How Do I Correct a W-2 in Patriot Software?
Even after you download and print W-2 Forms in Patriot Software and distribute W-2 forms to your employees, you can still make a correction if needed. This depends on whether you have already filed your company’s summary W-3 with the Social Security Administration. If you are a Full-Service Payroll customer, contact us and we can confirm whether we filed your W-2s/W-3.
Choose from these scenarios, and follow the instructions:
If you have not given a W-2 to an employee and need to make a correction…
Simply make the change in Patriot Software and download the W-2 again. Patriot Software will retain a copy of the most recent W-2.
If you have already given the employee a W-2…
Either with a paper form or by Posting Electronic W-2s in Patriot’s Employee Portal, but have not yet filed with the Social Security Administration (SSA), make the change in Patriot Software, and download the W-2 again. If you are giving a paper Form W-2 to the employee, write “CORRECTED” on the new W-2 copies (B, C, and 2), and give the corrected W-2 to the employee. If you are posting an electronic copy of the W-2 to the employee portal, you can post the most recent downloaded version again. Employees with a valid email address on their record will be notified by an automatic email that an updated Form W-2 is available for viewing. Electronic copies will not have “CORRECTED” appear on the W-2.
If the incorrect Form W-2 is on a page with a correct Form W-2, send the entire page to the SSA. The incorrect form will not be processed. Do not write “CORRECTED” on Copy A of Form W-2.
If you have already filed the W-2/W-3 with the Social Security Administration…
If you discover a change is needed on a W-2 after you have filed the W-2/W-3 with the Social Security Administration, you will need to complete corrected W-2 and W-3 forms with the previously reported and the corrected information:
- Make the change in Patriot Software.
- Download the W-2 again. You can also get the corrected amounts by viewing the W-2 Summary Report.
- Complete the W-2C (Corrected Wage and Tax Statement) for each employee that needs to be corrected, and complete a Form W-3C for the totals.
- Give the corrected copy to the employee and submit the W-3C to the SSA. You can file the corrected Form W-3C using a PDF filler and send the paper form to the SSA, or online in your Social Security Administration Business Services Online Account. For more details, see Filing Your W-3 Using Patriot Software.
Note: You do not need to use Form W-2C to correct an employee’s address. If you have already filed with the SSA, follow these instructions for correcting the employee address.