Rev. Proc. 92-80

NOTE: Use this revenue procedure to prepare Forms W-4 for submission to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) using any of the following:

- Magnetic Tape

- 5 1/4-inch Diskette

- 3 1/2-inch Diskette

Please read this publication carefully.

                          TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION 1. PURPOSE

.01 The purpose of this revenue procedure is to update Rev. Proc. 90-9, 1990-4, (IRS Pub. 1245), which outlines the requirements and conditions for submitting certain Forms W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, on magnetic tape and 3 1/2- or 5 1/4-Inch diskettes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Martinsburg Computing Center (MCC).

.02 Revenue procedures are generally revised to reflect legislative and form changes. Comments concerning this revenue procedure or suggestions for making it more helpful can be addressed to Internal Revenue Service, Martinsburg Computing Center, P.O. Box 1359, Martinsburg, WV 25401, ATTN: IRB Technical Section.

.03 The following revenue procedures and publications provide more detailed filing procedures for certain information returns:

(a) 1992 "Instructions for Forms 1099, 1098, 5498, and W-2G" provides specific instructions on completing and submitting information returns to IRS. These instructions can be obtained by contacting your local IRS office or by calling 1-800-829-3676.

(b) Rev. Proc. 84-33, 1984-1 C.B. 502, regarding the optional method for agents to report and deposit backup withholding.

(c) Publication 1179, Specifications for Paper Document Reporting and Paper Substitutes for Forms 1096, 1098, 1099 Series, 5498, and W-2G.

(d) Publication 1220, Specifications for Filing Form 1098, 1099, 5498, and W-2G Magnetically or Electronically.

(e) Publication 1239, Specifications for Filing Form 8027, Employer's Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips, on Magnetic Tape and 3 1/2- or 5 1/4-Inch Magnetic Diskettes.

(f) Publication 1187, Specifications for Filing Form 1042S, Foreign Person's U.S. Source Income Subject to Withholding, Electronically or on Magnetic Tape, and 3 1/2- or 5 1/4-Inch Magnetic Diskettes.

(g) Publication 1527 (8-91), IRP-BBS (Information Returns Program Bulletin Board System).

.04 Refer to Part A, Section 10, for definitions of terms used in this publication.

SEC. 2. NATURE OF CHANGES

.01 EDITORIAL CHANGES

There have been numerous editorial changes. You must read this publication in its entirety to ensure proper reporting. The changes are as follow:

(a) The title of the publication has changed from "Magnetic Tape Reporting for Forms W-4" to "Specifications for Filing Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, on Magnetic Tape, and 5 1/4-, and 3 1/2-Inch Magnetic Diskettes." This revenue procedure now contains specifications for reporting on 5 1/4-, and 3 1/2-Inch Diskettes.

(b) Added Part A, Section 3, "How to Contact IRS/Martinsburg Computing Center (MCC)."

(c) Included the telephone number for the Information Reporting Program Bulletin Board System (IRP-BBS), the telephone number for the IRS/MCC fax machine, and the Telecommunications Device (TDD) telephone number for the Martinsburg Computing Center.

(d) Added Part A, Section 4, "Filing Requirements."

.02 PROGRAMMING CHANGES

(a) Added Part B, Section 2, "Tape Specifications."

(b) Added Part B, Section 3, "5 1/4- and 3 1/2-Inch Diskette Specifications."

(c) Revised Part B, Section 4, "Form W-4 Record Format."

(d) Record length changed from 320 to 350 positions.

SEC. 3. HOW TO CONTACT IRS/MARTINSBURG COMPUTING CENTER (MCC)

.01 Copies of this revenue procedure, application Form 4419, transmittal Forms 6466/6467, media label Form 6468 and additional magnetic media related materials are available from IRS/MCC. Send your magnetic media files, and any inquiries to IRS/MCC at the following addresses:

     If by U.S. Postal Service:

.03 Publication 1245 and other IRS publications concerning magnetic filing of information returns are available through the IRP-BBS as "down-loadable" files. Using IRP-BBS as a means of obtaining publications will provide faster access to this information. Additionally, publications will be available from IRP-BBS much earlier than the printed version. The IRP-BBS is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The telephone number is (304) 263-2749.

