Payroll in Practice: 3.31.2025

Question: We issued a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, with an incorrect address. The employee requested a Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, to correct it. The W-2 does not contain any other errors. The W-2c instructions say to issue a Form W-2c showing the correct address in Box i and all the other correct information but send it only to the employee. A W-2c prepared simply to correct the employee address should not be filed with the Social Security Administration. Does this mean to show all the information, such as wages and taxes, in the “Correct Information” column?

Answer: Using Form W-2c to make this specific correction may not be the best method. A Form W-2c that corrects only the employee address is a special case because it is intended to provide the employee with a document showing all the correct information in one place. The employee can use this document when preparing an income tax return instead of two documents each reporting only part of the correct information.

This Form W-2c is not filed with the SSA because the address correction does not affect the employee’s Social Security records. For example, an employee could have changed jobs and moved during the year, and each employer might report a different employee address. This does not present a problem for the SSA.

The Form W-2c instructions also direct employers to report only the information that is being corrected on the copy filed with the SSA. For example, if the employer is correcting only an employee name or Social Security number, the employer should only complete Boxes d through i, which contain basic employee information. They should not restate wage and tax amounts that were already correct in the original Form W-2.

In this example, the W-2c will be filed with the SSA and the employer is to advise the employee to correct the SSN or name on the original Form W-2.

While inconsequential for failure-to-file purposes, an incorrect address is not an “inconsequential error or omission” that allows an employer to avoid a penalty for failing to timely furnish a correct payee statement. This type of error could delay the receipt of the information return and hinder the employee from filing a correct tax return.

The IRS provides several methods for dealing with an incorrect address. It is clear from the instructions that these methods are for resolving a Form W-2 that was undeliverable to the employee because the address was incorrect. Once the Jan. 31 filing deadline has passed, the Form W-2 has likely already been filed with the SSA, so the corrected form method described in the following paragraph would not apply.

Still, it is best to provide the employee with a clean copy of the Form W-2 rather than issuing a Form W-2c. Reissuing the Form W-2 with the correct address has the least potential for confusion or further errors.

The corrected method is used before the original Form W-2 is filed. If filing on paper, simply void the original Copy A that would be sent to the SSA and prepare a new copy that has the correct address. The voided copy will not be read by the SSA system. If filing electronically, simply correct the employee record in the electronic file. The employee copies of the correct Form W-2 should have “CORRECTED” written across the top so that it is clear which W-2 the employee should use for their tax return.

When Forms W-2 have already been filed, correcting an employee address has more to do with delivering the form to the employee than with correcting the address.

This is evident because, as an alternative to making the correction on a Form W-2c, the employer could reissue the Form W-2 without correcting the address and simply mail it to the employee in an envelope that shows the correct address. The employee copies could also be delivered to the employee by some other means, such as electronic delivery or by physically handing the copies to the employee.

If the employer instead decides to correct the address on Form W-2, the form should have “REISSUED STATEMENT” written across the top of the employee copies to avoid confusion in case the original copies turn up later.

The best way to handle an employee’s request for an address correction on a Form W-2 is to simply reissue the statement with the correct address. The employer writes “REISSUED STATEMENT” on the employee copies. Copy A of the reissued Form W-2 should not be sent to the SSA.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., or its owners.

Author Information
Patrick Haggerty is the owner of a tax practice in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and an enrolled agent licensed to practice before the Internal Revenue Service. The author may be contacted at phaggerty@prodigy.net.

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