The Social Security Administration (SSA) has resumed audits and penalizing employers for mismatched names and social security numbers.
In August 2018, the Social Security Administration (SSA) mailed “Educational Correspondence” letters to employers whose W-2s had a name/SSN that didn’t match their records. The letter didn’t tell you the error on the W-2. You will need to verify the information using your own data.
As an example, the letter might state that “Joe Smith did not match their records”. Did this mean that the actual spelling of the name is wrong? Did the individual have a life changing event? Is the name hyphenated?
The first letter that you received asked you to register with the SSA’s Business Services Online (BSO) system so that you can:
- Access W-2 processing and any mistakes
- Social Security Number Verification Service the (SSNVS)
- The software AccuWage to test wage files for formatting
Here is the link for your convenience CLICK HERE.
You can be penalized for:
- Information missing from the W-2
- Submitting paper when electronic is required
- Filing late
- Names and/or Social Security Numbers do not match their records
The costs for these penalties can be up to $260 per W-2 in 2018 and $270 in 2019 to a yearly maximum of $1,094,000 for companies with annual receipts under five million; $3,282,500 for others.
You will be penalized for not filing at $540 per W-2, up to over $6.5 million per year.
The SSA has an information help page that helps you HERE.
- Register and activate a BSO account
- Use the Verification Service
- Find mistakes in your BSO
- How to fix any mistakes on W-2’s
The SSA page also has a help page with FAQ’s.