Below is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) relating to Tax Reporter functionality. While this list attempts to cover as many issues as possible, it cannot, by definition, be exhaustive.
Symptom
Below is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) relating to Tax Reporter functionality. While this list attempts to cover as many issues as possible, it cannot, by definition, be exhaustive.
For more detailed information regarding specific Tax Reporter functions and processes, see the Tax Reporter User Guide on the Documentation page of the hrusa web site.
A more “user-friendly” version of this FAQ list is available on the mySAP HR web site at:
http://service.sap.com/hrusa.
Frequently Asked Questions
Performance Issues
1. We have had performance problems related to locking issues on table NRIV when running Tax Reporter and the payroll evaluation (also known as U500) or payroll check print at the same time. We had to run schedule jobs around this or run Tax Reporter on a separate box. Is this still an issue?
Forms/Reporting Issues
1. What is the difference between SAPscript and HR Formula Reports as they relate to Tax Reporter?
2. How do I ensure I have the latest SAPscript and HR Formula Reports?
3. What is program RPUFRM00 and how should it be used?
4. How do I create my own SAPscript form?
5. How do I create my own HR Formula Report?
6. What is the Philadelphia Recon Report and how is it generated?
7. What are the locality listings and how do they work?
8. What controls the retention of the Tax Reporter log, magnetic media and disk files?
9. Does SAP offer a self-sealing W-2 form?
10. How can I change the download format of magnetic media files from ASCII to EBCDIC or vice versa ?
11. How does SAP intend the W-3 be used?
12. In Form 1099-R Magnetic media, why is no K record generated? How do I submit 1099-R magnetic media for state/local authorities?
Form W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement)
1. For employees in the state of Indiana, a strange code (e.g. C29) is printed in the Locality name box, rather than the name of the locality itself (e.g. Hamilton). Why does this strange code appear on my forms?
2. For employees in the state of Ohio, a strange code is printed in the Locality Name box, rather than the name of the locality (i.e., school district) itself. Why does this strange code appear on my forms?
3. For Maryland employees, no locality taxes are printed and state income tax appears to be overstated. The same problem occurs with Maryland magnetic media. Is Tax Reporter processing these amounts incorrectly?
4. For New Jersey employees, taxable amounts for UI (TFG 0020), health insurance (TFG 0023), workforce development (TFG 0024) and disability (TFG 0041) are not printed on Form W-2. In fact, I do not see tax types 23 and 24 at all. Why?
5. Why are certain tax types (such as state disability), printed in the Locality Box instead of the box labeled Other?
6. My W-2 tape was returned by the state tax department, who claimed that the tape lacked a contact name/blocking factor/machine name/operating system. Where do I maintain this data?
7. When I print my W-2s, the data on the forms does not align correctly within the form boxes. How can I rectify this problem?
8. What type of envelopes and paper should be used to produce Form W-2 and Form 1099-R?
9. The wrong subtype of the Addresses infotype (0006) is printed on employee W-2 forms. Why?
10. One, some, or all of the checkboxes (Statutory employee, Retirement plan, and Third-Party Sick pay) are not appropriately marked. How do I solve this?
11. Some of my benefits information (Box 12) and “Other” (Box 14) items do not print, even though corresponding data is present in payroll. Why is this?
Unemployment Insurance Reporting
1. I ran UI reporting for a certain state, but did not get any paper output. However, the system produced a magnetic tape and did not log any error messages. What happened to the paper form?
2. I copied an SAP-delivered UI form, but the system does not seem to use my copy. Why?
Configuration Issues
1. How are box 12 items configured?
2. How are box 13 items configured?
3. How are box 14 items configured?
4. I have configured my customer wage types to display in one of the boxes of the W-2. When I run Tax Reporter, I do not see any results? What could be the cause?
5. What is table T5UX1? How does it get populated?
6. What is the feature UTRJS?
7. What is a blocking factor? Why might I need to update this setting? Where do I maintain this and other company-specific information on the magnetic file layouts such as contact name/machine name/operating system, etc?
