The IRS announced that starting in 2017 (for 2016 filings), all W-2’s and 1099-MISC’s must be submitted to the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service respectively, by January 31st. This is significantly earlier than the deadline in previous years.
As in the past, payors are still required to furnish recipients with their forms by January 31st. Previously, the filing of forms with the Social Security Administration and Internal Revenue Service had a deadline of February 28th (March 31st for e-filing). This afforded payors the opportunity to correct any issues that may have arisen once the recipient had a chance to review the document. By having the February 28th deadline, payors had the ability to correct any errors before submitting to the government which helped reduce the need for amended filings. Payors will no longer have that luxury.
Payors will now find themselves in a January crunch as not only are W-2’s and 1099-MISC’s due by January 31st, but also Forms 1095-B and 1095-C (health coverage reporting).
It should be noted that the filing deadline change for 1099’s only affects Form 1099-MISC. All other 1099 filings have kept their original filing due date. This will inevitably create confusion for multiple filers.
Payors should begin to plan for the workload compression created by this new ruling. This is especially important for companies that have a calendar year end and are trying to close out the year during the same time frame.
If you have any questions in regard to this article, please contact Charlie Paolino at 800-849-6022 or at CPaolino@DowneyCoCPA.com.
