January 31 arrives fast. Your employees get correct W-2s on time, the Social Security Administration gets matching copies, and the totals agree with everything you reported during the year.
W-2 filing for employers is where a year of payroll gets checked all at once. If a quarter was filed wrong, a bonus was paid by check outside payroll or an employee moved in June without telling anyone, January is when it shows. Employees need their forms to file their own returns, and one mistake means a corrected form and a second round of questions.
Our W-2 preparation services start well before January. Alex reviews the year's payroll in the fall, problems get fixed while there's still time, and December's final run closes the year cleanly. It's part of our payroll services in Homestead, FL, and it draws on the same records as your weekly and bi-weekly payroll processing.
If payroll was done by hand or the records are scattered, they're rebuilt first so the W-2s show what was actually paid. People you paid as contractors get a 1099 instead, handled through 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC preparation.
Year-end payroll forms follow the same order every year, so nothing is left for the last week of January.
In the fall, every employee's name, address and Social Security number is checked, along with year-to-date wages and reported tips. Anything paid outside payroll is found and brought in before the last run.
The final payroll of the year picks up bonuses, owner pay adjustments and corrections. The fourth-quarter Form 941 and the annual Form 940 are then prepared from the same closed numbers.
W-2 totals are matched to the year's quarterly 941s. A W-2 that doesn't agree with the 941s is the kind of gap that brings a letter months later, so it gets fixed now.
Employees receive their W-2s by January 31 and can also see them in Gusto. Copies go to the Social Security Administration with Form W-3 by the same date, and you keep a full set for your records.
These entries get a second look on every W-2 before it goes out.
Tips your employees report to you run through payroll and onto the W-2. In restaurants, salons and barbershops, that line has to match what was reported during the year, or employees end up with forms that don't fit their own records.
An S-Corp owner's reasonable salary belongs on a W-2 like any employee's, and it has to agree with the wages deducted on the Form 1120-S. It's reviewed with the business return in mind.
If payroll moved to Gusto partway through the year, the earlier wages are loaded in so each employee gets one complete W-2 instead of two partial ones from two different systems.
Someone paid by the hour on your schedule may belong on payroll, not on a 1099. Classification depends on the facts of control and pay, and the question gets answered before forms go out.
A corrected W-2 is prepared and sent to the employee and to the Social Security Administration. If the error started in payroll itself, the related 941 may need a correction too, so both are fixed together and the year still agrees from start to finish.
No. Florida has no personal state income tax, so there's no state W-2 filing for Florida wages. The Florida side of payroll is the quarterly reemployment tax report, Form RT-6. W-2s go to your employees and to the Social Security Administration with Form W-3.
Yes, as long as the payroll records can be gathered: pay registers, bank statements and the 941s that were filed. The year is reconciled before any form is prepared. If the records are thin, missing pay periods are rebuilt from the bank first, which takes longer, so starting in the fall helps.
Tell us how many employees you paid this year and how payroll was run. You'll know what's needed to get every W-2 out correctly and on time.