8. What is feature UTXTM?
9. What is feature UTXRP?
10. If I am using features UTXRP or UTXTM, how does this affect me when I am running Tax Reporter?
Tax Reporter Processing
1. What is the difference between a Simulation (Test) and Productive Tax Reporter Run?
2. How do I specify the sort criteria for the W-2 form? What is the default?
3. Does SAP duplicate all Federal information i.e. Box 12, 13, and 14 items on each W-2, if an employee has multiple states?
4. What is report RPCTRDU0 and how should it be used?
5. What are tables T5UT1 and T5UT2? How are they used by Tax Reporter?
6. What type if information is contained in the Tax Reporter log ?
7. When should I set the filing date for a Tax Reporter run?
8. We have a custom program to load table T5UT1 with manual Tax Reporter entries. However, when we run Tax Reporter, our entries are not getting picked up. What could be a possible cause?
9. How are negative amounts handled on tax forms?
10. If the W-2 process fails in the middle of the process, can we restart the job? Are there any special precautions we need to make if this occurs?
11. How does table T5UQR really work as it relates to Tax Reporter?
12. This is the first year that we are using SAP. When I try to run Tax Reporter, I get an error message about the payroll control record status. These are for payroll control records that we do not use. Why is this?
13. What impact does the date have on Tax Reporter?
Tax Reporter Technical
1. What is the key for PCL4 and what does it mean?
2. How can I maintain security for Tax Reporter ?
3. How does Tax Reporter handle voided payroll results vs. out-of-sequence reversals?
4. What is constant TRCOM in T511K and what does it do?
Solution
Performance Issues
1. We have had performance problems related to locking issues on table NRIV when running Tax Reporter and the payroll evaluation (also known as U500) or payroll check print at the same time. We had to run schedule jobs around this or run Tax Reporter on a separate box. Is this still an issue?
Answer: No. This was solved by the creation of a new number range object in table NRIV, exclusive to Tax Reporter. This was introduced by note 408871: New TemSe number range object.
Forms/Reporting Issues
1. What is the difference between SAPscript and HR Formula Reports as they relate to Tax Reporter?
Answer: SAPscript is an advanced form development tool. It is used when the tax form requires multiple fonts, bold text, and other detailed formatting (for example, the employee W-2 form).
HR Formula report development is used when the report has very basic formatting requirements; for example, State Unemployment Insurance wage listings. HR Formula reports are stored in tables T512E, T512G, T512P, and T512Q. See Notes 187494 and 132247 for more detail.
2. How do I ensure I have the latest SAPscript and HR Formula Reports?
Answer: By default, Tax Reporter reads the current version of SAPscript forms from client 000, unless the form has been copied to the working client. HR Formula reports also reside in client 000.
However, Tax Reporter does not read HR Formula reports from client 000 by default. You must use the Forms Utility Program (RPUFRM00) to delete and copy HR Forms from client 000 to the active client.
3. What is program RPUFRM00 and how should it be used?
Answer: Program RPUFRM00 is the Forms Utility program. For Tax Reporter purposes, it is used to copy HR Formula reports from client 000 to the working client. This is necessary when HR Support Packages are applied that contain changes to the HR Formula reports used by Tax Reporter. See the documentation for program RPUFRM00 or Notes 187494 and 132247 for more details.
4. How do I create my own SAPscript form?
Answer: It is possible to copy SAP delivered SAPscript forms and create new SAPscript forms using transaction SE71. Custom SAPscript forms should be named in your customer name space.
5. How do I create my own HR Formula Report?
Answer: Use the Forms Utility program RPUFRM00 to copy SAP-delivered Tax Reporter HR Formula reports.
6. What is the Philadelphia Recon. Report and how is it generated?
Answer: The City of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Annual Reconciliation of Wage Tax report is provided to customers who are required to file this report. For additional information, see Note 339375.