.04 The IRP-BBS software provides a menu driven environment which allows filers to access different parts of the bulletin board. Whenever possible, IRS/MCC personnel will provide assistance in resolving communication problems with IRP-BBS.

.05 The telephone number for the IRS/MCC fax machine is (304) 264-5196.

.06 IRS/MCC has installed Telecommunications Devices for the Deaf (TDD). The number is (304) 267-3367.

.07 Requests for paper returns, publications and forms not related to magnetic media processing MUST be requested by calling the "Forms Only Number" listed in your local telephone directory, or by calling the IRS toll-free number 1-800-829-3676.

.08 Specifications for filing Forms W-2 on magnetic media are available from the Social Security Administration (SSA) ONLY. IRS/MCC does NOT process Forms W-2. Paper and/or magnetic media Forms W-2 must be sent to SSA.

.09 CENTRALIZED INFORMATION REPORTING CALL SITE

In 1991, IRS instituted a centralized call site to answer tax law questions related to information returns (Forms 1096, 1098, 1099, 1042S, 5498, 8027, W-2, W-2G, W-3 and W-4). The call site is located at IRS/MCC and operates in conjunction with the information reporting program. The site provides service to financial institutions, employers, and other payers who file information returns. It is being phased in over a two year period.

The call site is currently operating as a pilot accepting inquiries from payers calling from Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. Beginning in October 1992, the site will accept inquiries from employers in those states as well as the following: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, and Kentucky. The numbers to call are (304) 263-8700 or TDD (304) 267-3367. These are toll calls.

Employers in other areas of the country should continue to call 1-800-829-1040. If the pilot operation is successful, the remaining states will be phased in by October 1, 1993, when the call site will be available nationwide. Hours of operation for the call site during the pilot are 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Eastern Time.

SEC. 4. FILING REQUIREMENTS

.01 Employers are required to send to IRS quarterly, copies of all Forms W-4 received during the quarter from employees still employed at the end of the quarter who claim the following:

(a) More than 10 withholding allowances, or

(b) Exempt status and are expected to earn more than $200 a week.

.02 Employers are not required to send other Forms W-4 unless notified by IRS in writing to do so.

.03 Employers may submit all information on magnetic media; or a combination of magnetic media records and paper documents is acceptable, provided there is no duplication or omission of documents.

.04 A Form W-4 with a written statement attached from the employee must be filed on paper, not on magnetic media. If filing paper Forms W-4, the employer may send them in each quarter with paper Forms 941 or 941E. If the employer submits the paper Forms W-4 at any time other than quarterly, a cover letter must be submitted giving the employer's name, address, employer's identification number (EIN), and the number of Forms W-4 included.

NOTE: MCC DOES NOT PROCESS PAPER RETURNS. PAPER RETURNS MUST BE FILED WITH THE APPROPRIATE SERVICE CENTER.

SEC. 5. FORM 4419, APPLICATION FOR FILING INFORMATION RETURNS MAGNETICALLY/ELECTRONICALLY

.01 Employers or their transmitters who wish to file magnetically must submit a Form 4419, Application for Filing Information Returns Magnetically/Electronically. Instructions for its completion are on the reverse of the form.

.02 Magnetic media may not be filed with IRS/MCC until authorization to file is received. Requests will be approved or disapproved within 30 days of receipt.

.03 Only applications of employers or transmitters whose equipment meets the specifications in Part B, Sec. 2 or 3, will be approved.

.04 Once authorization to file has been granted, a five-character alpha/numeric Transmitter Control Code (TCC) will be assigned. Approval will continue in effect in succeeding years provided the requirements of the current revenue procedure are met and there are no equipment changes by the employer or transmitter. Although a TCC may have already been assigned to a transmitter for the filing of information returns other than Form W-4, the Form W-4 program requires a separate TCC of its own. This TCC must appear on all transmittal forms submitted with magnetic media files as well as other correspondence. The TCC must also be coded into positions 315-319 of the Form W-4 record. (See Part B, Sec. 4.)

.05 New applications (Forms 4419) are required whenever:

(a) You discontinue filing on magnetic media for a year, in which case your TCC may have been reassigned.

