It’s February 1st and the beginning of call season for requests by employees to payroll departments for reissue and corrections to their Form W-2. The reasons vary from “it must be in my hands by January 31st” to “you have my wrong address or “I didn’t know that was my W-2 and misplaced it” Whatever the reason employers are obliged to meet these request; but by what date and manner?
The Form W-2, which is also referred as a “Wage and Tax Statement”, is used as an information return to report wages paid to employees and the taxes withheld from them. The form is also used to report FICA taxes to the Social Security Administration. Relevant amounts on Form W-2 are reported by the Social Security Administration to the Internal Revenue Service. The Form W-2 reports income on a calendar year (January 1 through December 31) basis, regardless of the fiscal year used by the employer or employee for other Federal tax purposes.
In the IRS Tax Topic 154, What to Do If You Are Missing A W-2, the IRS advises employees to “allow a reasonable amount of time for [the employer] to resend or to issue the W-2”. The notice also advises employees to wait until at least February 14th before requesting a duplicate form. The amount of waiting time to begin the reissue process and the frequency of reprints is determined by the employer. Once a request is made by the employee and a duplicate form is not received in a reasonable amount of time, employees have the option of contacting the IRS which will intercede in the resolution of the case.
Reissue Fee
The IRS allows employers to charge a “nominal” fee for the issuance of a duplicate Form W-2. Employers should state in their workplace manual any fees for services which can help prevent misunderstandings by employees. More employers are charging a fee for addresses not updated or pass on fees charged by 3rd party vendor contracted to perform W-2 services for employer.
Electronic Forms
Written permission to use and accept electronic forms is only regulated by the IRS on the distribution of the first copy of the W-2 to employees. There are no IRS requirements for receiving consent from the employee to issue a duplicate form to the employee in electronic format.
Reissued Statement
A “reissued statement” must be noted on copies of paper forms and paper copies of electronic forms. If the original form was issued electronically and a duplicate will also be issued electronically, the form does not have to indicate “reissued statement.”
Form W-2 – Employees Copy
Employee Form W-2 consist of three portions, copies B (Employee’s Federal copy), C (Employee’s record), and 2 (Employee’s State, City and Local copy). When reissuing duplicate copies to employees, an exact copy of the original form must be provided. Providing a partial form or the employer’s copy (Copy D) does not fulfill the reissue requirement.
A request form – “Duplicate W-2 Request”
A request form is common practice among employers. The W-2 reissue / duplicate request form would normally contain employees name, current mailing address, city and state, including zip code, and Social Security number; plus contact number. Additional information is collected listing “request reasons” such as never received, misplaced or destroyed, or incorrect name or SSN. With the growing problem of identity theft it is not an unreasonable precaution for employers to require proof of identity or to verify the person making the request. If a request form is the policy of the employer, the employer must make the request form available to employees via fax, mail, e-mail, or in person. In turn, the employer must be able to receive the form in the same manner.
Undeliverable Forms W-2.
Employee copies of Forms W-2 that are returned as undeliverable should be kept for 4 years. However, if the undelivered W-2 can be produced electronically through April 15th of the fourth year after the year of issue, employers do not need to keep undeliverable employee copies.
