Received Corrected W-2 Today

[gryndor]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

So the deadline for filing my taxes has passed and I filed back in February anyway. A couple weeks back one of my coworkers noticed an error on her W2 and it triggered a massive audit of all our W2s. The ultimate conclusion of that audit was that "while we will issue corrected W2s, it's really not necessary because the error was a duplication of information reported in informational fields (box 12 DD was repeated in 12 G)." Those corrected W2s came in today.

So because this was an information field only (to do with our deferred compensation 457 plan) Payroll says this will absolutely not effect our taxes in any way. Don't worry about it. Stop bugging us.

Do I/all of us in a similar situation need to file amended tax returns to reflect the corrected box 12 amounts? These corrected W2s are going to be sent to the IRS, so will there be a mis-match from my return and this new info?

Does filing an amended return trigger any kind of scrutiny at all and/or because we received these W2-Cs past Tax Day?

 

[Taxing Matters]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Do I/all of us in a similar situation need to file amended tax returns to reflect the corrected box 12 amounts? These corrected W2s are going to be sent to the IRS, so will there be a mis-match from my return and this new info?

Does filing an amended return trigger any kind of scrutiny at all and/or because we received these W2-Cs past Tax Day?

Code DD is to report the cost of employer sponsored health coverage. This amount is not taxable to you and this item does not affect your tax return. Code G is for “elective deferrals and employer contributions (including nonelective deferrals) to a section 457(b) deferred compensation plan.” These are a type of pension plan maintained by state and local governments for their employees. Contributions up to $18,000 in 2017 could be made and qualify for deferral. Assuming that the figure on your original W-2 for code 12G was not larger than 18,000 it would not have impacted your tax. Assuming that the employer got boxes 1 thru 11 of the original W-2 correct and those numbers did not change on the corrected W-2, and that nothing else changed in box 12 other than deleting the code G info you should not need to amend your federal income tax return.

Filing an amended return can in some instances trigger further inquiry from the IRS. It all depends on what the amended return contains.

 

[LdiJ]

Code DD is to report the cost of employer sponsored health coverage. This amount is not taxable to you and this item does not affect your tax return. Code G is for “elective deferrals and employer contributions (including nonelective deferrals) to a section 457(b) deferred compensation plan.” These are a type of pension plan maintained by state and local governments for their employees. Contributions up to $18,000 in 2017 could be made and qualify for deferral. Assuming that the figure on your original W-2 for code 12G was not larger than 18,000 it would not have impacted your tax. Assuming that the employer got boxes 1 thru 11 of the original W-2 correct and those numbers did not change on the corrected W-2, and that nothing else changed in box 12 other than deleting the code G info you should not need to amend your federal income tax return.

Filing an amended return can in some instances trigger further inquiry from the IRS. It all depends on what the amended return contains.

I agree entirely with this. However, I will add that I saw a large number of DD codes with numbers much higher than 18,000 this season. In fact nearly every family insurance plan was higher than 18,000. Therefore there is a chance that the OP will get a CP-2000 letter later in regards to an excess contribution if the issue really was that the insurance cost was coded as a G in error.

So, keeping that corrected W2 in a very safe place in case the OP gets a CP-2000 letter would be a very good idea. Otherwise I agree that there is no need to worry about it.

 

[gryndor]

Wonderful, thank you both so much for the direction. I will keep the corrected one handy in case I get something like that, and will breathe a sigh of relief otherwise. I appreciate your expertise!