Recognizing an Authentic Pay Stub

Pay stubs in the working environment have proven to be essential documents. They are used for several business activities, from loans to rental applications. However, there is an increase in the manipulation of digital documents nowadays.

Recent studies have been conducted on the issue. They prove that as much as one in eight of the rental applications contain some form of fraud. Usually, this involves the alteration of income documents.

In this article, you will get all the information you need to recognize an authentic pay stub. We’ll also differentiate between fake vs real pay stubs and help you understand pay stub verification. 

What Is an Authentic Pay Stub?

Pay stubs are also known as check stubs or earning statements. They are an important document given to an employee by the employer. They include details of the pay and various deductions for a particular individual.

In finance, these documents are used in different activities and have several functions. Concerning employees, it is significant to note that pay stubs give employee wage details and other deductions. This makes them valuable when calculating their financial situation as well as when preparing their taxes. For landlords and lenders, pay stubs act as proof of income. This helps to determine the capacity of an applicant to repay.

Some basic information is usually included in an authentic pay stub. These include the employee’s full name, address, ID number, and employer details, such as name, address, and phone number. Other details include the pay period, gross pay, and deduction. Net pay and year-to-date deductions are also included.

How to Spot Fake vs Real Pay Stubs

Here are some things that should ring an alarm in a person’s mind regarding whether a pay stub is fake.

1. Formatting and Professional Appearance

Pay stubs are official and usually from a reputable company. Hence, they bear a standard structure. Professional pay stubs have uniformly typed font size and style. You get easily readable text and figures. There are properly laid out formats of the columns and rows. Company logos and images are of good quality.

Some of the signs of fake pay stubs include improper spacing and underscores. You may notice logos that appear less clear. These irregularities point to the fact that it might have been compiled rather hurriedly. More likely, they may have altered the document in some way.

2. Numerical Inconsistencies

Another easily identifiable sign would be certain numerical patterns. Rounded numbers are also something to look out for. Net pay, for instance, will never be $3,000 or $2,500 exactly. A genuine pay stub should contain small differences. Decimals with the cents’ places are often used in real-world calculations. This is a result of taxes or bill deductions.

Compare if the total pay before any deductions tallys with the total deductions. Gross pay minus total deductions should be equal to net pay. Differences in calculations can show that the documents are fake. Also, constant and up-to-date numbers should depict the total earnings and deductions in a specific financial year. The fake pay stubs may get this wrong and give it away.

3. Mixing Up Characters

Often, people confuse the letter “O” with a zero while preparing fake pay stubs. Professional accounting software usually distinguishes them. It may overtype zeros with a slash or put a straight line through the zeros. These character variations may mean that the pay stub being presented is fake. This is especially true if you notice that they change from one part of the document to another.

4. Missing or Incorrect Information

Stubs comprise essential and accurate details of the employee and the employer. All the basic information should be documented correctly. One thing that’s common with fake pay stubs is that some information may be left out. On the other hand, some may be incorrect.

5. Tax and Deduction Errors

Incorrect tax calculations are an apparent sign of forgery in pay stubs. An accurate pay stub should contain federal, state, and local tax deductions. This will depend on the employee’s income and chosen status. You can look at each jurisdiction where the standard tax rates have been set. This helps ensure that the withholdings in the pay stub are accurate.

Also, ensure that the standard deductions have been calculated correctly. Examples are Social Security and Medicare. Any variations to these standard rates are usually a sign of fake documents.

Pay Stub Verification for Authentic Pay Stub

There are several pay stub verification methods used to find an authentic pay stub:

Employer Verification

The best way to verify a pay stub is to refer to the employer. Do not use the phone number or the email address given on the pay stub if it is fake. Try to search for the company’s contact details on your own. Then, contact the employer for the purpose of background check. This way, you can easily ascertain if the mentioned pay stub is fictitious or real.

Request Additional Documentation

To improve the verification process, ask for other documents that would support the information provided on the pay stub. The W-2 forms give details of gross wages earned by an employee during that particular year and the taxes paid. Although they could also be forged, they are not as easy to forge as pay stubs.

Bank statements can also be used to verify income in terms of deposits made by the employer to the employee’s account. A proof of employment letter can also serve as an additional document. Additionally, the organization could request tax returns or Form 1099.

Use Tax Form 4506

In order to obtain more detailed confirmation, a Form 4506 can be requested from the IRS. This will authorize the tax return details. It still involves the identification of the individual but offers much reliability as it is provided by the government. The form offers the legal verification of the incomes confirmed in the reports. It can be especially helpful when comparing with the submitted pay stubs.

Pay Stub Verification Services

There are quite a few third-party services that can confirm the provided pay stubs or any other financial document. Such services have the most advanced search engines and databases to check the authenticity of the pay stubs. They can also look for anomalies. 

Hiring third-party verification can be helpful as it may take a considerable amount of time to analyze stubs. You may spend time checking for any signs of fraud that may otherwise have been easily noticed.

Wrap Up

Potential landlords, lenders, and employers need an authentic pay stub. It helps them in the decision-making process. They should be able to identify fake vs real pay stubs. Given the fact that technology is advancing, so are techniques involved in document forgery. It will be important to keep up with the modern trends used in the forging of documents. Granted, it might take a lot of time to examine pay stubs thoroughly. However, it offers many benefits to all involved parties. Thus, it is a worthy task.

Ensure your pay stubs are professional, accurate, and trusted with our pay stub generator. Our platform helps you generate authentic pay stubs that meet all verification standards. That’s for lenders, landlords, and other institutions. Avoid the risks of inaccuracies and create reliable pay stubs easily. Check it out now and make pay stub creation stress-free.

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