W-2 Import Spreadsheet: Required Fields (Tax Year 2025)

This guide covers the required fields for importing Form W-2 data into BoomTax. Download the W-2 template here.

Employee Information (Required)

a. Employee's SSN: 9 digits. Format column as Text in Excel to preserve leading zeros.
e. Employee's first name and last name
f. Employee's address: Street, city, state (abbreviated), ZIP

Employer Information (Required)

b. Employer identification number (EIN)
c. Employer's name, address, and ZIP code

Wage and Tax Data

At minimum, you need to fill in the applicable wage and tax boxes:

1. Wages, tips, other compensation
2. Federal income tax withheld
3. Social security wages
4. Social security tax withheld
5. Medicare wages and tips
6. Medicare tax withheld

Monetary fields can be entered as whole numbers (e.g., "3" instead of "3.00").

Box 12: Special Codes

Box 12 uses lettered codes (e.g., DD for health coverage cost, C for group-term life insurance). Enter the code letter and the corresponding amount. Multiple codes can be entered for a single employee.

Box 13: Checkboxes

For fields like Statutory employee, Retirement plan, and Third-party sick pay, use:

Affirmative: yes, y, x, true, or 1
Negative: no, n, false, 0, or leave blank

State and Local Wage Data

If filing state W-2s, you'll also need:

15. State: Abbreviated (e.g., "TX")
15. Employer's state ID number
16. State wages, tips, etc.
17. State income tax
Local wage fields (18-20) if applicable

Common Mistakes

SSN leading zeros: Format the SSN column as Text before entering data.
Missing column headers: All template columns must be present, even if empty.
State not abbreviated: Use "TX" not "Texas".

Download Template

Download the BoomTax W-2 Excel Template

This article covers Tax Year 2025. Source: Import Spreadsheet Guidelines (blog.boomtax.com)