[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 60 (Wednesday, March 27, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Page 13563]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-7377]



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SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION


 Notice of Proposed Change in Magnetic Media Filing Requirements 
for Form W-2 Wage Reports; Request for Comments

SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that SSA is currently considering a 
change to its Technical Instruction Bulletin for Magnetic Media 
Reporting (TIB-4) under which SSA would no longer accept annual Form W-
2 wage reports filed on 8 inch diskettes. Instead, such wage reports 
would have to be filed by employers or third-party preparers on 5\1/4\ 
inch or 3\1/2\ inch diskettes; on \1/2\ inch magnetic tape; or on 3480 
cartridges. Before further consideration is given to this proposal, SSA 
would like to receive any comments the public may offer on the proposed 
change.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before April 26, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Comments on this proposal should be mailed or delivered to 
Norman Goldstein, Senior Financial Executive, Social Security 
Administration, Room 451 Altmeyer Building, Baltimore, MD 21235; or 
sent by telefax to (410) 966-8753.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Richard Harron, Chief, Earnings 
Records and Reporting Branch, Office of Program Benefits Policy, Social 
Security Administration, 3-F-26 Operations Building, Baltimore, MD 
21235, telefax (410) 966-9214.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under section 6011(e) of the Internal 
Revenue Code and section 301.6011-2 of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 
Regulations, employers who file 250 or more Form W-2 (Wage and Tax 
Statement) returns in a year after 1986 must file them on magnetic 
media. Employers with fewer returns may file on magnetic media on a 
voluntary basis.
    Pursuant to an agreement with the IRS, SSA receives and processes 
employers' Form W-2 wage returns for use by both agencies. Each tax 
year, SSA sets out the requirements for filing magnetic media Form W-2 
reports in its TIB-4 publication, which is sent to each employer who 
filed such reports in the preceding year. Magnetic media reports that 
do not meet these requirements are returned unprocessed to the 
submitter.
    Most diskette reports filed by employers with SSA are filed on 3\1/
2\ inch or 5\1/4\ inch diskettes based upon an MS-DOS operating system. 
About 15% of the diskettes received by SSA are 8 inch diskettes 
produced by older computer equipment which is more expensive to repair 
and uses a different operating system. Equipment for the 8 inch 
diskettes is rapidly becoming obsolete and the number of returns filed 
in this manner is declining. SSA's continued processing of diskettes 
based on the two different operating systems requires the maintenance 
of equipment for both systems and special handling to ``translate'' 8 
inch diskette data to a usable form. Moreover, the TIB-4 requirements 
for all filers are of necessity more complex. The consequence is slower 
and more costly wage reporting processes, with the additional costs 
having to be borne, in part, by other employers using more up-to-date 
equipment.
    SSA is also exploring ways to simplify its disk reporting process 
as well as to receive more Form W-2 wage reports by electronic data 
transmission over telephone lines. SSA's objective is to achieve a more 
efficient process for both the Agency and employers. However, such 
efforts cannot be fully effective so long as SSA maintains requirements 
based on two operating systems. For these reasons and the readily 
available alternatives for diskette filers in the computer market, SSA 
is considering the possibility of eliminating 8 inch diskette from its 
list of acceptable magnetic media reporting formats.

    Dated: March 20, 1996.
Norman Goldstein,
Senior Financial Executive.
[FR Doc. 96-7377 Filed 3-26-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4190-29-P