As the IRS continues to explore ways to reduce identity theft, the agency issued final regulations that permit employers to use truncated taxpayer identification numbers (TTINs) on Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, issued to employees.
The regulations finalize proposed rules issued in September 2017 with no substantive changes in response to comments. Permissible TTINs are Social Security numbers with the first five digits replaced with asterisks or Xs in the following formats: ***-**-1234 or XXX-XX-1234.