How To Use An Online W2 Creator For Free During Tax Season

While preparing W2 forms may seem intimidating to employers, there are many, oftentimes free, services available online to help in their creation. These can greatly expedite the process by giving a reliable and efficient means of filling them out. While it is up to the employer to ensure the correctness of the information, form creators can ease the burden of making these official documents to distribute by providing a clear template. Here are some tips to get started so that you can make the most of these tools.

Gather Your Required Information

First, you must get all the required information together. This will include your business name, address, and state ID tax number as well as your employees’ names, addresses, and social security numbers. You will also need to know your total wages, social security, as well as all your tax details. Once obtaining this information, it should be easy to input into any online creator quickly and efficiently.

Find The Best Online W2 Creator

Finding the right W2 creator for your business will make the process much easier in the long run. Some things to look for include pricing, an intuitive interface, and customer support. Certain online creators will allow for different file types or may have the ability to plug into the payroll platform you use. Many pay stub generators offer their own W2 maker which will save you time on data entry. All of these will factor into what W2 creator is right for you and your business.

Verify Employee SSNs & Personal Data

For wage reporting purposes, verify your employees’ names and social security numbers. To do so, you can utilize the Consent Based Social Security Verification Service provided online by the Social Security Administration. Once enrolling your business in this service using your Employer Identification Number, you will have access to their services. If you find an SSN number does not match, it is advised to check your employee’s social security card and check with any Social Security Office to sort out the problem. Verification of SSNs and going back over your payroll records is important to correctly preparing your W2.

Outline Your Tax Payment Details

On the W2 form, there are itemized financial information boxes consisting of 20 parts. This will be a detailed list of things such as federal income tax withheld, Social Security wages, and dependent care benefits. Check that all your information is accurate and correctly reported. The last portion of these boxes are regarding state laws and are key details as your business is subject to state tax laws as well as the general tax laws. Outlining these details ahead of time will make creating your W2 form much simpler.

Avoid Any Common Errors

Before filling out your form, ensure you are aware of common mistakes. When obtaining the form itself, check that it is the correct year. Double check your data such as employee names and social security numbers. These forms must be filled out with black ink and when using these generators, make certain that the font is legible. In boxes that list dollar amounts, do not add a dollar sign and do not exclude decimal points and cents from your entries. Also, do not miss the state tax filing deadline of January 31 as there are penalties for doing so. Knowing about these frequent errors can help you avoid issues within your own forms.

Though creating a W2 form may seem discouraging, online W2 form creators will help you along. Once gathering your information and finding the right form creator for your business, the creation will be relatively painless. It is still crucial that you double check any information such as your tax payment details, employee SSNs, as well as for any common errors, but you will find that these online form creators can accelerate what otherwise may be a tedious process.

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