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Qualified Overtime (Box 12 Code TT) Calculator

Build the employee’s full-year Box 12 code TT total below — most years take just one or two rows, not one per paycheck.

TY2026 reporting  ·  W‑2 box 12 code TT

A note on W‑2s. CertiFlow doesn’t file W‑2s yet, and we won’t until that service meets our standards. You shouldn’t have to wait for good information, though. We want you to have the most accurate, trustworthy answer we can give, whether or not you ever use CertiFlow.

Looking for the tips box instead? What goes in W‑2 box 12 code TP →

New for tax year 2026, code TT is the OBBBA “No Tax on Overtime” deduction’s counterpart to code TP for tips. It reports one specific number: the overtime premium the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) actually requires (pg 5) — the extra half-pay an employee is legally owed for hours worked past 40 in a single week. Not everything a paycheck calls “overtime” qualifies, and not every employee is even eligible.

This calculator assumes

  • An hourly employee who’s legally eligible for overtime. Payroll calls this “FLSA‑nonexempt” — most hourly workers qualify. If a job is FLSA-exempt instead, none of that person’s extra pay counts here, no matter what a contract, union agreement, or company policy calls it.
  • Pay built only from a base hourly rate plus an overtime multiplier. No bonuses, commissions, or shift differentials folded into the rate.
  • Only hours that clear the FLSA’s “over 40 in a single workweek” threshold. Leave out state-mandated daily overtime (California, Colorado) (pg 7) and night/weekend/holiday premiums — unless those same hours also cross the 40-hour weekly mark.

Think in segments of the year, not paychecks: one row covers every week that shared the same base rate and OT multiplier, with the hours added up across all of them. Most employees need just one row for the year. Add a second only when something changed — a raise partway through, or a stretch of holiday double-time mixed in with the usual 1.5x.

Summed across every week in this segment

1.5 unless you paid double time

Segment OT hours Multiplier Straight-time Actual pay Qualified Excess
YTD total — Box 12 code TT $0.00 $0.00

Add a row above — one covers most employees for the whole year.

Why this isn’t just “what you paid minus straight time”

Bottom line: the employee only gets a deduction for the “half,” the premium the FLSA requires. With time-and-a-half, that is the whole premium. With double time, say for a holiday, the extra half doesn’t count and stays out of box 12 TT. Per the IRS, anything beyond what the FLSA requires doesn’t count (pg 7).

This calculator always computes hours × rate × 0.5 for the qualified column, regardless of the multiplier entered — so it’s correct whether payroll used 1.5x, 2x, or anything else. The multiplier field only changes the “actual pay” and “excess” columns, which are shown for your own reconciliation, not reported anywhere.

The $12,500 single / $25,000 joint deduction cap (pg 2) and the MAGI phase-out that follow this number aren’t part of this calculation — same as box 12 code TP, they’re the employee’s own math on Schedule 1‑A, using whatever total lands in box 12 TT as a straight input.