Year-Round Compass

Tax season is approaching. Here are some important tax deadlines that may affect you in the coming weeks. Be sure to mark your calendar (and turn on the notification!) to avoid late fees and penalties.

January 5

• You may process Form W-2/1099 adjustment runs until 11:00 p.m. local time; liabilities, however, will not meet the federal deposit date. These runs are subject to penalties and interest and will include a tax filing penalty acknowledgment letter.
• Adjustment runs completed by 11:00 p.m. will have quarterly and W-2 files that are in sync with the file that Ceridian Tax Filing sends to the IRS and SSA.
• Are you ready to process 2021 payrolls? If so, the system has been updated with 2021 tax rates and limits. The tax updates have underlying calculation data for all supported federal, state, and local taxes.

January 6

• Any W-2 adjustments needed on or after this date will need amended returns and/or Forms W-2c. 2020 adjustments should NOT be made on this date.
• Ceridian will automatically add all W-2s/1099s to the print queues. They will ship within 1-3 business days after printing. All forms will be shipped by January 25, 2021.
  • Forms W-2 will be shipped using the Tax Form Delivery package setup under the System Admin > Report Output > Delivery Package > Tax Forms.
    • Will Forms W-2 be sent to your office for distribution? If so, you can obtain package tracking numbers by clicking Year End > Package Tracking.
    • Individual tracking is not available for Forms W-2 mailed directly to employees.
• View the Year End Delivery Package Report for tax form delivery details. The report is available from the Year End > USA > Reports.
  • Ceridian processes millions of W-2s/1099s. This is a complex process involving many teams and locations. It is not possible to speed up or delay printing or shipping.
  • Per the IRS in Publication 15A, you may not send a Form W-2 electronically without a printed form to any employee who does not consent to opt-out of a printed form.
  • Puerto Rico W-2s will not be printed until Ceridian receives the confirmation number from the Puerto Rico Hacienda.
  • The ‘Form W-2 services’, found in the QE Packet, has more details.

January 14

• If you subscribe to our ACA Services, you must mark 1095-C/1094Cs as ‘locked and ready to send’ by 11:00 p.m. local time.

January 15

• Ceridian sends Forms 1095-C to the print queue. They ship 1-3 business days after printing. ‘Form 1095-C services’, found in the QE Packet, has more details.

January 18

• Federal Reserve and Ceridian are closed in observation of the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday. ‘Payroll holidays’, in the QE Packet, has more details.
• W-2cs can be committed and printed.

Are you responsible for processing year-end payroll or ACA forms using Dayforce? A successful year-end begins with the proper preparation. Get started for the first time, or complete a recommended refresher course, by following the steps below:

Training at Ceridian Education Center:

Search for then review the learning tracks for “2020 Year-End Payroll US Learning Track” and Benefits ACA. These series of courses contain our recommendations for year-end training depending on if you are completing your first year-end or if you are an experienced customer. Sign up for a virtual class led by an instructor or watch a recorded video.

• Payroll USA:
  • Auditing Your Payroll at Quarter-End and Year-End (U.S.)
  • Processing Year-End Tasks for Payroll (U.S.)
    • A refresher (webinar and video) is also available for experienced users
  • Generating W-2cs (video only) will launch on December 28
• PPACA:
  • Processing Year-End Requirements for PPACA
    • A refresher 30-minute video is also available for experienced users
  • Processing Year-End Corrections for PPACA (video only)

Dayforce Knowledge Base

Want to find more year-end topics to read beyond our training classes? Whether you need to create an off-cycle pay run, gain a better understanding of W-2 boxes, or learn how to preview and print employee tax forms, our Knowledge Base on the Ceridian Customer Community should be your first stop. Be sure to look under Year End > U.S. Year End for great articles to help you close out the year. This section has been reorganized and articles have new titles to make it even easier to find what you need.

Does your company allow employee entitlement hours, such as PTO or sick pay, to carry over to the next year? Do they lose unused hours or are these hours paid out? Do you have a maximum number of entitlement hours? Be sure to review entitlements setup for year-end – especially if this is your first Dayforce year-end, or if there have been issues in the past.

