Wage and Tax Statement Filing

Employers must file a year-end Wage and Tax Statement with the Social Security Administration for wages paid to each employee from whom:

  • Income, social security, or Medicare taxes were withheld.

  • Income tax would have been withheld if the employee had claimed no more than one withholding allowance or had not claimed exemption from withholding on Form W-4 (employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate).

Steps Required to Set Up and Process Wage and Tax Statements

The following steps are required to set up and process Wage and Tax Statements:

  1. Define tax forms.

    Define what boxes are contained in the Wage and Tax Statement (W-2, W-2PR, W-2AS, and so on), what each box represents, and the data source for each box. For example, in the W-2, Box 01 is for wages, tips, and other compensation, and the data source is the Federal Wage Accumulator (FWT GRS TOT YTD).

  2. Define tax form print parameters.

    Define the form ID of each Wage and Tax Statement (laser form, impact printer form, pressure seal laser form, and so on), the layout style, margins, box print positions, and print text.

  3. Define tax reporting parameters.

    Define the general parameters of the process run: the calendar year, transmitter ID, form ID, and so on.

  4. Define the W-2 company.

    Define company information used to generate the W-2 report: W-2 reporting company, company name, address, and terminating business indicator.

  5. Update retirement plan and third-party sick pay flags.

  6. Generate the Pre-Load Error report.

    This predata-load report identifies probable errors in the Wage and Tax Statement.

  7. Load Wage and Tax Statement data.

    This process loads Wage and Tax Statement form information into tables so that it can be corrected and the Wage and Tax Statement printed from the corrected information.

    Note:

    Various sources are available for the data loaded into this table, including the Reporting Company table (GPUS_YE_CO_EIN), W-2 Company table (GPUS_YE_CO_TBL), and employee accumulators.

  8. Generate the Post-Load Error report.

    This report allows for correction of the loaded W-2 data. The report can be run for selected employees, all employees, selected reporting companies, or all reporting companies, and includes various sort options.

  9. Review and correct Wage and Tax Statement data.

    Review and correct data using an online component.

  10. Generate the Year-End Data Audit report.

    Use this report to audit the corrected Wage and Tax Statement data.

  11. Generate the State Tax Totals report.

    Use this report to audit state tax totals. It shows:

    • The grand total per company with all states combined.

    • The grand total of all companies by state.

    • The grand total of all states for all companies.

  12. Print the Wage and Tax Statement.

  13. Generate the W-3/W-3SS Transmittal Totals report.

    Use this report to help prepare the W-3 and W-3SS forms.

  14. Generate the W-3PR Transmittal Totals report.

    Use this report to help prepare the W-3PR form.

  15. Process the Corrected Wage and Tax Statement.

    This step consists of three components:

    1. Prepare W-2c/W-2cPR data.

    2. Audit W-2c/W-2cPR data and generate form W-3c/W-3cPR transmittal totals.

    3. Print W-2c/W-2cPR forms.

Further details for each step are discussed subsequently.