Responsible use

What this tool produces

A document laid out from figures you enter. The withholding lines are computed from published tables, but the wages, hours and dates are yours. Nothing here is verified against an employer, a bank or a tax authority, and nothing here is issued by an employer. It is a self-generated record, and it should be described as one to anybody who asks where it came from.

When making your own pay stub is legitimate

Most of the reasons people reach this site are ordinary ones:

• keeping your own records of pay you actually received, in a form you can file or print;
• a small employer or a household employer documenting wages that were really paid, where there is no payroll provider issuing stubs;
• someone self-employed recording draws or contract income for their own bookkeeping;
• recreating a stub you lost, using the same figures your employer already reported.

What these have in common is that the numbers on the document are numbers that happened. The document is a record of something, not evidence of something.

What turns it into a crime

Creating or submitting falsified pay documents is a crime under federal and state law. It is prosecuted. The document itself is rarely the offence; presenting it as proof of income that was not earned is. In practice that means:

• overstating income to obtain a loan, a mortgage, a credit line or a lease, which can also be charged as bank, wire or mail fraud;
• submitting invented earnings in support of an immigration, benefits or assistance application;
• passing a self-generated document off as one issued by an employer, including by adding an employer's name or logo to earnings that employer never paid;
• producing a stub for somebody else to use in any of the above.

A landlord, lender or agency that suspects a document was fabricated will usually verify it with the employer directly, and the attempt is what surfaces.

What we do not do

We do not verify employment, income, identity or anything else. We do not contact employers, and we cannot confirm to a third party that a document produced here is accurate, because we have no way of knowing. We are not a payroll provider and give no tax, legal or financial advice; see section 4 of the terms.

What happens if the tool is misused

Fabricating a document is against these terms, and we may refuse service or end access, without a refund, where we believe they are being broken. We keep a free generated file for seven days and a paid one for 30 days from the payment, and then delete them; what we hold and for how long is described in the privacy policy.

If you are not sure

If your situation is not obviously one of the ordinary ones above, ask a lawyer or an accountant rather than us: we cannot tell you whether a particular use is lawful. For anything about the tool itself, write to support@paystubdesk.com and we reply within one business day.

Pay stubs are generated from the information you enter. This site does not verify employment or income, and it is not a payroll or tax advisory service. Creating or submitting falsified pay documents is a crime under federal and state law. Use this tool only for records you are authorized to produce.