Form W-2

This deadline gives these taxpayers about 2 months to prepare their returns before the April 15 income tax due date.

Relevant amounts on Form W-2 are reported by the Social Security Administration to the Internal Revenue Service.

[2] Form W-2 includes wage and salary information as well as federal, state, and other taxes that were withheld.

The Social Security Administration, court proceedings, and applications for federal financial aid for college all use Form W-2 as proof of income.

The deadline for filing electronic or paper W-2 Forms to the Social Security Administration (SSA) is also January 31.

[7] The form consists of six copies: Employers are instructed to send copies B, C, 1, and 2 to their employees generally by January 31 of the year immediately following the year of income to which the Form W-2 relates, which gives these taxpayers about 2+1⁄2 months before the April 15 income tax due date.

After 30 days but before August 1, the penalty increases to $60 per form (capped between $200–500 depending on the size of the business).

[10] Use of Form W-2 was established by the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943 as part of an effort to withhold income at source.

[12] In March 2016, the IRS issued an alert concerning a new type of phishing email attack which attempts to lure human resources, accounting, or payroll staff into disclosing the W-2 information of all employees within a company,[13] presumably intended for use in tax-related identity theft, which the IRS defines as "...when someone uses your stolen Social Security number to file a tax return claiming a fraudulent refund.

This phishing scheme is particularly characterized by its use of spear-phishing (emails sent to specific individuals) and email spoofing to pose as a company executive requesting the W-2 information, thereby increasing the urgency of the response and catching payroll staff off-guard: Large companies such as Snap Inc.,[15] Mansueto Ventures,[16] and Seagate[17] fell victim to this phishing scheme in early March 2016.