7. What are the locality listings and how do they work?
Answer: Tax Reporter contains locality wage listing for Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. If you wish to add locality reports for other states, you can copy these three delivered reports. Instructions can be found in the Tax Reporter User Guide.
8. What controls the retention of the Tax Reporter log and magnetic media files?
Answer: You can set the life span of the log and the magnetic media in the feature TEMSE. For the log, use the tax company as the decision parameter OBJKN.
For magnetic media, use ‘CTRPUP’ as the decision parameter for the production run, and ‘CTRPUT’ as the decision parameter for the test run.
Below is an example of how to set up feature TEMSE. In this example:
The log for tax company US01 is kept for 50 days (as a minimum; after that it will be deleted when you do a routine clean up for TEMSE files).
The log for tax company US02 is kept for 100 days.
The log for other tax companies is kept for 30 days.
The magnetic media generated in a production run is kept for 300 days.
The magnetic media generated in a test run is kept for 200 days.
D OBJKN US01 &TEMSE=50, US02 &TEMSE=100, CTRPUT &TEMSE=200, CTRPUP &TEMSE=300, ****** &TEMSE=30,
9. Does SAP offer a self-sealing W-2 form?
Answer: Yes. The parameters for HR_F_W2_MULT_SS in feature UTRW2 have been modified. A new SAPscript layout HR_F_W2_MULT_SS has been created to match the layout of Form 1287.
Use this new SAPscript layout to print the data on pre-printed FORM 1287 instead of the employee 4-up copy (SAPscript layout HR_F_W2_MULT_01).
SAP strongly recommends that you test the new layout with a few 1287 sheets before you purchase forms for all employees. This will help you to check the printer compatibility for these forms. As a rule, any printer that is known to work with Pressure seal products and with PostScript (as per note 102011) should work.
By default, Tax Reporter is set-up to use a 4-up copy (SAPscript layout HR_F_W2_MULT_01). After your initial testing, if you decide to use Form 1287, you must make the following configuration changes to activate the new 1287 layout:
Changing configuration to replace the 4-up copy SAPscript layout (HR_F_W2_MULT_01) with new Form 1287 layout (HR_F_W2_MULT_SS).
In the Payroll USA IMG, select the path Tax Reporter -> Tax Form Definition -> Define original tax forms, select HR_F_W2 & choose ‘Issue of Tax forms’. Change the form name from ‘HR_F_W2_MULT_01’ to ‘HR_F_W2_MULT_SS’.
Save your changes.
Maintaining SAPscript parameters for the new SAPscript layout (feature UTRW2):
In the IMG step: Tax Reporter -> Tax Form Definition -> Maintain SAPscript parameters for custom W-2 forms, insert the following line:
Variable key Operations ————— ———————– HR_F_W2_MULT_SS &UTRW2=04/03/01/EE/EMPE,
Activate the feature UTRW2.
Advantages of using Form 1287
Reduced printing time since it is a pre-printed sheet (as opposed to printing on a plain sheet).
Faster Tax Reporter processing since boxes/text do not need to be generated.
Drastically reduced spool size for employee copy.
Easier handling since envelopes and stuffing are not required.
10. How can I change the download format of magnetic media files from ASCII to EBCDIC or vice versa?
Answer: See the following Notes:
Note 133613 for information on magnetic media file formatting.
Note 181654 for information on how to view EBCDIC files and
Note 492380 for information on how to download TemSe files.
11. How does SAP intend the W-3 be used?
Answer: The delivered W-3 form is FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. It would normally accompany paper copies of W-2 copy A, filed with the SSA. Since SAP does not supply a paper version of copy A that can be filed with the SSA, form W-3 will not be filed.
12. In Form 1099-R Magnetic media, why is no K record generated? How do I submit 1099-R magnetic media for state/local authorities?
Answer: In 1099-R magnetic media, the K record is only required for combined filing. SAP does not support combined filing and hence a K record is not generated.
However, from SAP Tax Reporter, you can create separate magnetic media files for state/local authorities by creating your own magnetic media layouts for required state/local authorities.