(b) You have used a service agency in the past to prepare your files but now have computer equipment compatible with that of IRS, in which case you must request your own TCC.

.06 It is necessary to notify IRS/MCC in writing of software changes that would affect the characteristics of the magnetic media submission or if the employer's name or the contact person changes.

If any of the above conditions apply to you, contact IRS/MCC at the address and telephone number of IRS/MCC referred to in Part A, Sec. 3.

SEC. 6. FILING DUE DATES

.01 Magnetic media reporting of Forms W-4 to IRS must be at least quarterly (monthly reporting is encouraged) following the quarter end dates:

 Period Covered                                             Due Date

SEC. 7. FILING FORMS W-4 MAGNETICALLY

.01 An Information Reporting Package which includes the current revenue procedure, and the necessary transmittals and labels, will be mailed to approved filers each year.

.02 If the employer chooses to file on magnetic media, then a Form 6466, Transmittal of Magnetic Media of Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, must be sent to the IRS/MCC as prescribed in Part A, Sec. 3.

.03 Form 6466 MUST be signed by the employer or the transmitter, service bureau, paying agent, or disbursing agent (all hereafter referred to as agent), on behalf of the employer if the agent has the authority to sign the affidavit under an agency agreement (either oral, written, or implied) that is valid under state law and adds the caption "FOR: (name of employer)."

.04 Although a duly authorized agent signs the affidavit, the employer(s) is held responsible for the accuracy of Forms W-4 contained on magnetic media.

.05 DO NOT REPORT THE SAME INFORMATION ON PAPER DOCUMENTS THAT YOU REPORT ON MAGNETIC MEDIA. If you report part of your returns on paper and part on magnetic media, be sure that duplicate returns are not included on both.

.06 Before submitting your magnetic media file, include the following:

(a) A signed Form 6466, Transmittal of Magnetic Media of Form W-4.

(b) A Form 6467, Transmittal of Magnetic Media of Form W-4, (Continuation), if you submit data for multiple employers.

(c) The magnetic tape or diskette with an external identifying label (Form 6469).

(d) On the outside of the shipping container, include a Form 4801 or a substitute form which reads "DELIVER UNOPENED TO TAPE LIBRARY--MAGNETIC MEDIA REPORTING BOX ____ OF ___." If there is only one container, mark the outside as Box 1 of 1. For multiple containers, include the sequence (e.g., Box 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3).

.07 IRS/MCC will not return filers' magnetic media after it has been successfully processed. Should filers wish to know if their media was received by IRS/MCC, a delivery service that provides certification of delivery is recommended.

.08 IRS cannot accept any Cash-On-Delivery (COD) or Charged-to-IRS shipments of reportable tax information that an individual or organization is legally required to file. Because of the high volume of data received and shipping cost involved, special shipping containers will not be returned.

.09 Use this record length and processing capabilities to file Forms W-4 submitted after 12-31-92.

SEC. 8. REPLACEMENT FILES

.01 THE MAGNETIC MEDIA SPECIFICATIONS CONTAINED IN PART B OF THIS REVENUE PROCEDURE MUST BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO. If files are unprocessable, they will be returned to you for replacement and resubmission, or submission of paper Forms W-4. Replacement files must be resubmitted to IRS/MCC within 45 days of the date of the notice. The data should be identified as replacement data by writing, typing or printing "Magnetic Media Replacement" on the external label used on the magnetic media and marking the replacement box on the Form 6466.

SEC. 9. EFFECT ON PAPER DOCUMENTS

.01 Magnetic media reporting to IRS eliminates the need to submit copies of paper Forms W-4.

.02 If part of the Forms W-4 are reported on magnetic media and the remainder are reported on paper forms, the paper Forms W-4 must be mailed to the appropriate service center.

SEC. 10. DEFINITION OF TERMS

 Employer       Generally, an employer is a person or organization for

SECTION 1. GENERAL

.01 These specifications prescribe the required format and content of the records to be included in the file, but not the methods or equipment to be used in their preparation. Use this record length and processing capabilities to file Forms W-4 submitted after 12-31-92.

.02 An external label, Form 6469, must appear on each tape and diskette submitted. The diskettes used must be MS/DOS compatible.

