Do you want to move to electronic W-2s and 1095-Cs instead of mailing paper versions? The law requires that you obtain and hold explicit consent by employees to switch from paper to electronic delivery (and the regulations for each form differ slightly). So, what’s the most effective way to go about getting and maintaining this?
First, we need to look at the IRS requirements. They can be summarized as follows:
- Employees must explicitly choose electronic delivery.
- Employees must separately elect electronic W-2 delivery and electronic 1095-C delivery.
- For Form 1095-C, employees must update their electronic consent annually. (The W-2 consent does not need to be made annually.)
- The employer must show the date of the election and that the employee made it.
For more details on the IRS rules and regulations, please refer to the following publications:
- Form W-2 Revenue Procedure 2020-38 Reprinted from IR Bulletin 2020-36 Dated August 31 Publication 1141 General Rules and Specifications for Substitute Forms W-2 and W-3
- Form 1095-C Publication 5223: General Rules and Specifications for Affordable Care Act Substitute Forms 1095-A, 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C, and 1095-C
Vista seamlessly handles the complexity of these regulations from the Disclosure and the Consent to capturing the employee’s elections, along with the date of consent and who entered it.
Two electronic delivery consent dialog boxes in Vista provide the ability for self-service employees to easily select their preferred delivery method for both W-2s and 1095-Cs. Our recent Vista 7.1 release includes an updated ESS Sample 1 page with two new icons for W-2 and 1095-C electronic consent.
For more information on setting up and managing electronic delivery consent, including screenshots showing the self-service view, please download our latest guide—Electronic Delivery Consent for W-2s and 1095-Cs from the Vista 7 Quick Guides page of the PDS Support Center.