Magnetic media layout for state/local authorities can be created by copying and revising the Federal magnetic media layout HR_F_1099R_TAPE, delivered by SAP. Details of how to copy and revise magnetic media formats can be found in Tax Reporter user guide section – “Substituting Magnetic Media Formats: Form W-2”.
For Form 1099-R, you can use the similar approach to that outlined for the W-2 form.
Form W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement)
1. For employees in the state of Indiana, a strange code (e.g. C29) is printed in the Locality name box, rather than the name of the locality itself (e.g. Hamilton). Why does this strange code appear on my forms?
Answer: The state of Indiana requires that the county code is printed on Form W-2 instead of the locality name.
2. For employees in the state of Ohio, a strange code is printed in the Locality Name box, rather than the name of the locality (i.e., school district) itself. Why does this strange code appear on my forms?
Answer: The state of Ohio requires that school district code information is printed on Form W-2 instead of the locality name.
3. For Maryland employees, no locality taxes are printed and state income tax appears to be overstated. The same problem occurs with Maryland magnetic media. Is Tax Reporter processing these amounts incorrectly?
Answer: This apparent error reflects a legal requirement specific to the state of Maryland. Rather than being reported separately, Maryland locality taxes are summated into the State Income Tax box.
4. For New Jersey employees, taxable amounts for UI (TFG 0020), health insurance (TFG 0023), workforce development (TFG 0024) and disability (TFG 0041) are not printed on Form W-2. In fact, I do not see tax types 23 and 24 at all. Why?
Answer: This scenario reflects a legal requirement specific to the state of New Jersey, whereby taxable amounts for tax types 20, 23, 24 and 41 are not reported. Among these, tax types 23 and 24 are added together and reported under the description NJ WD/HC.
5. Why are certain tax types (such as state disability), printed in the Locality Box instead of the box labeled Other?
Answer: Reporting these items in the Locality box is a legitimate option, and is the standard reporting method chosen by SAP. In many cases, alternative customizing is possible, but causes a number of maintenance problems when applying SAP Notes, HRSPs and special transports.
6. My W-2 tape was returned by the state tax department, who claimed that the tape lacked a contact name/blocking factor/machine name/operating system. Where do I maintain this data?
Answer: This data must be maintained during configuration of magnetic tape layout sets. You can do this in the U.S. Payroll IMG:
a)Tax Reporter -> Tax Form Definition -> Define original tax forms and Define correction tax forms
b) Select the affected tape.
c) Choose Magnetic tape structure
d) Highlight the entry for the deficient record type and location, then choose Details. If no value is present under the Take from field, then you must enter the value under Or directly field.
7. When I print my W-2s, the data on the forms does not align correctly within the form boxes. How can I rectify this problem?
Answer: Tax Reporter uses SAPscript layout sets, (maintained via transaction SE71) to format many of the reports that it produces. In many cases, these forms are sensitive to the printer driver used. We strongly recommend that your enterprise use printers with PostScript drivers to attain the best results. Review Note 0102011 for details on printer configuration.
8. What type of envelopes and paper should be used to produce Form W-2 and Form 1099-R?
Answer: The standard system format of Forms W-2 and 1099-R requires blank face, pre-perforated, 4-up paper, with instructions pre-printed on the reverse side. For additional information on this topic, review Note 0175641 for form specifications and vendors.
9. The wrong subtype of the Addresses infotype (0006) is printed on employee W-2 forms. Why?
Answer: By default, Tax Reporter refers to this data in subtype 3 (Home address) of Infotype 0006. If this subtype is not present, Tax Reporter resorts to subtype 1 (Permanent residence). You may specify an alternate subtype by assigning the appropriate value to variable key CTXF of feature ADDRS. To this end, execute transaction PE03, specify feature ADDRS, and assign the appropriate subtype value to variable key CTXF.
10. One, some, or all of the checkboxes (Statutory employee, Retirement plan, and Third-party sick pay) are not appropriately marked. How do I solve this?
