Reprint prior years W2's

Let me provide some information about printing prior W-2 forms, doncovea.

The QuickBooks Desktop will let you print your previous W-2 using the form for the current filing year. That's why it's showing 2020 instead of 2018 even though it has the 2018 data. However, if you archived this form when you file it last year, you can pull it up in the Saved Filings tab. This will give you the 2018 W-2 form. Let me show you how: 

1. In the Payroll Center, go to the Payroll tab.
2. Click the File Forms tab.
3. From the Filing History, choose Saved Filings.
4. Locate the 2018 W-2, then tick the link under the Saved PDF column.

We can also download the 2018 W-2 form from the IRS website and manually fill it out. You can just pull up a tax worksheet from QuickBooks for your reference. Here's how:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Hover over to Employees & Payroll, select More Payroll Reports in Excel, then choose Tax Form Worksheets.
3. From the downloaded Excel file, select Annual W-2/W-3. Then, change the year to 2018.
4. Tap Create Report.

I want to share this article about printing W-2 and W-3 forms for more details about this one. Feel free to visit our Tax forms page for more insight s about adding and managing your tax forms.

I'll be right here to continue helping if you have any other concerns or questions about QuickBooks. Assistance is just a post away. Have a great day ahead. 

RE: Now that Quickbooks Enterprise has updated to the new 2020 W2 format, I can't re-print a W-2 for an employee without it printing "2020" on the form. I need a 2018 W2 printed...    QB warned that this was the case...but I've always reprinted for employees when requested. Now what can I do?

Basically you can't do anything to re-create that old W-2.

You can only print one version-year of the W-2 from QuickBooks at a time, the one appropriate for the current date/current year.

In part at least, this is because that is all you need.  You are under no obligation to reprint a W-2 for an employee at a later date. If the employee loses their W-2, the correct course of action is for the employee to request a copy from the SSA based on what you filed with the SSA.  You can also give them a copy of the company copy W-2 from your records, which you're required to keep. QB makes this easy by saving a company copy of what you file or print as a PDF file, which you can access from the payroll center.

Also, as a side, this isn't even a good idea to try to re-create an old W-2 given how QuickBooks works.  There isn't a way to print a W-2 for 2018 now that you know is the same as it was back in 2018. In order for that to be the case, all the planets would have to align as they say.

To get the exact same thing now as you did 2 years ago, you'd need:

- Exactly the same version and release of QuickBooks.

- To be able to know for certain that none of the payroll data from that year has changed in any way, nor have any payroll items you used then changed.

- To know that nothing about the employee record has changed, which is unreasonable because employees change their names and their addresses and their status.

- To have preserved any adjustments you made to the W-2's, and you'd need to answer any questions/options for creating the W-2 the same exact way.

None of this is possible in QuickBooks, nor it it in most payroll systems.

If you want to go the extra mile in the future for your employees, want to go beyond what the SSA and IRS require of you, then you can print additional employee copies on paper or as PDF's to keep on file, ready for when they ask at a later date. It's the only way to know what you give them in the future is what you gave them in the past.