Form W-2

Form W-2 includes wage and salary information as well as federal, state, and other taxes that were withheld. This information is used by the employee when they complete their individual tax return using Form 1040. When an employee prepares their individual tax return for a tax year, the withholding amount from Form W-2 is subtracted from the tax due. It is possible to receive a refund from the IRS if more income was withheld than necessary. ==Filing requirements==

Form W-2 must be completed by the employers and be in the mail to be sent to employees by January 31. The deadline for filing electronic or paper W-2 Forms to the Social Security Administration (SSA) is also January 31. If over 250 instances of Form W-2 are being filed for the year, electronic filing is required. The form consists of six copies: • Copy A – Submitted by the employer to the Social Security Administration. (In addition, the employer must also submit Form W-3, which is a summary of all Forms W-2 completed, along with all Copies A submitted. The Form W-3 must be signed by the employer.) • Copy B – To be sent to the employee and filed by the employee with the employee's federal income tax returns. • Copy C – To be sent to the employee, to be retained by the employee for the employee's records. • Copy D – To be retained by the employer, for the employer's records. • Copy 1 – To be filed with the employer's state or local income tax returns (if any). • Copy 2 – To be filed with the employee's state or local income tax returns (if any). Employers are instructed to send copies B, C, 1, and 2 to their employees generally by January 31 of the year immediately following the year of income to which the Form W-2 relates, which gives these taxpayers about months before the April 15 income tax due date. The Form W-2, with Form W-3, generally must be filed by the employer with the Social Security Administration by the end of February. Filing modalities Traditionally Form W-2 has been completed by paper. Tax compliance software such as TurboTax allow the form to be completed electronically. For paper filing, Form W-2 can be ordered from the IRS website. When filing by paper, Copy A of the form cannot be printed from the IRS website. In other words, the official form ordered from the IRS must be used. ==Penalties==

Late filings within 30 days of the due date incur a penalty of $30 per form. After 30 days but before August 1, the penalty increases to $60 per form (capped between $200–500 depending on the size of the business). After August 1, the penalty increases to $100 per form (capped between $500–1500 depending on the size of the business). The penalty for a single incorrect Form W-2 is $250 per receiving party (capped annually at $3 million); this means a single incorrect Form W-2 to both the employer and the IRS incurs a penalty of $500. The penalty for intentionally failing to file is $500. Further penalties exist for illegible forms and for filing by paper even past the 250 form limit. ==History==

Use of Form W-2 was established by the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943 as part of an effort to withhold income at source. The first Form W-2s were issued to employees in 1944. In 1965, the form's name was changed from "Withholding Tax Statement" to "Wage and Tax Statement" (current name). == Phishing scheme involving W-2s ==

In March 2016, the IRS issued an alert concerning a new type of phishing email attack which attempts to lure human resources, accounting, or payroll staff into disclosing the W-2 information of all employees within a company, presumably intended for use in tax-related identity theft, which the IRS defines as "...when someone uses your stolen Social Security number to file a tax return claiming a fraudulent refund." This may give a cybercriminal enough information to fraudulently file a tax return on the victim's behalf and direct the tax refund to the cybercriminal's bank account. This phishing scheme is particularly characterized by its use of spear-phishing (emails sent to specific individuals) and email spoofing to pose as a company executive requesting the W-2 information, thereby increasing the urgency of the response and catching payroll staff off-guard: • "Can you send me the updated list of employees with full details (Name, Social Security Number, Date of Birth, Home Address, Salary)." • "Kindly send me the individual 2015 W-2 (PDF) and earnings summary of all W-2 of our company staff for a quick review." • "I want you to send me the list of W-2 copies of employees' wage and tax statements for 2015, I need them in PDF file type, you can send it as an attachment. Kindly prepare the lists and email them to me asap." Large companies such as Snap Inc., Mansueto Ventures, and Seagate fell victim to this phishing scheme in early March 2016. Those in the cybersecurity industry categorize this phishing scheme as a type of CEO Fraud, while the FBI's Criminal, Cyber, and International Operations Divisions classify it as a type of "business email compromise" or BEC. ==Analogs in other countries==