IRS W-2 Wage & Tax Reporting Quality
IRS_W2free16 data-quality rules for IRS Form W-2 / SSA EFW2 (Publication 1220 / EFW2 specification) payroll year-end reporting. Covers SSN and EIN format, name and address completeness, Social Security and Medicare wage/tax footing against statutory rates, the Social Security wage-base cap, box relationship checks (Box 1 vs Box 3/5), non-negative amounts, state/local wage vs tax consistency, valid state codes and Box 12 codes, tax-year plausibility, and duplicate-SSN suppression within a submission. Errors cause SSA rejection or W-2c corrections.
Checks included (16)
Employee SSN Format Valid
The employee SSN must be nine digits and not a known-invalid pattern: area 000, 666, or 900-999; group 00; or serial 0000. SSA rejects W-2s with structurally invalid SSNs.
Employer EIN Format Valid
The employer identification number (Box b) must be nine digits with a valid IRS prefix (not 00, 07, 08, 09, 17-19, 28-29, 49, 78-79, 89, 96-99).
Box 12 Code Valid
Each Box 12 code must be a valid IRS code (A-C, D-H, J-N, P-T, V, W, Y, Z, AA, BB, DD, EE, FF, GG, HH). Unknown codes are rejected by SSA.
State Code (Box 15) Valid
The Box 15 state postal code must be a valid USPS two-letter state/territory abbreviation when state wages are reported.
Employee ZIP Code Format Valid
The employee ZIP code (Box f address) must be a 5-digit or ZIP+4 format when present. Malformed ZIPs can trigger SSA address edits.
Wage & Tax Boxes Non-Negative
Boxes 1-6 (wages and taxes) must be non-negative on a W-2; negative amounts belong on a W-2c correction, not an original return.
Box 3 SS Wages Within Wage Base
Social Security wages (Box 3) plus Box 7 SS tips must not exceed the annual Social Security wage base for the tax year. Exceeding the cap is a reportable error.
Federal Tax Withheld <= Box 1 Wages
Box 2 federal income tax withheld cannot exceed Box 1 wages; withholding greater than wages is a data error.
Tax Year Plausible
The reported tax year must be a plausible four-digit year (not in the future and not implausibly old). Bad tax years misfile the entire batch.
Box 4 SS Tax = 6.2% of SS Wages+Tips
Box 4 Social Security tax withheld must equal 6.2% of (Box 3 + Box 7) within a small rounding tolerance. Mis-footed SS tax is an SSA reject.
Box 6 Medicare Tax >= 1.45% of Medicare Wages
Box 6 Medicare tax must be at least 1.45% of Box 5 Medicare wages (extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax may raise it above the base rate). Below-base Medicare tax is an error.
Medicare Wages >= SS Wages
Because Medicare has no wage cap, Box 5 Medicare wages are normally greater than or equal to Box 3 Social Security wages. Box 5 < Box 3 flags an error.
State Tax <= State Wages
Box 17 state income tax cannot exceed Box 16 state wages; over-withholding relative to wages indicates a reporting error.
Employee Name Present
Employee first and last name (Box e) must be populated; a W-2 with no name cannot be matched to an SSA earnings record.
Box 1 Present When Any Wages Reported
If Social Security or Medicare wages are present, Box 1 federal wages must also be populated (may legitimately differ due to pre-tax deferrals, but must not be null).
SSN Unique Per Employer Submission
Within a single employer/EIN submission for a tax year, each SSN should appear once. Duplicate SSNs indicate a double-reported employee.