Answer: These checkboxes are marked depending on the values of wage types assigned to non-tax tax form groups W25A through W25G and customer user-exit logic done in ABAP. See the section in the Tax Reporter User Guide entitled “Customer exit for W-2 form in RPCTRCU0” for more information and example logic for user-exits.
11. Some of my benefits information (Box 12) and “Other” (Box 14) items do not print, even though corresponding data is present in payroll. Why is this?
Answer: Items in these boxes usually relate to non-tax (e.g. deduction) wage types, assigned to them via non-tax TFGs. Negative amounts are not printed on W-2 forms. Consequently, when assigning wage types to non-tax TFGs in the U.S. Payroll IMG, you must remember to choose the Subtract wage type option in the Add or subtract in field section of the wage type assignment view. This will reverse the sign for all wage types that normally store negative amounts in payroll results.
Unemployment Insurance Reporting
1. I ran UI reporting for a certain state, but did not get any paper output. However, the system produced a magnetic tape and did not log any error messages. What happened to the paper form?
Most of the tables used by Tax Reporter are client-dependent. Often, this problem occurs when client-dependent configuration entries have not been imported from or copied into client 000. This is especially true for paper tax forms, whose content and layout are defined by means of HR FORMULA report tables. An example of an HR FORMULA report is UI01, which is used by the Arizona Unemployment report HR_F_UNEMP_AZ. To view a list of all HR FORMULA reports used by Tax Reporter, call the Data Browser via transaction SE16, specify table T51T5, and choose Table contents. On the subsequent screen, specify MOLGA 10 and FRMTY 4, then choose Execute. The name of the HR FORMULA report used by any given form will appear under the ALTTF column. Report RPUFRM00 is one tool capable of copying these report definitions from client 000. You may also refer to Note 0132247.
2. I copied an SAP-delivered UI form, but the system does not seem to use my copy. Why?
Answer: In addition to copying the form definition, you must also instruct Tax Reporter to use your copy of the form. You do this in the following U.S. Payroll IMG step: Tax Reporter -> Tax Form Definition -> Copy tax forms and assign them to tax form classes.
Configuration Issues
1. How are box 12 items configured?
Answer: Configuration for box 12, like most boxes on the W-2 uses wage types from the payroll results. In order to have amounts presented on the W-2, you must link your custom wage types to the tax form groups provided by SAP. For the W-2 form, you must link your wage types to tax form groups W23A, W23B, W23C, W23D, W23E, W23F, W23G, W23H, W23J, W23K, W23L, W23M, W23N, W23P, W23Q, W23R, W23S, W23T, and W23V as appropriate.
a) To configure (4.0B and above): Go to Payroll USA -> Tax Reporter -> Tax Form Groups -> Define tax form groups containing non-tax wage types. (For Release 3.1I, the IMG activity is called Define tax form groups containing all other wage types.)
b) Select (highlight) the applicable Tax Form Group and open up Assignment of wage types containing no tax amounts and complete the table fields.
c) You must also create an entry under the option Evaluation of tax forms for each tax form group.
2. How are box 13 items configured?
Answer: Box 13 items are the checkboxes for Statutory Employee, Retirement Plan and Third Party Sick Pay. There are 2 possible methods for having these items selected on the W-2 form. Where applicable, you can link your custom wage types to the tax form groups W25A, W25C, W25G and W25H as applicable via the IMG step Payroll USA -> Tax Reporter -> Tax Forms Groups -> Define tax form groups containing non-tax wage types. To specify more advanced logic for the selection of these items on the W-2 form, SAP provides SAP enhancement HRCTRCU0, EXIT_RPCTRCU0_002 that can be accessed via transaction CMOD.
