Happy December. We know that it’s an exciting time of the year for small businesses as Holiday sales increase and you put new plans in place for the upcoming year. You may even be taking the time to celebrate with your coworkers by having holiday parties and gift exchanges.

However, during all of this seasonal excitement and cheer, you can’t neglect the fact that tax season is lurking right around the corner. You need to be prepared, especially for the Form W-2 deadline. If you fail to file or to distribute copies to your employees your business will suffer the consequences in the form of major penalties. Go ahead and prepare to file now!

The W-2 Form Deadline Is Almost Here

Form W-2 serves as an annual statement that employers are required to issue to each of their employees on an annual basis. It’s used to report salary and other compensations offered during the tax year. In addition to giving copies to each of their workers, employers are also responsible for filing Form W-2 with the Social Security Administration (SSA).

W-2 Forms are very important for employees because they list all of the income that had social security, income, and Medicare taxes withheld and they will need this information to complete their personal tax returns.

Along with filing Form W-2, you will also need to file Form W-3. Form W-3 is the transmittal form that’s used to report the total earnings, social security wages, Medicare wages, and tax withholdings for each of your employees during the tax period.

The Form W-2 deadline is on January 31, 2018. That means you must have copies mailed to your employees and you must paper file or e-file your form with the SSA by January 31 in order to avoid facing penalties.

The penalty for failing to file Form W-2 by the deadline is a $30 fee per W-2 form. If you still haven’t filed after 30 days the penalty raises to $60 per form, with a maximum fine of $500 and $200 for small business owners.

Then if you fail to file by August 1, the penalty jumps up to $100 per W-2 with a maximum fine of $1,500 and $500 for small businesses. A small business is one with gross receipts equal to or less than $5 million for the past 3 most recent tax years.

Don’t let filing Form W-2 stress you out. It’s actually quite easy with the help of TaxBandits. All you need to file is your employer details, employee information, federal information such as taxes withheld and state filing information, including taxes withheld.

Once you have this information ready, simply create your free TaxBandits account follow the step-by-step e-filing guide to instantly complete your form. Our innovative features like bulk upload will help you quickly upload all of your information at once.

Plus, you can use our postal mailing center to have us mail Form W-2 copies to each of your employees. Also, with our multi-user access feature, you can allow certain users to access your account and help you file your W-2 Forms!

Contact Us

If you have any questions at all about your W-2 Form please don’t hesitate to contact the dedicated, US-based TaxBandits support team. We’re available over the phone Monday – Friday from 9 AM to 6 PM EST at 704.684.4751. We also offer live chat and 24/7 email support at support@TaxBandits.com.