Who may sign Form W-3c.   Generally, employers must sign Form W-3c. However, the transmitter or sender (including a service bureau, paying agent, or disbursing agent) may sign Form W-3c for the employer or payer only if the sender:

  Even though an authorized sender signs for the payer, the payer still has the responsibility for making sure the Form W-3c and attachments are filed correctly and timely. The payer is subject to any penalties that result from not complying with these requirements.

Correcting more than one kind of form.   You must use a separate Form W-3c for each type of Form W-2 (i.e., W-2, W-2c, W-2AS, W-2GU, W-2CM, or W-2VI) being corrected. You must also use a separate Form W-3c for each kind of payer in box c (unless the second, checked box is the “Third-party sick pay” indicator). If you are correcting more than one kind of form, please group forms of the same kind, and send them in separate groups.

Correcting an employee's name and/or SSN only.   If you are correcting only an employee's name and/or SSN, complete Form W-2c through box g, as appropriate. Do not complete boxes 1 through 20. Advise your employee to correct the SSN and/or name on his or her original Form W-2.

  If your employee is given a new social security card following an adjustment to his or her resident status that shows a different name or SSN, file a Form W-2c for the most current year only.

  To correct an incorrect tax year or EIN on Form W-2, file one Form W-2c showing the incorrect tax year or EIN and reducing the previously-reported money amounts to zero and a second Form W-2c reporting the money amounts (showing zeros in the “Previously reported” columns) in the correct year or with the correct EIN.

Employee's incorrect address on Form W-2.   If you filed a Form W-2 with the SSA showing an incorrect address for the employee but all other information on the Form W-2 is correct, do not file Form W-2c with the SSA merely to correct the address.

  However, if the address was incorrect on the Form W-2 furnished to the employee, you must do
one of the following:

Correcting more than one Form W-2 for an employee.   There are two ways to prepare a correction for an employee who received more than one Form W-2 under the same employer identification number (EIN) for the tax year. You can: (a) consider all the Forms W-2 when determining the amounts to enter on Form W-2c as shown in Example 1 below, or (b) file a single Form W-2c to correct only the incorrect Form W-2 (see Example 2). However, state, local, and Federal government employers who are preparing corrections for Medicare Qualified Government Employment (MQGE) employees must also follow the instructions in the CAUTION under Boxes 5 and 6 on page 3.

Repayments.   If an employee repays you for wages received in error in a prior year, file Form W-2c to correct only social security and Medicare wages and tax. Do not correct wages reported in box 1 for the amount paid in error. Report an adjustment on Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return (or 941-SS, 943, or CT-1) for the period during which the repayment was made to recover the social security and Medicare taxes. Instead of making an adjustment on Form 941 (or 941-SS, 943, or CT-1) you may file a claim for these taxes using Form 843, Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement. You may not make an adjustment for income tax withholding because the wages were paid in a prior year.

  

  Please tell your employee that the wages paid in error in a prior year remain taxable to him or her for that year. This is because the employee received and had use of those funds during that year. The employee is not entitled to file an amended return (Form 1040X, Amended, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return) to recover the income tax on these wages. Instead, the employee is entitled to a deduction (or a credit, in some cases) for the repaid wages on his or her Form 1040 for the year of repayment.

Undeliverable Forms W-2c.   Keep for 4 years any employee copies of Forms W-2c that you tried to deliver but could not. Do not send undeliverable Forms W-2c to the SSA.