Is the deadline for filing tax corrections tomorrow or 12/31?

October 16, 2023 12:29 AM

A while back my company made a payroll mistake and sent us corrected forms to file with the IRS. Ended up lagging for various reasons and I was wondering if the deadline for making corrections is the standard filing deadline or end of year? (Insert "you are not my accountant disclaimer" here)

A few years back. our company made a mistake in their payroll formulas for 2019. They gave us a W2C form in Sept 2020 to file for the correction. I was told that I only have three years to submit the form and send the revised corrections, or else it would possibly affect my social security payments when I finally applied for them. Due to a variety of reasons I lagged on submitting the form (yes I know), and now it's do-or-die time. I was under the impression that for corrections I had until the end of the year, but now I'm wondering if the deadline is supposed to be the same as the filing deadline (which would be tomorrow due to the California Wildfires-related extension). Just wondering if I still have some time to figure this out and turn in the forms (within a few weeks), or if I'll have to burn the midnight oil tonight.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (1 answer total)

The SSA handbook says that the deadline is normally April 15, about 3 1/4 years later:

An earnings record can be corrected at any time up to three years, three months, and 15 days after the year in which the wages were paid or the self-employment income was derived. “Year” means “calendar year” for wages and “taxable year” for self-employment income. If the last day of that period falls on a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or other non-work day for Federal employees set by statute or Executive Order, the period for correction is extended to the end of the next work day.

So for wages earned in year N, this deadline works out to be the normal "tax day" in year N+4, which for 2019 wages would have been April 18, 2023.

I would assume that this deadline got extended along with the IRS deadlines due to the disaster declarations, but the IRS press release doesn't specifically mention SSA deadlines and it's not 100% clear to me that the deadlines are necessarily the same.
posted by Johnny Assay at 5:33 AM on October 16, 2023 [1 favorite]