Year-End Checklist: Essential W-2 Safety Precautions for 2022

Get ready for W-2 Requests!

Your W-2’s have gone out, but we all know that as we near the April 15th tax due date, the requests for W-2 copies start rolling in. Do you have a plan?

Why have a plan?

 Due to the personal information available on the W-2, it is of the utmost importance that employers protect their employees’ identity when handling these documents. 

If you utilize a payroll service, such as Gusto or ADP, the simplest and most effective way to maintain security is to have your employees use the payroll website’s employee self-service feature. Employee self-service empowers the employee access to paycheck stubs and W-2s on their own as well as update addresses and other personal information (if this feature is turned on). For the employer, it frees up employee record maintenance time. As for W-2 requests, it reduces the amount of time it takes to reissue a W-2. 

Do you have system in place for requests?

When an employee requests a copy of their W-2, there should be an agreed upon system in place with all involved, including the store level and upper management, on how to handle the request.

As mentioned earlier, it is best to refer the employee to the payroll website. However, there can be issues which complicate an employee being able to access the website. In this case having a standard form for the employee to complete and provide to Human Resources (if there is such a department) or to a store level manager who can verify the employee’s identity is a must. It can be a simple form that the employee (or former employee) completes to update their information and where a manager attests to having viewed and verified the employee’s identity. We do not suggest photocopying identification as that has its own set of privacy issues.

Once the identity is verified, the request can be confidentially forwarded on to whomever handles payroll related functions.

Do not accept phone requests without an identity verification plan in place.

What if someone requests the W-2 on the employee’s behalf?

In our industry, it’s not unusual to have a parent or guardian of an under-aged employee request paystubs or a copy of the W-2. Never give out an employee’s W-2 to anyone but the employee.

If such a request occurs, have the parent or guardian reach out to their child to prompt them to request the W-2. You can also reach out to the employee directly to let them know a parent has requested a copy of his or her W-2 and provide them with instructions on the request process.

What about email?

NEVER send a copy of a W-2 (or any document or personal information) through email. It is not secure and can lead to identity theft. The only exception, and we’re not big fans of this, would be to password protect the document and provide the password through another form of communication such as text to the phone number on file.

Considerations for next year…

Some preventative action prior to year-end can greatly reduce the number of employees who request W-2 copies. Such as…

Halfway through the year, then again in November or December, send out an email blast and/or post a reminder to employees to inform the company of any address or email changes (ideally this can be done directly through the payroll website).  This is also something that can be mentioned by management at employee meetings.

Another step that should always be taken prior to year-end (if not every payroll) is for the payroll person (department) to proactively review year-end reports to ensure there aren’t errors, such as negative wage totals from errors in payroll processing, which in turn represses the printing of that employee’s W-2. Prevention is always less work.