W-2 Box 12 Code E — Elective deferrals to a 403(b) plan

What Box 12 Code E means

Code E reports your traditional (pre-tax) elective deferrals to a 403(b) plan — a retirement plan offered only by public schools, tax-exempt organizations described in IRC §501(c)(3), and certain ministers and church employees. If your employer is a for-profit company, you won't see a 403(b) or code E; you'll have a 401(k) (code D) instead. Tax treatment mirrors 401(k) code D exactly: contributions reduce Box 1 (federal taxable wages) but not Box 3 or Box 5, so you still pay Social Security and Medicare tax on the money now and defer only the income tax.

The annual §402(g) elective deferral limit that caps code D also caps code E — and the IRS requires you to track them together. If you contribute to a 401(k) with one employer and a 403(b) with another in the same calendar year, both draw from the same limit; you're responsible for staying under the combined cap even though neither employer can see the other's plan. The age-50 catch-up and the SECURE 2.0 super-catch-up for ages 60–63 both apply to 403(b) deferrals the same way they apply to a 401(k).

403(b) plans have one feature 401(k)s don't: a 15-year-of-service catch-up under §402(g)(7). If you've completed at least 15 years of service with the same qualifying organization — a public or private school, hospital, home health service agency, health and welfare service agency, church, or convention or association of churches — and your plan document allows it, you can defer beyond the regular limit by the smallest of $3,000 for the year, $5,000 times your years of service minus prior employer elective deferrals, or a $15,000 lifetime cap that runs down as you use it in earlier years. These figures are fixed by statute, not inflation-indexed. The catch-up stacks on top of, not instead of, the age-based catch-ups.

403(b) plans are also subject to a 'universal availability' rule: if any employee may make elective deferrals, the plan generally must let every employee do so, with narrow exceptions (for example, employees normally working under 20 hours a week). If your employer offers a 403(b) and you're not contributing, check whether you've simply never enrolled rather than being ineligible.

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