W-2 Know-How: Your 2026 Guide to Compliance and Accuracy

W-2 Know-How: Your 2026 Guide to Compliance and Accuracy

A major task of Payroll departments is providing W-2 Forms to employees and to the Social Security Administration. The Forms must be correct, complete, and filed on time or the employer may face stiff penalties. This webinar will cover the fundamentals of preparing and filing Form W-2, actions you can take now to reduce or prevent filing problems and errors, special reporting situations, and what to do when errors are discovered.

This webinar will discuss steps to take now to prevent or reduce filing problems and errors and how to handle special filing situations. How to verify employee name/number combinations, and how to file the forms electronically as well as on paper. It will identify common and not so common errors and adjustments that affect Forms W-2 and the steps to take when errors are discovered, cover the use of Form W-2c to make corrections and the due diligence steps that can establish reasonable cause for penalty abatement.

Why You Should Attend?

Payroll taxes are a serious issue for the IRS. Two thirds of federal taxes are collected through the payroll tax system. By law, employers must withhold federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes from employees’ wages. Employers are required to timely and correctly report this information using Form W-2 to both the Social Security Administration and to employees or face stiff penalties for non-compliance.

This webinar will provide you with information and resources you need for successful compliance with the reporting requirements and for establishing due diligence and reasonable cause for penalty avoidance when errors occur or corrections need to be made.

Areas Covered

• How Social Security resources can be used to prepare, submit, and correct W-2 forms
• Due dates for filing and furnishing W-2 Forms and penalties for non-compliance
• Penalties for late or incorrect W-2 Forms: Due diligence procedures to avoid penalties
• Actions to take before year end to avoid employee information errors
• Forms W-2 and W-3 line by line: What goes in all those boxes?
• What those special Box 12 codes are all about and why they must be correct
• Changes made to current Forms W-2 and W-3
• The common W-2 errors, how to avoid them and how to correct them
• What to do when an employee’s name or tax ID number is incorrect
• Methods to reconcile to Forms 941 and what to do if differences are discovered

Who Should Attend

• Accounting professionals who are involved in the processing of Form W-2
• Payroll Supervisors and Personnel
• Payroll Consultants
• Payroll Service Providers
• Public Accountants and Enrolled Agents
• Internal Auditors and Tax Compliance Officers
• Employee Benefits Administrators
• Officers and Managers with Payroll or Tax Compliance Oversight
• Company / Business Owners
• Managers/ Supervisors
• Public Agency Managers
• Audit and Compliance Personnel / Risk Managers