SEC. 2. TAPE SPECIFICATIONS

.01 IRS will be able to process any compatible magnetic tape file. To be compatible, tapes must be EBCDIC or ASCII and meet all of the following specifications:

(a) 9-track EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) with:

(1) Odd parity

(2) Recording density--1600 or 6250 BPI

(3) If you use UNISYS Series 1100, you must submit an interchange tape.

(b) 9-track ASCII (American Standard Coded Information Interchange) with:

(1) Odd parity

(2) Recording density--1600 or 6250 BPI

.02 All tape files must have the following characteristics:

(a) 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) wide computer grade magnetic tape,

(b) Tape thickness: 1.0 or 1.5 mils,

(c) Reel diameter: 10.5 inch (26.67 cm), 8.5 inch (21.59 cm), or 7 inch (17.78 cm) and

(d) Reel of tape up to 2400 feet (731.52 m).

.03 All records, including Header and Trailer Labels (if used) must be transmitted using the same density.

.04 Header Labels, Trailer Labels, Record Marks, and Tape Marks are all optional. They may be used as required by the transmitter's equipment or programming. If used, they must conform to the following standards:

(a) Header Labels:

(1) Transmitters may use standard headers, provided they begin with HDR1, HDR2, VOL1 or VOL2.

(2) Header Labels may not exceed 80 characters in length.

(b) Trailer Labels:

(1) Standard Trailer Labels may be used provided that they begin with 1EOR, 1EOF, EOR1, or EOF1.

(2) Trailer Labels may not exceed 80 characters in length.

(c) Record Marks:

(1) Special character used to separate blocked records on tape.

(2) Can be written only at the end of a record or block.

(3) All records are of uniform length; therefore, record marks are not necessary on this file.

(d) Tape Marks:

(1) Used to signify the physical end of the recording on tape.

(2) May follow the Header Label and precede and/or follow the Trailer Label.

.05 Tape records prescribed in the specifications may be blocked or unblocked, subject to the following:

(a) All data records are a fixed length of 350 positions.

(b) All records may be blocked, except Header and Trailer Labels.

(c) If blocking is used (more than one record per block), the desired blocking factor is ten (10) records per block. At no time may a block contain more than 3,500 characters; however, a smaller block size may be used if necessary. If sufficient records are not available for a full block, the remainder should be either "padded" with 9s to fill all unused positions or truncated. Do not pad the block with blanks or create blank records.

(d) Records may not span blocks.

.06 Do not submit an employee Form W-4 record without the required employer identification information. Every record must contain both employee and employer data.

SEC. 3. 5 1/4-INCH AND 3 1/2-INCH DISKETTE SPECIFICATIONS

.01 To be compatible a diskette file must meet the following specifications:

(a) 5 1/4- or 3 1/2-inches in diameter.

(b) Data must be recorded in standard ASCII code.

(c) Records must be a fixed length of 350 bytes per record.

(d) Delimiter character commas (,) must not be used.

(e) Positions 349 and 350 of each record have been reserved for carriage return/line feed (cr/lf) characters.

(f) Filename of QWFTAX must be used. Do not enter any other data in this field. If a file consists of more than one diskette, the file name of QWFTAX will contain a 3 digit extension. This extension will indicate the sequence of the diskettes within the file. For example, the first diskette will be named QWFTAX.001, the second diskette will be QWFTAX.002, etc.

(g) A diskette file may consist of multiple diskettes as long as the file name conventions are adhered to.

(h) Diskettes must meet one of the following specifications:

 Capacity           Tracks         Sides/Density          Sector Size

SEC. 4. FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

.01 This record is used to identify the employer, the employee, number of allowances, and other information that is reported on the paper Form W-4.

.02 ALL RECORDS MUST BE A FIXED LENGTH OF 350 POSITIONS.

.03 Do not begin any record at the end of a block or diskette and continue the same record into the next block.

                        FORM W-4 RECORD FORMAT

Revenue Procedure 90-9, 1990-1 C.B. 460 (Publication 1245), is superseded.

SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE

Use the record length and processing capabilities of this revenue procedure to file Forms W-4 submitted after December 31, 1992.