Maryland recently released the 2024 Maryland Employer Reporting of W-2 Instructions and Specifications. There are substantial changes. A new portal, Maryland Tax Connect, has replaced BFile and SFTP for W-2 filing. Maryland Tax Connect has three options for filing W-2s. Maryland Tax Connect also supports electronic corrections for W-2C and MW508. Payroll providers and third parties filing W-2 on employers’ behalf may now need to register to file as a ‘Transmitter User’. Maryland will release additional information about ‘Transmitter User’ requirements and testing by mid-November 2024. Filers should also note that the transition to Maryland Tax Connect resulted in a robust new set of error rejection codes. This could cause rejections to file formats that were previously accepted by bFile or SFTP, making testing especially important.
The updated guide also includes special instructions for third-party vendors, including fields that Maryland will no longer use. The guide includes a reminder that the RW Record is now required. The guide has also been updated to clarify that the FEIN / Central Registration Number in certain fields must actually be registered with the state of Maryland, or the file will be rejected.
There is also a new email address, efileW21099help@marylandtaxes.gov, for questions about filing W-2 through Maryland Tax Connect.
