a processing fee, how long it will take and what documentation you need to submit.
Remember to provide your email or postage address so that the HR or payroll office can send you the necessary forms.
Step 2:
Next, you’ll have to fill out a pay stub request form. This document is a formal request of your payroll records.
To ensure that you provide all of the necessary information, here is a list of details you should include:
- Your full name
- Social Security number
- Employee Identification Number (EIN)
- The dates for the applicable pay periods you are looking for
- Your current home address where the pay stub should be sent
Step 3:
Once you have completed the request form, email, fax or post it to the correct address and department.
If there is an administrative or processing fee, make sure that you pay it on time and send the proof of payment to the relevant payroll or human resource department.
Step 4:
If you sent the pay stub request form electronically, call the HR or payroll department on the same day to make sure that they have received it.
Similarly, if you sent the documentation via the post, contact them within 3 to 5 business days to confirm receipt.
Next, wait for your pay stub to arrive in your inbox, post box or collect from the relevant office.
Create Pay Stubs Online
Pay stubs are an important way to provide proof of your income or employment when applying for a loan, filing a tax return or buying and renting a property.
In some cases, it may not be possible to recover pay stubs. This is often the case when the record never existed in the first place or if a company goes bankrupt.
Luckily, Form Pros’ pay stub generator allows you to easily create these documents online.
All you need to do is provide basic contact details for the employer and then our intuitive form will ask you some simple questions about salary, current pay date and the pay period.
Our user-friendly platform can even help you calculate your federal and state income taxes, FICA, Medicare and Social Security withholdings.
Try our pay stub generator today and see why businesses across the country love it.