Verify and distribute Form W-2 with Square Payroll
About Form W-2
Square Payroll generates and files Form W-2 for each of your employees in January for the prior tax year. Although Square Payroll files W-2s on your behalf, you and your employees are responsible for confirming and ensuring the information on the W-2 is accurate. In addition, each of your employees is responsible for filing their own W-2 separately with the IRS.
Before you begin
You can download Form W-2s for your employees from your Square Dashboard.
- Box a: Employee Social Security Number (SSN).
- Box b: Employer Identification Number (EIN).
- Box c: Employer name, address, and zip code.
- Box e: Employee name.
- Box f: Employee mailing address.
- Box 1: Wages, tips, and other compensation — Total calendar year taxable wages, tips, and other compensation paid to the employee.
- Box 2: Federal Income Tax Withheld — Total calendar year federal income tax withheld from employee wages.
- Box 3: Social Security Wages — Total calendar year employee wages subject to employee social security tax, not including social security tips.
- Box 4: Social Security Tax Withheld — Total calendar year employee social security tax withheld, including social security tax on tips.
- Box 5: Medicare Wages and Tips — Total calendar year employee wages and tips subject to Medicare tax.
- Box 6: Medicare Tax Withheld — Total calendar year employee Medicare tax withheld
- Box 7: Social Security Tips — Total calendar year employee tips reported.
- Box 10: Dependent care benefits — Total dependent care benefits that your employer paid to you or incurred on your behalf (including amounts from a section 125 (cafeteria) plan). Any amount over $5,000 is also included in box 1.
- Box 11: Nonqualified plans — This amount is reported in box 1 if it is a distribution made to you from a nonqualified deferred compensation or nongovernmental section 457(b) plan.
- Box 12:
- D—Elective deferrals to a section 401(k) cash or deferred arrangement. Also includes deferrals under a SIMPLE retirement account that is part of a section 401(k) arrangement.
- E—Elective deferrals under a section 403(b) salary reduction agreement.
- G—Elective deferrals and employer contributions (including nonelective deferrals) to a section 457(b) deferred compensation plan.
- S—Employee salary reduction contributions under a section 408(p) SIMPLE plan.
- W—Employer contributions (including amounts the employee elected to contribute using a section 125 (cafeteria) plan) to your health savings account.
- AA—Designated Roth contributions under a section 401(k) plan.
- BB—Designated Roth contributions under a section 403(b) plan.
- DD—Cost of employer-sponsored health coverage. The amount reported with Code DD is not taxable.
- EE—Designated Roth contributions under a governmental section 457(b) plan.
- Box 13: If the “Retirement plan” box is checked, special limits may apply to the amount of traditional IRA contributions you may deduct.
- Box 14: Other — Employers may use this box to report information such as state disability insurance taxes withheld.
- Box 15: State Employer Identification Number. If your state does not impose a state income tax (AK, FL, NV, SD, TN, TX, WY or WA) this box will be left blank.
- Box 16: State, wages, tips, etc. — Total calendar year state taxable wages, tips, and other compensation paid to the employee.
- Box 17: State income tax — Total calendar year state income tax withheld from employee wages.
- Box 18: Local wages, tips, etc. — Total calendar year local taxable wages, tips, and other compensation paid to the employee.
- Box 19: Local income tax — Total calendar year local income tax withheld from employee wages.
- Box 20: Locality name.
Step 1: Download your Form W-2s
You can access your Form W-2s from your Square Dashboard.
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Staff & Payroll > Payroll > Tax forms.
Sort by W-2s, or filter by the time period, employee name, or form status.
Choose the form you wish to download and select Download. You can also download all W-2s for a tax year in a .zip file.
Extract the Form W-2s from the downloaded file.
Step 2: Verify your form W-2 data
You and your employees are responsible for ensuring that the information on Form W-2 is correct. You have until January 6, 2025 to review the draft forms for accuracy before they are filed and, if you opt into sending paper mail, mailed. We recommend reviewing the draft Form W-2s periodically throughout the year.
Changes to your employees’s information, business information, and processed payroll runs will be reflected immediately upon re-downloading the draft Form W-2s for the current tax year. You can also learn more about Form W-2 information verification by visiting the SSA website.
Be sure to review each of the following fields in Form W-2 for accuracy. You can verify employee information from their team member profile.
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Team > Team members.
Select a team member’s profile and select Payroll.
Select Edit by the Taxes section.
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Check for these common errors:
Full Name: Check for misspelled names and avoid using nicknames or shortened names, titles before or after a name, and name changes not reported to the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Social Security Number (SSN): Check for incorrect or typo’d SSNs. SSNs can be viewed on the draft Form W-2s.
Home address: Ensure this reflects the employee’s current address. If you opt into paper mail, Square Payroll will mail your Form W-2 to this address.
Jobs and compensation: Make sure their salary is accurate.
Make any necessary changes and select Save.
As you continue to process payroll throughout the year, the wages will update accordingly on the draft Form W-2 when the pay run is sent/processed, not after queuing the run. The wages reflected on the draft Form W-2 are a combination of: regular payroll runs, off-cycle payments, payroll history transferred from a previous provider, and benefits.
Step 3: Distribute your Square Payroll Form W-2
Your employees must consent to receive digital copies of their Form W-2, otherwise, you must provide them with a physical copy. You can have Square Payroll send this out by adjusting your payroll settings in your Square Dashboard.
If you opt to mail your employees a physical copy of their W-2, Square Payroll will not resend the tax form if an employee does not receive it (due to invalid address or other reasons).
If your employee has an invalid mailing address and your business has a valid mailing address, their Form W-2 will be returned to your business. You are then responsible for providing them with their copy of Form W-2.
If your employee has an invalid mailing address and your business has an invalid mailing address, you are responsible for downloading the Form W-2s and providing them to your employees. In the instance that your employee’s Form W-2 is returned to your business, ensure that your taxpayer address in Square Payroll is accurate.
To request Square mail your forms:
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and select Staff & Payroll > Payroll > Settings.
Toggle on Send W-2s and 1099s via paper mail.
Square will mail a tax form to the addresses on file for all employees and contractors that were paid in the prior year.
Opt in to paper mailing by January 6, 2025 to have Square mail these forms for you to your employees. Paper copies of forms W-2 and 1099-NEC incur a fee of $3 per employee or contractor.