Arizona Updates Electronic Filing Guidelines for Information Returns

Paul Ogawa
December 23, 2020

The Arizona Department of Revenue recently published an update to Publication 701, Submitting Arizona Forms A1-R, A1-APR, and Federal Forms W-2, W-2c, W-2G, and 1099. This publication provides instructions and filing specifications for reporting these forms to the Department of Revenue for the upcoming tax year 2020 filing season.

There are several updates to this publication, which include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Electronic Filing of Withholding Tax Returns (p. 1): Forms A1-R and A1-APR must be filed electronically beginning with tax year 2020.

  • Electronic Reporting of Federal Forms W-2, W-2C, W-2G and 1099 (p. 1): there is a waiver of the electronic filing requirement for FEDERAL attachments including W-2, W-2C, W-2G, and 1099 forms for calendar year 2020. (This waiver does not apply to Arizona state-specific forms like the A1-R and A1-APR.)

  • Electronic File Formatting (p. 1-2): this section was added for TY 2020 and lists forms that are supported for electronic transmittal (W-2, W-2C, W-2G, 1099-DIV, 1099-MISC, and 1099-R). Forms that must be filed that are not listed in this section must be filed on paper or by optical media (flash drive, CD, or DVD).

  • Reporting federal Forms W-2G and federal Forms 1099 reporting AZ income tax withheld (p. 2): updates to this section outline exceptions to the format outlined in IRS Publication 1220 that are required for Arizona reporting.

    • ADOR requires only one federal Form type per file.

    • Although Arizona is listed as a participating state in Publication 1220, Arizona requires that a copy of any federal Form 1099 series reporting Arizona withholding be filed directly with ADOR.

    • If only some of the required federal Forms are submitted using optical media, include a statement that the remaining forms will be filed electronically or by paper.

    • ADOR requires Payee “B” record for federal Forms W-2G and the supported federal Forms 1099 series, if taxes were withheld for Arizona.

    • The Arizona state code is 04 in Payee “B” records.

To review this publication in its entirety, please click here to visit the Arizona Department of Revenue’s website online.

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Author

Paul Ogawa

Paul Ogawa is a Senior Regulatory Counsel at Sovos Compliance. As part of the Regulatory Analysis team, his main areas of focus are state and federal tax withholding, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and Canadian tax information reporting. Prior to Sovos, Paul worked as a litigation attorney in Boston area law firms, representing clients in insurance subrogation claims, family law matters, and employment disputes. Paul is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, earned his B.A. from Brandeis University and his J.D. from the Suffolk University Law School.
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