Search the Knowledge Base on the Ceridian Customer Community for the “DIG” (make sure you have correct release). Search for “Balance Carry Over Rule”, “Define Balances”, and “Entitlement Rules and Qualifiers.”

Finally, make sure employees have easy access to their entitlement policy, or send out a friendly reminder, so there are no unpleasant surprises in the new year.

YE form delivery packages

There are two delivery options available for printed year-end tax forms (W-2/1099, and 1095-C): ship them all to your site location for distribution or mail them directly to each employee (U.S. addresses only).

Package tracking

Printed tax forms will be shipped using the package set up under: System Admin > Report Output > Delivery Package > Tax Forms.

• Will tax forms be sent to your office for distribution? If so, package tracking numbers can be found under Year End > Package Tracking.
• Individual tracking is not available for tax forms Ceridian mails directly to your employees.

All tax forms will be shipped by January 25.

Review the Year End Delivery Package Report (under Year End > Reports) to confirm tax form delivery details.

Note: Territory Form W-2s cannot be mailed directly to employee addresses from our facility. They will instead be shipped to the address provided in the tax form delivery package setup.

Mailing options

Excerpt from the QE Packet:

U.S. Form W-2 (not including Territory Form W-2) can be mailed directly to each employee’s payroll mailing address. In the United States, these items are delivered via the United States Postal Service.

Dayforce allows you to configure the address that prints outside the tax statement to be different than primary residence address. This is done using the Display on People > Personal > Contact Information > Addresses > Tax Statement indicator.

These options apply to all tax forms:

Electronic tax forms

Did you know that employees in self-service roles can opt out of receiving a physical tax form? These employees can then view and print a secure electronic copy. Your employee will have fewer people handling tax forms with their Social Security numbers and other private information…plus less hassle and expense for you! Employees must receive a physical copy of their tax form unless the opt out process is completed. Once the employee consents, they will receive electronic forms for all future years (unless they revoke their consent).

For instructions, check out the Knowledge Article on the Ceridian Customer Community called, “Allowing Employees to Opt Out of Printed Tax Forms (U.S.).”

Form W-2: Employer-Sponsored Healthcare

Do you have Employer-Sponsored Healthcare to record on Forms W-2 but don’t use Dayforce for benefits? The Knowledge Article, “Employer Healthcare Imports” has instructions for importing data into Dayforce. Access the Knowledge Base in the Ceridian Customer Community.

Form W-2: Retirement Plan Reporting in box 13

Take a few minutes to review this important information about Form W-2 box 13. See this article from the IRS for more details about retirement plans.

The three indicators within Box 13 specify:

• Statutory Employee – Marked for employees when their wages:
• are not subject to Federal Income Tax withholding (box 2 will be zero or empty),
• are subject to Social Security and Medicare Tax Withholdings (boxes 3 through 6 will not be empty).
• Retirement Plan – Marked if the employee has a pension plan, a 401(k) plan, 403(b) plan, SEP-IRA, or SIMPLE-IRA. This helps calculate how much the employee can contribute to a traditional IRA.
• Third-Party Sick Pay – Marked when employees received sick pay under your company’s third-party insurance policy and not directly from your company as part of a regular paycheck. Sick pay is not included in box 1 wages, although it is usually subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes.

If your company offers a qualified retirement plan, an X must print in the W-2 Retirement Plan box 13 for each participant covered by a retirement plan through employee or employer contributions at any time during the plan year. You can set the retirement plan indicator at the legal entity level to address most of your employee population. You can override this value at the employee-level in Dayforce under People > Payroll > Tax Definitions > Quarterly/Annual Reporting Parameters > Retirement Plan Eligible

Does your company have a Deferred Compensation Plan? If most employees are eligible from their date of hire:

• If YES, then Legal Entity Retirement Indicator should be Yes. This includes employees that are eligible for the Deferred Compensation Plan but are not participating.
• If NO, leave the Legal Entity Retirement Indicator blank. Dayforce will mark the W-2 box 13 for all employees that have a YTD Deferred Compensation greater than $0.00.

Note: If there are employees that differ from the setting at the legal entity-level, the Retirement Plan Indicator at the employee-level should be changed.

Use this chart to make sure that each employee’s Retirement Plan box is checked correctly. To ensure correct employee set-up, always verify using the W-2 Management Report.

