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Form W-2, in plain English.
Workzoom defines Form W-2 as follows. Form W-2, the Wage and Tax Statement, is the annual form a US employer issues to every employee reporting gross wages, federal and state income tax withheld, and Social Security...
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The short answer
Form W-2, the Wage and Tax Statement, is the annual form a US employer issues to every employee reporting gross wages, federal and state income tax withheld, and Social Security and Medicare withholding for the calendar year. Employees receive it by January 31. Copy A goes to the Social Security Administration, not the IRS. Workzoom generates W-2 data from the same employee record that ran the payroll, and your team files it.
How Form W-2 works.
A W-2 is a summary of what already happened, not a new calculation. Every figure on it traces back to individual pay runs across the year, which is why the form is only ever as accurate as the payroll history behind it. Box 1 reports federal taxable wages, which is not the same number as gross pay once pre-tax deductions come out. Boxes 3 and 5 report Social Security and Medicare wages separately, because those two programs use different ceilings. Workzoom builds the W-2 from the single employee record, so a mid-year address change, a name correction, or a retroactive adjustment is already reflected rather than reconciled by hand in January.
Where Form W-2 goes wrong.
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Where Form W-2 sits between HR and payroll.
Form W-2 does not stand alone. The concepts most often paired with it on a United States run are FICA, Form W-4, Form 941, Payroll Year-End. Each is defined elsewhere in this glossary so you can trace the full chain without leaving the site.
How Form W-2 runs on Workzoom.
Form W-2 is part of the Workzoom Payroll Suite. Workzoom runs HR, workforce, and talent on a single employee record across ten countries: Canada, the United States, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, and the United Kingdom. Full gross-to-net payroll runs live in Canada, the United States, and the Bahamas. Pricing starts at $4 per employee per suite per month.
Questions about Form W-2
More on Form W-2
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