By law, each employer must supply employees with a W-2 for the previous year no later than January 31. Some employers have had trouble meeting this deadline. In the last several years, the IRS has had to intervene on behalf of employees in order to get them the form so they can file their taxes by the April 15 deadline.
Here’s one high-tech solution to the problem. Some employers are now making Idaho W-2 forms available electronically so employees do not have to wait for the forms to come in the mail. Employees can access their W-2 online, either on a website or through email, as long as they have signed a consent form and received their instructions and a password to ensure they are the only ones who can retrieve their information. This also secures other people’s W-2s from those who do not have authorization to view the information.
Making W-2s available electronically will drastically reduce the number of problems employers have had delivering W-2s to their employees. When an employee moved, if they did not update their address, or if the address was not updated in all places, successful delivery became a problem.
If an employee leaves a company and moves, having a current address was always an issue. However, supplying the W-2s online does not necessarily eliminate this problem.
If an employee leaves after signing a consent form, but before receiving their password and instructions, employers must still have the ability to contact the employee, either to give them their password and instructions, or to supply them with a paper copy of their W-2.
Again, employers could be faced with the address change issue if the employee has moved. The information can also be sent via email, but this is dependent on the employer having a personal email address on file for the former employee, and, that email still being active.
While it is clear employers will still have problems delivering some W-2s on time, supplying W-2s electronically should make it easier – for both the employer and the employee.
