Plus, changes to AccuWage being considered for future.

Given that the Forms W-2 deadline will hit earlier for Tax Year 2016, the SSA plans to release some of its year-end material sooner than in the past.

The SSA gave that heads up during a Payroll Industry Call in March.

Previously, employers had until the end of February – or longer in the case of electronic filers – to submit the forms to SSA.

The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015 moved that deadline up to the end of January for both paper and electronic filers.

As a result, employers will have to get the year-end ball rolling earlier for Tax Year 2016.

The SSA said that it’s scheduled to release its AuccWage software in September of 2016.

Plus, you can expect to see Specifications for filing Form W-2 Electronically (EFW2) sooner than in past years.

Same goes for the EFW2C.

The SSA will begin processing Forms W-2 on a small scale first as usual. Then this year-end, it’ll be processing the forms at full capacity before January.

Technical Problems

Also during the conference call, the SSA discussed possible future changes to the AccuWage software.

Now, if employers want to use the software to test the accuracy of Forms W-2 and W-2c before sending the wage reports to the SSA, they have to download the software first.

There’s been a recurring technical problem in recent years, though: Some Internet browsers aren’t compatible with AccuWage.

For example, for Tax Year 2015, the SSA announced compatibility issues with:

Google Chrome version 45 or higher, and

Edge, the Windows 10 default browser

The SSA has begun looking at options other than a downloadable product to test for accuracy.