<prompt> Human: I just got my first paycheck. My employer wrote me out a check for the amount I would receive after taxes. Why didnt he just write me a check for the amount I should be getting paid? Im only working a summer job, my parents claim me as dependent. I doubt Im going to be paying any taxes this year. Can someone ELI5 to me how personal income tax works in this situation? Wouldnt I be better off getting the original amount and dealing with the taxes myself? Is he supposed to give me some sort of receipt stub showing me the deductions?  <response>: Your employer is required by law to withhold taxes from your pay. This is true for all employment1 . Your employer is also required to provide you a Pay Stub which is an itemized description of how your pay was calculated, and how much was withheld for each kind of tax. Here is a very over-complicated sample of a pay stub By February, he will be required to provide you a form W2 which itemizes how much you were paid in all of 2015, and how much of each kind of tax you had withheld. A copy of this must also be sent to the IRS by your employerWhen you started your employment, you should have been required to fill out a form W4 -- a tax form on which you enter a few details about your tax situation. Those details are used to determine the required tax withholding. Also a few other forms, such as to prove your legal right to work in the USIf you have not filled out a W4, and are not getting an itemized Pay Stub, but you are having taxes taken out of your pay, then your employer is breaking the law. It is also extremely likely that he is stealing from you -- it is very unlikely that he is actually using that withheld money to pay tax on your behalf. Withholding tax, but not filling out the proper forms, is a very good way to get audited and get in to trouble, as you are creating obvious evidence of the employment by paying the tax and an obvious lack of required paperwork. Its much more likely that hes just quietly not telling the IRS that youre his employee and pocketing that tax.You should insist quite firmly on getting this sorted out, as youll be responsible for any tax, regardless of whether or not your employer stole money from you, and you may end up owing penalties for not having all of the right paperwork. If your employer refuses to fix this, then you should try to find another job, and then quit and report him to the IRS. If you cant find another job, then you might want to report him at the end of the summer. Even if your employer agrees to do things properly, you should still seriously consider taking alternate employment -- your employer is being very shady if hes shady about this, hes probably equally shady elsewhere, and you dont need that kind of crap1 There are exceptions to the requirement for withholding -- they basically fall in to categories of independent contractor, and partnerowner, neither of which sounds right for your situation. In both of those situations, the contractorpartner would receive just a payment, and be responsible for taxes separately. Those situations are complex and involve different tax forms, and are unlikely to apply to your summer job. 