Printing a W-2

Get your W-2s ready for the Social Security Administration and your employees with Adams Tax Forms Helper form filler.

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Written by Adams Tax Forms
Updated over a week ago

To print a W-2 form, select the W-2 button on the menu bar, top of the page.

To print a single form, simply click the “Print” link to the right of the record.

To print multiple records at the same time, check "Select All" or check and uncheck individual payers as needed. Click the blue “Print Selected” button at the bottom of the records table to open the print menu.

The Adams Tax Forms Helper print menu

The print menu page is where you’ll set all of your print parameters.

Select Format

The Select Format drop-down tells Tax Forms Helper which copies of your form you’d like to print next (Copy A, Copy 2, Copy C and so on). Tax Forms Helper will make any adjustments needed for the page.

Set your paper selections

Next, tell Tax Forms Helper whether you’d like to print your data onto IRS-approved tax forms, or if you’d like to make plain paper copies.

Print onto Adams Tax Forms

To print onto IRS-approved forms, click the “Print onto Pre-Printed IRS Form” button.

In the print preview, you’ll only see the data from your record without any of the borders or lines from the form.

Tip: It’s a good idea to load plain paper in your printer first. That way, you won’t waste your pre-printed forms. Just hold your plain paper print in front of a form.

Before you run that test print!

It’s also an excellent idea to check your printer settings before you begin.

Tip: The number one cause of avoidable form alignment issues are hidden printer settings for scaling and fit to page.

You can typically find scaling options in your printer’s system dialog under Printer Properties, Preferences or Advanced settings.

In this example, you can see the additional scaling settings for a Brother printer. Here, scaling should be set to “Off.”

Correcting alignment issues

If your print settings were fine and your test print still revealed some alignment issues, Tax Forms Helper Online can help you make some adjustments.

Return to the print menu

Let’s go back to our printing home base. Select your forms again and choose “Print Selected”.

From the Print Menu screen, you can move your data right, left, up or down using the adjustment indicators.

Simply enter a number in the hundredths box and select right/left or up/down from the dropdown options to adjust.

Print onto blank paper

To print onto blank paper, select “Print with Form onto Blank Paper”. You’ll see a preview of your form with your data and the form grid.

Click the “Download” button to save a PDF to your preferred location. (The desktop is easy to find in a pinch.) Your browser may also provide a “Print”, “Print as PDF” option.

Tip: Official IRS copies must be scannable, meaning they’re printed with a special red ink that can be read by Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.

If you’re printing red ink 1096, or W-3 forms, Adams Tax Forms Helper Online will only produce a watermarked printout of these forms that is for informational purposes only and not suitable for filing. Learn more.

You can view the entire printing process by watching this video tutorial.

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