Identifying retirement plan participants

If an employee participated in an employer paid retirement plan, you can specify the after tax deduction code in WR topic to identify these employees. Otherwise, you can use the Retirement Plan data item on the Employee Year-End Parameters topic on Employee (HR11.1) and Employee Year-End Parameters (PR11.1).

You only need to identify employees who were in a retirement plan during the W-2 year. For example, if you create your W-2 forms for 2011 in January of 2012, only employees who were in a retirement plan in 2011 should be identified as such.

Only identify employees who need retirement plan information printed on their W-2 forms. Do not use this field to keep track of the employees in your retirement plan.

If you do not specify a year, information specified here will update Employee (HR11.1)

Note: If you are not defining the WR topic, PR297 does not look at benefit plan enrollments to determine how the W-2 Retirement Plan box is checked. PR297 uses employee pretax deduction history to determine if amounts were contributed to a retirement plan (plans listed in the Benefits user guide).

If the employee only made after tax contributions (or the employer contributions were made without employee pre-tax contributions), then use HR11.1 (or PR11.1) or a WR topic.

You do not need to use the Retirement Plan data item on Employee Year-End Parameters (PR11.1) if an employee participates pretax in one of these plans:

  • 401(k) or 7701(j)

  • 403(b)

  • SIMPLE retirement account

  • 408(k)(6)

  • 501(c)

The Payroll application automatically checks the Retirement Plan in Box 13 of the W-2 for these plans.