What Year-End W-2 Work Covers
- W-2 prepared for every employee, including those who left mid-year
- Employee copies delivered by the January 31 deadline
- Form W-3 transmittal filed with the Social Security Administration
- Alabama year-end reconciliation filed
- Totals reconciled against all four quarterly 941 filings
- Special items reported correctly, including retirement, health, and fringe benefits
Where Year-End Goes Sideways
Almost every W-2 problem starts earlier in the year and only becomes visible in January.
- An employee address that was never updated
- A shareholder health insurance benefit that was never added to wages
- A bonus paid outside payroll and never taxed
- Personal use of a company vehicle that was never valued
- A quarter where the 941 and the register never quite agreed
Where payroll is handled here through the year, those items are caught in the quarter they occur, which is when they are still cheap to correct.
Corrections
If a W-2 has already gone out with an error, a corrected form is prepared and transmitted. Doing it promptly matters, because employees file on what they were given and a late correction can mean an amended personal return for each of them.
W-2 Filing For Huntsville, AL Employers
Year-end filings are prepared for employers across Huntsville, AL, Harvest, AL, and North Alabama, including businesses that ran payroll themselves during the year and want the year-end work handled properly.
What Clients Ask About W-2 Preparation & Filing
When are W-2s due?
Employee copies and the Social Security Administration filing are both due by January 31. There is no extension for the employee deadline in practice, so December preparation matters.
What if an employee never gives me an address?
Deliver the copy by whatever documented means you have and keep the record. The filing obligation stands regardless of whether the employee collects it.
Can you prepare W-2s if I ran payroll myself?
Yes, provided the payroll register and quarterly filings are available so the totals can be reconciled before anything is transmitted.
Next Steps Clients Take
Payroll Tax Deposits & Filings (941, 940)
Federal deposits on your assigned schedule, quarterly Form 941, annual Form 940, and Alabama withholding, each reconciled to the payroll register and the books before filing so the year-end W-2 totals already agree.
Read morePayroll Processing
Weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, and monthly payroll, run through QuickBooks Payroll or Patriot with direct deposit, stubs, deductions, and the journal entries posted into the same period as the books.
Read more1099-NEC / 1099-MISC Preparation & Filing
Vendor activity reviewed against the reporting thresholds, contractors separated from exempt payees, missing W-9s chased, and 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms delivered to recipients and transmitted by the January deadline.
Read moreReady To Get This Off Your Desk?
Tell us where things stand right now, including anything that is late or missing, and you will leave with a plain description of the work involved and the order it should happen in.