The IRS has released its 2024 General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3. Form W-2 is used to report employment income to the IRS and Form W-3 is the employer’s transmittal of wage and tax statements to the IRS. These instructions cover the W-2, W-2c, W-2GU, W-2VI, and W-2AS forms along with form W-3 for both general and specific instructions.
First, the IRS included W-2 series forms in their 10 or more-form electronic filing requirement. Following this is notice that corrected forms should be filed in the same format as the originals. This means that if an original was filed electronically, the corrected form should also be filed electronically. The same goes for paper filings. The IRS removed references to Form 941-SS which has been discontinued in favor of Form 941 or the Spanish version, 941 (sp). References to Form 1040-SR have also been removed.
Publication 15 (Circular E) now contains information previously found in Pub. 51, Pub. 80, and Pub. 179. These publications are no longer used and Publication 15 (Circular E) should be used to obtain specific information. Following the current trend of creating Spanish publications, there is information about a new Spanish Language Pub. 15 (sp), along with some information on how to access it. References to the discontinued publications throughout the instructions have been updated to Pub. 15.
The IRS also provided information regarding Roth contributions. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, certain nonelective contributions and matching contributions made after December 29, 2022 can be designated as Roth contributions. Such contributions should not be reported on Form W-2 but instead on Form 1099-R. Also under SECURE 2.0, employer contributions to employee emergency savings accounts as designated Roth contributions should be reported on Form W-2, box 12. Finally, SEP and SIMPLE IRA plan contributions are also subject to federal income tax, social security, and Medicare tax withholding, which are included in boxes 1, 3, and 5 (or box 14 for railroad retirement taxes).
Under the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act (MSRRA), language has been added to the instructions, to include the permanent duty station of the servicemember along with the residence of the servicemember or the residence of the spouse for purposes of taxation. This relates to the rules by which the spouse of an active duty servicemember may keep their prior residence or domicile for tax purposes when accompanying the servicemember spouse who is relocating under military orders, to a new military duty station in a U.S. state, D.C., or a U.S. territory.
Though there were many minor changes, most of the changes to the instructions this year are updates to dollar amounts. These changes are generally increases to penalties, maximum taxable income for SSA, and increased allowances for FSA cafeteria plans and adoption exclusion. Along with the updating of amounts, the most notable change is the addition of a new box 12 code, II, for Medicaid waiver payments excluded from gross income under Notice 2014-7.
To view the complete instructions, click here.
