Are you a business receiving a letter like the following:
If you are, this means something is incorrect with your employee’s information (name, address, or SSN). Technically, the Social Security Administration is saying their records don’t match your records for some employees. You will need to take action. Here is what to do.
1.) Check your records first. Sometimes the errors are easy to fix.
- Transposed numbers in the SSN
- Name change due to marriage or court
- Address change or old address
If the error is in your records, just correct your records and there is nothing further to do. As you run payroll again, the changes will be reflected on the tax forms you file with the IRS and the next time you process W2/W3 forms, the SSA will match with your records.
2.) You checked your records and contacted employees, but nothing changed.
Maybe the SSA has an error in their records. We can help you verify your employee information against SSA for a small fee and then provide instructions to you to share with your employee how to get it fixed.
3.) Your records didn’t change and the SSA has different information or no information. Now what?
- If the employee’s SSN starts with a “9”, this is not an SSN, but an ITIN. Maybe the ITIN has expired or is invalid.
- If the employee’s number is not coming up on the SSA’s website or records, then the number is invalid.
- Something else came up.
In these cases, we should talk. Some of these issues are documentation errors, some of these issues are citizenship status related and some (very rarely) turn out to be fraudulent.
4.) If you choose to do nothing. We strongly advise against this, but sometimes there are extenuating circumstances. We can discuss with you what the potential risks are if any.