Note: The Quarterly/Annual Reporting Parameters tab at the Legal Entity Level and the employee-level are role-specific. This feature must be turned on at the role-level to see the tab.

Form 1099-NEC is now required to be used to report Non-Employee Compensation (NEC) replacing Form 1099-MISC Box 7. Dayforce has added support for Form 1099-NEC with Release 59 SP2.

The release added a field to choose the contractor tax form type for the legal entity with the Process for Employment = Contractor Payroll. This new field can be found under Org Setup > Org Payroll Setup > Legal Entity > Quarterly/Annual Reporting Parameters > Contractor Tax Form Type.

During the Release 59 SP2 update, Contractor legal entities that had populated 1099-MISC Box 7 prior to the upgrade were defaulted to the new 1099-NEC Tax Form Type. The USA Year End screen has been updated to display the Form 1099-NEC. 

Review the Dayforce Release 59, Service Pack 2 – Release Notes for additional information.

More info from the IRS:

• Form 1099-NEC
• Form 1099-MISC
• Instructions for Form 1099-MISC and Form 1099-NEC

SURI registration

You must register with Sistema Unificado de Rentas Internas (SURI) and provide CTS with the SURI registration number.

Puerto Rico Forms W-2 (Forms W-2PR)

A confirmation number unique to each FEIN, must be printed on all Puerto Rico Forms W-2 (499R-2/W-2PR) before distribution to employees. These numbers confirm that the employer forms have been electronically filed and confirmed by the Hacienda. This special process creates a significant delay in printing Forms W-2PR.

Ceridian performs these steps behind the scenes on your behalf:

1. Once Forms W-2PR are created in January, a bulk file will be sent electronically to Puerto Rico.
2. Puerto Rico immediately returns the file with a confirmation number for each FEIN. Rejections may take several days to resolve.
3. Ceridian Support enters the confirmation numbers into Dayforce.
4. Forms W-2PR are printed and shipped.
   Note: Forms W-2PR are printed separately from the rest of your Forms W-2. They are also shipped later than other Forms W-2 while we wait for the confirmation number to be returned from the Puerto Rico Hacienda. Forms W-2PR cannot be mailed directly to employee addresses from our facility. They will therefore be shipped to the address provided in the delivery package setup.

Forms W-2PR will automatically be sent to the print queue when the confirmation number is received. They will ship (within one to three days) to your company’s business address as noted in Payroll Setup > Report Output > Delivery Packages no later than January 25, 2021.

The forms will be printed on an 8.5”x11” non-sealed form. The approved Puerto Rico Form W-2 is not self-sealing. This is due to the need for printing on both sides of a self-sealing document. Until the Hacienda approves a new form, clients will need to fold, stuff, and distribute Form W-2PR.

Notes:

• Forms W-2PR will not display correctly in U.S. Form W-2 envelopes. Contact your office supply vendor for help with buying the correct PR Tax Form envelopes.
• Ceridian cannot mail Forms W-2PR directly to employees.
• Self-Service does not display electronic Forms W-2PR to employees.

Mistakes are meant for learning, not for repeating! We asked our support crew to name the top 2019 Forms W-2 errors so you can make these corrections today:

• YE Form Delivery Packages. There are two delivery options available for year-end tax forms (such as W-2, 1099, and 1095-C): ship them all to your site location for distribution or mail them directly to each employee (U.S. only). A great Knowledge Article on the Ceridian Customer Community called, “Setting Up Tax Forms to Ship Directly to the Employee (U.S.)” will walk you through the steps.
• Employer costs of Healthcare. Even though this amount is not taxable, an error in box 12 code DD needs a Form W-2c. It may be easiest to import your adjustment records into Dayforce. Check out the Knowledge Article on the Ceridian Customer Community called “Employer Healthcare Imports.”
• Retirement Plan Indicator. Mess up this checkbox and your employees may receive assessment notices from the IRS. Search for the Knowledge Article on the Ceridian Customer Community called “Road Map: All Boxes on W-2 (U.S.).” You will learn more about:
  • When the Retirement Plan Indicator on box 13 is marked
  • How to set-up the Retirement Plan Indicator for both the entire legal entity as well as at the employee level