W-2 Express

Updated: 09/20/2022 10:46 AM

Every year, business owners face the job of reporting wages for work preformed. Anyone who is a regular employee of the company and receives a regular paycheck must have their wages reported using a W-2 tax form. This is the most common type of wage reporting; it reports earnings and withholdings for each employee, and must be filed to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, in some cases, the local state agency as well.

The IRS requires employers to report all income they pay, whether to employees or independent contractors. W-2 are the most commonly known form, used to report employee income, medicare and social security taxes, and any other applicable holdings for the calendar year. They should also report tips and any other compensation, including vacation allowances, bonuses, severance pay, moving expense payments, certain kinds of travel allowances, and certain kinds sick pay. It’s important to note that W-2 forms are different from 1099-MISC forms, which are used to report compensation paid to independent contractors, i.e. non-employees.

Filing W-2 forms requires creating multiple copies, which are filed to the SSA (and in some cases the state), kept by the employer, and send to the employee, or recipient.

To avoid paying penalties, employers must mail W-2 recipient copies by January 31st and must e-file W-2s to the SSA no later than March 31st (paper filing deadline is February 28th). State filing deadlines are different for each state.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) handles the collection of wage information – not to be confused with other incomes that are reported on form 1099 or 1042S. The SSA follows a lot of the same regulations as the IRS regarding reporting of wage information including the PENALTIES.

Every business or person who has one or more employees to whom you made payments (including noncash payments) for the employee’s services in your trade or business during the previous calendar year must file a form W2 to the SSA.

W-2 Express is approved by the SSA for W-2, W-3 laser forms on plain paper. Our substitute forms fully comply with the rules in Pub 1141.

The SSA encourages all employers to e-file. E-filing can save you time and effort and helps ensure accuracy. You must e-file if you are required to file 250 or more Forms W-2. If you are required to e-file but fail to do so, you may incur a penalty. With W-2 Express you can e-file directly from your computer to the SSA for FREE, if you have an account-or we can do it for you for $75 up to 10,000 records. We provide you with confirmation from the SSA that your file was successfully e-filed and if there are any issues, we will work with you to get them corrected and resubmitted.