Sure, an error on one of your W-2s can cause a lot of hassle for you and the employee involved. But you can face an even bigger risk from errant forms. If an employee’s W-2 comes back to a company as undeliverable, IRS requires  you to hang on to the document for four years.

If you have multiple undelivered W-2s each year, it won’t be long before you’re holding a stack of forms with invaluable info for would-be identity thieves.

To keep all those forms secure, many companies are scanning the documents to store them as electronic files — and then shredding the originals.

It fulfills IRS requirements and saves you much-needed storage space. Plus, having them in one central place makes retrieval — or eventual deletion — a snap.

Tags: Controls Fraud prevention, Payroll, W-2s