Tax Tip of the Week | No. 381 | New W-2 Reporting Requirements

Tax Tip of the Week | November 16, 2016 | No. 381 | New W-2 Reporting Requirements

New W-2 and 1099-MISC Filing Deadlines to Have a Significant Impact on BusinessesThis change adds an extensive amount of work for filers in January.Every tax year brings a variety of changes, whether forms are updated or regulations have changed. This year marks a particularly important year for filers, as the deadline for submitting Form W-2 to the SSA and Form 1099-MISC to the IRS has changed significantly.Beginning in 2017, for the 2016 reporting year, filers must send W-2 and 1099-MISC recipient copies and submit to the SSA/IRSIRS/SSA by January 31, regardless of method (paper or e-file). In many cases, this is months earlier, increasing workload and stress for filers.To further complicate matters, the new filing deadline, as it relates to Form 1099-MISC, only impacts filers reporting nonemployee compensation payments in box 7. Although the overwhelming majority of 1099-MISC filers will report information in box 7, there is bound to be some confusion.Historically, filers were required to provide W-2 and 1099-MISC forms to recipients by January 31; however, they were not required to submit the forms to the SSA/IRS until February 28 (paper) or March 31 (e-file).With three months of work being condensed into 30 days, this change adds an extensive amount of work for filers in January. In addition, Forms 1095-B and 1095-C filing deadlines also fall at the end of January for recipient delivery. This schedule means businesses will face a huge time crunch when planning for wage, income, and ACA reporting for the 2016 year.In the past, some businesses would file W-2 and 1099-MISC recipient copies first and wait to find out if any changes were needed prior to filing to the SSA/IRS, which lessened the risk for possible corrections. Due to the earlier deadline in 2017, businesses may need to abandon this strategy and consider filing to recipients and the SSA/IRS concurrently.To further complicate January's filing deadlines, the IRS recently eliminated the automatic 30-day extension of time to file W-2 forms. Previously, filers could obtain an automatic 30-day extension by submitting Form 8809 to the IRS on or before January 31. Filers could also request an additional 30-day extension, pushing their e-file deadline to the end of May. These automatic extensions will no longer be available when filing W-2 forms for tax year 2016.You can contact us in Dayton at 937-436-3133 and in Xenia at 937-372-3504.  Or visit our website.Rick Prewitt – the guy behind TTW...until next week.