3. How are box 14 items configured?
Answer: Attach wage types to be reported for box 14 items to the appropriate tax form groups W24A -W24J as appropriate via the IMG step: Payroll USA -> Tax Reporter -> Tax Form Groups -> Define Tax Form groups containing non-tax tax form groups.
a) Select the desired tax form group
b) Choose Assignment of Wage Types and select New Entries.
c) You must also create an entry under the option
Evaluation of tax forms for each tax form group.
To create the text that you want to display on W-2 that corresponds to the reported amounts, simply change the text of the tax form group (W24A-W24J) from “Box 14 amount 1” to the text that you want to print on the form i.e. Tuition Reimbursement – “Tuition Reimb”. Although the tax form group field description is quite long, your printed description will be limited by the space allowed on the W-2 paper form.
4. I have configured my customer wage types to display in one of the boxes of the W-2. When I run Tax Reporter, I do not see any results? What could be the cause?
Answer: A frequent cause of this problem is an incorrect sign associated with the wage type as it is linked to the tax form group in the table V_51T0_B option of table V_51T0_B. See the IMG Path: Payroll USA -> Tax Reporter -> Tax Form Groups -> Define Tax Form groups containing non-tax tax form groups.
As a general rule, negative amounts are not printed on W-2 forms. Therefore, you must consider the sign of the wage type when you attach it to the tax form group. For deductions which would normally carry a negative value in the Payroll RT results, you must select the Subtract wage type option in the Add or Subtract in field in table V_51T0_B.
For Tax Reporter purposes, this option will effectively reverse the sign for deduction wage and allow them to be appropriately displayed on the tax forms.
The Tax Reporter log and configuration checker can also serve as useful tools for resolving these and other configuration issues.
5. What is the table T5UX1? How does it get populated?
Answer: Table T5UX1 (also called the index table) is applicable only for customers using Releases 4.6B and above. The table is one of several enhancements designed to improve tax reporter performance. T5UX1 tracks the tax company and tax authorities under which an employee has been paid during a given tax year. This speeds up the selection process for Tax Reporter. The table is initially populated by the utility program RPCTRUU6. Following this, function UTRST within schema UEND of the payroll schema automatically maintains the table. OSS note 414496 provides additional details.
6. What is the feature UTRJS?
Answer: Feature UTRJS is another Tax Reporter performance enhancement. It is applicable only for customers using releases 4.6B and above. Use this feature to multi-thread the fill process of a Tax Reporter run using multiple servers across a system landscape. A fixed or variable number of processes can be specified. Note 414496 provides additional details. Also, see the feature documentation using transaction PE03.
7. What is a blocking factor? Why might I need to update this setting? Where do I maintain this and other company specific information on the magnetic file layouts such as contact name/machine name/operating system, etc?
Answer: The blocking factor is a technical specification. It refers to the number of logical records that will be “blocked” off in a segment of the media file. As an example, if you look at the specifications for electronic files for the MMREF Fed format at the following web site http://www.ssa.gov/employer/03mmref1.txt, under the section for “What are the data requirements for EDT files?”, you will see the following:
“Data must be in the unpacked mode. We prefer data recorded in EBCDIC, but will accept ASCII. Each physical record (= a block of logical records) must be a uniform length of 512 characters. Physical records MUST NOT be prefixed by block descriptor words.”
The blocking factor must not exceed 45. We prefer 45 logical records per block.
This setting may need to be changed based on the specifications for a given tax authority/filing method.
This data must be maintained during configuration of magnetic tape layout sets. To maintain this data, execute the following steps in the IMG:
Payroll USA -> Tax Reporter -> Tax Form Definition -> Define original tax forms and Define correction tax forms.
Select the affected tape, and then choose Magnetic tape structure. Highlight the entry for the deficient record type and location, and then choose Details.
If no value is present in the “Take from field”, then you must enter the value in the “Or directly” field.
For example, for the magnetic media layout HR_F_MMREF_1 (W-2 Tape/Diskette MMREF-1 Format), under record type RA-Submitter record, sequence number 01, and location 396 (Contact name), you must enter the appropriate value in the “Or directly” field in order for it to be included on the tape.
