Applies to Basic Payroll customers, or Full Service Payroll customers who have not completed their tax filing service setup.
If you’re a Basic Payroll Customer, you’re responsible for filing your own Form W-2s and Form W-3 with the Social Security Administration (SSA) at year-end. Check out the SSA’s tutorial on how to upload the wage report to the SSA.
Patriot can file your W-2/W-3 to the SSA on your behalf. After creating your W-2s, you will be given the option to have Patriot file for you. Follow the steps and accept the one time fee of $50. (E-filing with the SSA will fulfill the Copy A, W2, and W3 requirements with the IRS only. End-of-the-year tax filings to state or local government agencies will still need to be completed by you.)
Full-Service Payroll Customers who have completed the tax filing setup will have Patriot filing W-2s and W-3s for you. No further action is needed on your part after you have created your employee W-2s.
Electronic Filing Requirement
If you file 10 or more W-2 forms, the IRS requires you to file electronically.
You’ll need to download the electronic SSA file from Patriot Software. This file contains all the necessary W-2 and W-3 information.
You will need to download the W-3 wagefile from the software to upload to the SSA. For help downloading your file, see the article Basic Payroll: Filing Your W-3.
Create or Access Your BSO Account
Register for a Business Services Online (BSO) Account(if you don’t have one):
Click Register on the BSO homepage.
Fill out the registration form:
Provide your name, email address, EIN, and other company details.
Create a username and password.
Complete registration by confirming your email address through a link sent by the SSA.
Please read the SSA article “How To Create A Business Services Online (BSO) Account,” for more information on how to verify your identity and get started with a BSO account.
New and current users should allow at least 2 weeks to complete the registration process. For more information, go to the SSA’s website at SSA.gov/bso.
How to Upload Your W-2/W-3 Wage File to the SSA
Step 1: Log into your Social Security Business Services Online account.
Step 2: Once you have logged in, click the link “Submit a Formatted Wage File”
Step 3: What’s in the File: Select “W-2/W-3 forms for Tax Year {xxxx} or previous tax year (EFW2)”
Step 4: The “Upload File” section will appear AFTER you choose the radio button for “Select W-2/W-3 forms for Tax Year {xxxx} or previous tax year (EFW2)”. You can browse your files on your computer and find the W-2/W-3 txt wage file you have downloaded from Patriot.
For help downloading your W-3 wage file, see the article Basic Payroll: Filing Your W-3.
Step 5: You will see a confirmation message that your SSA file has been successfully submitted.
