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Filing Your W-3 Using Patriot Software

After you distribute W-2 forms to your employees, you must file a W-3 Transmittal of Wages with the Social Security Administration (SSA) along with a copy of each employee’s W-2 on Form W-2 copy A.

If you are a Full Service Payroll customer who has completed the tax filing setup, we will electronically file these for you. After we have filed, you can find your SSA confirmation under Reports > Payroll Tax Reports > Tax Filings.

If you are a Basic Payroll customer, you will need to file these yourself, but you can download the file in Patriot Software to upload to the SSA.

File the SSA Wage File Electronically

For Basic Payroll and Full Service payroll customers who have not completed their payroll tax set up.

The IRS requires that employers must file electronically if they have 10 or more informational returns to file, which includes 1099s and W-2s. This means if you have paid at least 10 employees and/or contractors, you will need to file your W-2s electronically. You can download an electronic file from Patriot Software and upload the file to the SSA.

Before filing electronically, the SSA requires you to have a BSO (Business Online Account) account set up. You’ll need to create a login on SSA website using LOGIN.gov if you don’t already have one, and then apply for a Business Service Online account.

  1. Reports > Payroll Tax Reports > Create W-3/SSA File Please note this W-3 wage file satisfies both the W3 requirement and the W2 copy A requirement.
  2. Select the Year.
  3. Enter your Business Services Online user ID.  This is an 8-character ID you are assigned after your BSO application has been submitted.  This user ID will be included in the file data.
  4. Click the “Create” button to download and save the .txt file to your computer.
  5. Upload this file to the Social Security Administration. For detailed upload steps, see Basic Payroll Customers: Steps to Upload your SSA File.

Patriot also offers electronic filing of only your W-2/W-3 for a one-time fee of $50.00. If you would like Patriot to file your W-2s on your behalf (and no other taxes), please email our Support team at support@patriotsoftware.com with your request by January 30th.

W-3 Summary Report

The W-3 summary report is an employer copy for your records and convenience. It is available to both Basic payroll and Full Service payroll customers. For more information, read “Company W-3 Summary Report.“

[RELATED ARTICLE: What is a W-3?]
[DEFINITION: W-3 Form]

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