Frequently asked questions

Yes, creating a pay-stub-style document is legal when it accurately summarizes real income and is not used to mislead anyone. Self-employed workers, contractors, and small businesses often prepare income summaries for their own records or for review packets. Falsifying income, inventing an employer, or submitting a stub that does not match the records behind it can be fraud.

Acceptance depends on the reviewer and the rest of the file. A generated stub is strongest when it summarizes real income and can be reconciled against bank deposits, tax returns, 1099s, invoices, employer records, or platform statements. Some lenders, landlords, agencies, and immigration forms require specific documents, so check their instructions before submitting a self-prepared summary.

Before you pay, the free watermarked preview shows every calculation and line item, so review it carefully and edit any input as many times as you like. After purchase, if you find that the clean PDF differs materially from the preview you approved, or that our tax engine produced a calculation that's demonstrably incorrect for the inputs you provided, contact support@paystubpilot.com from the email used at checkout, include your Stub # (on the receipt and the PDF), and we'll re-generate or refund at our discretion. See our Refund Policy for full details.

Paystub Pilot uses published IRS withholding tables, state tax schedules, Social Security wage-base limits, Medicare and Additional Medicare thresholds, and state-specific lines such as California SDI where supported. Canadian stubs take federal and provincial/territorial tax from the CRA's published tables, plus CPP, EI, and Quebec QPIP where applicable. These are document-generation estimates, not payroll filing, tax preparation, or legal advice.

Yes. Tax tables are reviewed annually as the IRS, CRA, states, and provinces publish new figures. Mid-year rate changes or corrections are handled as calculator updates, then covered by regression tests where the change affects supported calculations.

Our generator handles standard tax withholding for most situations: multiple filing statuses (Single, Married Filing Jointly, Married Filing Separately, Head of Household), various deduction types, and all standard payroll frequencies. For complex situations like side income or international workers, we recommend consulting with a tax professional in addition to using our tool.

When the pay period number is above 1, the Earnings step shows an optional "Gross pay earlier this year" field. Enter what was paid before this period and the YTD lines and the Social Security and CPP caps use it. Leave it blank and YTD is projected from this period, assuming the same pay every period, so it won't match your records if pay varied earlier in the year. Subscribers can use "Make next period's stub" after a download to roll YTD forward.

By default, bonuses and commissions are added to that period's regular pay and federal tax is withheld on the total, like any other paycheck (the IRS aggregate method). On the Earnings step you can change the "Bonus & commission tax method" to the flat supplemental rate instead: 22% on supplemental pay up to $1M and 37% on the part above it. The $1M check only looks at the supplemental pay on the stub you're making, not what was paid earlier in the year, so someone past $1M in supplemental wages across several stubs can show a little less withheld than their employer would take. At that level of pay, have a tax professional confirm the withholding.

No account is required for a single pay stub. Enter the details, generate the watermarked preview, and purchase the clean PDF only if it looks right. Buy signed in, or save the stub to your account from the receipt page, and it stays in your history. Subscriptions, saved profiles, and batch downloads need an account.

W-2 employment is traditional employment where an employer withholds taxes from your paycheck. You receive a W-2 form at year-end showing your income and tax withholdings. 1099 contractors are self-employed or independent contractors who receive 1099 forms showing their income but handle their own tax payments. With 1099 income, you're responsible for paying self-employment taxes (approximately 15.3% for Social Security and Medicare). Paystub Pilot supports both: W-2 stubs show withholding; 1099 stubs show gross pay with nothing withheld.

Yes. Paystub Pilot produces employee and recipient copies of Form W-2, 1099-NEC, the Canadian T4 slip and the T4A slip for tax year 2025 or 2026. Enter the year's figures from your payroll records; boxes that follow from other boxes (Social Security and Medicare tax on the W-2) are calculated for you, and the T4 shows the CPP and EI you'd expect beside the boxes you fill in and checks them against the year's ceilings. Each form is $4.99, or included with a subscription, and the watermarked preview is free. The copy filed with the SSA, IRS, or CRA (W-2 Copy A, 1099 Copy A, the T4 Summary) is not part of the PDF; filing it remains the employer's responsibility. A Quebec employee's RL-1 is issued through Revenu Québec or your payroll software; the T4 page shows the Quebec figures to check it against.

There are 11 PDF templates for employee stubs (Classic, Modern, Compact, Detailed, Minimalist, Executive, Studio, Nordic, Carbon, Aurora, and Midnight) plus a Contractor layout for 1099 workers. Each keeps the core wage-statement fields visible: company or business details, worker details, pay period, gross pay, deductions, tax lines, YTD totals, and net pay. You can also add a company logo.

Our pay stub generator includes standard pre-tax deductions (health insurance, 401k, dependent care FSA) and post-tax deductions, with tax-specific handling for each type. You can customize deduction amounts to match your situation. We handle the tax implications correctly: pre-tax deductions reduce your taxable income, while post-tax deductions don't.

Data transmission uses HTTPS with TLS encryption. Payments run through Stripe, so Paystub Pilot does not receive or store your card number. Previews aren't saved. When you buy a PDF we keep that stub so you can download it again from your account history. We don't email the PDF. Ask us and we'll delete it.

Yes. After payment, the clean PDF downloads without the preview watermark. To download it again later, buy signed in or save it to your account from the receipt page, then open your history.

The PDF downloads in your browser right after payment. We don't email it. To download it again, open your history: stubs bought signed in, or saved to your account from the receipt page, are there.

If you bought signed in or saved the stub to your account, sign in and it's in your history. A guest purchase that wasn't saved can only be downloaded again from its receipt page.

There are two plans: monthly at $14.99 a month or annual at $149.99 a year. Both include unlimited pay stub downloads, W-2, 1099-NEC, T4 and T4A forms, saved profiles, dashboard history, per-employee year-end summaries, and batch ZIP downloads. They are meant for repeat pay runs or users who generate several stubs per month.

There's no monthly cap. To keep PDFs fast for everyone, you can download up to 30 stubs or forms an hour, and batch up to 10 employees at a time.

Yes. Email support@paystubpilot.com and we'll move you between monthly and annual. You can update your card or cancel yourself from the billing portal in your dashboard.

Before purchasing, generate the watermarked PDF and review the layout, tax lines, deductions, YTD totals, and net pay. If something is wrong, edit the inputs and preview again. Payment is only for the clean PDF.