I know I'm late in starting this but.....How do you get set up to efile W2's

[Tax Prep by Deb]

I have been putting this off for way to long, but would like to get set up to e-file my clients W-2's.  I already have things set up with IRS for the 941's and such, but never took the final step of setting up for the W-2's.

 

I know I need to register, but where and how?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Lion EA]

I do mine via QB and don't remember the details of starting.  Sorry.  (I am struggling with CT via QB, though, can't seem to follow their instructions.  Finally went to CT's site and typed in my one lonely W-2/3.)  But, wanted to post support and to keep your question up!

[Tax Prep by Deb]

Thanks, I'm thinking of doing QB also.  I'm tired of chasing signatures.

[jklcpa]

http://www.ssa.gov/

 

Click on Business & Government, then click Business Services from the list that appears. Scroll to the bottom and at lower left click Log In or Use Business Services Online.

Upper right, select Register.  From there you can set up your user account and will be assigned an 8-digit User ID that you'll use to log in each time.  If you are using the ATX payroll program, you'll need to enter that for efiling those.   

 

Once you have that, you can upload your files directly to the site and check on their status by logging in to business services.

[Kea]

I just signed up to file 1 W2 /W3 & what I did was basically what Judy explained.  But I haven't found a way to e-file the 1099s / 1096 other than FIRE.  And that seemed fairly complicated.  So, it's paper file again.  (I don't do very many & not every year.)

[jklcpa]

The year I switched away from ATX to Drake I had 2 companies come late and I missed filing the 1099s through ATX and was too late to get everything set up for the FIRE system to use Drake. It was only a few 1099s so I used efilemyforms. You can choose to print and mail the recipient copies or have them do that too. It was easy and worked well. 

 

There are several other sites for 1099 & W-2 filing that I saved into my favorites that I didn't use, so I can't comment on how easy or effective:

http://www.bgtaxforms.com/e-file-s/7.htm

https://efile4biz.efile1.com/Default.aspx

http://tax-print.com/index.html

 

FIRE isn't all that difficult, but one more place to learn, log in, create files, etc.

[Kea]

Thanks.  So no security issues with efilemyforms or others?  It's one thing to trust ATX or Drake with SSNs, but not as sure about the "random" internet company.  But, I'm OK with it if they have a good reputation. 

 

It's only 3 1099 Misc with the accompanying 1096.  The contractors already received copies that I did in a PDF.  It's just the Red copies that are an issue.  Besides, I prefer e-file whenever possible.