See the Tax Reporter Guide for additional details.
8. What is feature UTXTM?
Answer: Feature UTXTM is used to designate a transmitter company. This is used when you wish to designate a primary company as a transmitter for other tax companies. All companies maintain their own identity. This is useful when you wish to submit a single disk/file to a tax authority for multiple tax companies.
See the Tax Reporter Guide for additional details.
9. What is feature UTXRP?
Answer: Feature UTXRP is used to designate a reporting tax company. This option is used when multiple companies share a single EIN number. Companies reported on behalf of the reporting company lose their individual identity for reporting purposes. This option generally requires authority approval.
See the Tax Reporter Guide for additional details.
10. If I am using features UTXRP or UTXTM, how does this affect me when I am running Tax Reporter?
Answer: If either of these features are used, Tax Reporter should only be executed by the “primary” tax company and NOT each tax company individually.
Tax Reporter Processing
1. What is the difference between a Simulation (Test) and Productive Tax Reporter Run ?
Answer: Both simulation and productive Tax Reporter runs populate the PCL4 cluster. However, simulation runs are identified with control/form numbers which begin with 9 (i.e. 9XXXXX). Simulation Tax Reporter runs require you to input the employee number(s) of selected employees to be processed. Both simulation runs and productive Tax Reporter runs produce output. However, simulation runs should not be filed with tax authorities.
See the Tax Reporter Guide for additional details.
2. How do I specify the sort criteria for the W-2 form? What is the default?
Answer: The sort criteria is specified from the main Tax Reporter screen under the Annual Tab -> W-2 Wage and Tax Statement within the Employee Copy Selection.
The available sort options for W-2s are Personal Area, Personal Sub-area, Tax Authority, Worksite, Personnel number, Social Security Number, First Name, Last Name, ZIP code, Organizational unit, Employee group, Employee subgroup, Organizational key, Status (active/inactive), and Cost Center.
The default sort criteria for Employee W-2s are Tax Company and Personnel Number.
3. Does SAP duplicate all Federal information i.e. Box 12, 13, and 14 items on each W-2 if an employee has multiple states?
Answer: No, as this information is required for the Federal copy only, it is not a requirement that this information be duplicated on the additional state copies.
4. What is report RPCTRDU0 and how should it be used?
Answer: Report RPCTRDU0 is used to view and delete records in the Tax Reporter cluster PCL4. Access the report from the Tax Reporter screen by selecting the menu path Utilities -> Display Form Fields. Both simulation and production runs can be viewed/deleted. You must, at a minimum, specify the tax company and form number on the selection screen. This information for a particular Tax Reporter run can be obtained in Tax Reporter Log Manager. The report can be used effectively to periodically delete simulation runs, which can occupy extensive database space. You should be extremely cautious when using this program to delete productive Tax Reporter runs.
5. What are tables T5UT1 and T5UT2? How are they used by Tax Reporter?
Answer: Tables T5UT1 and T5UT2 are used to manually adjust tax forms.
Table T5UT1 is used when it is necessary to adjust reporting amounts calculated by Tax Reporter. This is simply a way to plug an amount on a tax form and does not permanently adjust the employee’s payroll results. Therefore, beyond the table entries in table T5UT1, there is no permanent audit trail visible in the employee’s payroll results. Example: You recognize in January that an employee’s box 1 amount is incorrect on the W-2 form. Rather than create an Infotype 221 entry to adjust payroll results, you simply want to make the W-2 reflect the proper amounts.
This method is frequently used in the year of go-live to correct inaccurate YTD load amounts.
Table T5UT2 serves a similar purpose. However, T5UT2 is for adjusting summary reporting amounts rather than those at the employee level. For example, customers who are not using SAP Third Party Remittance can utilize table T5UT2 to input Form 941 withholding amounts for the quarter.
In Release 4.6C and above, these tables can be accessed from within Tax Reporter by selecting Utilities -> Manual Entries.
In release 4.6B, these tables can be accessed from within Tax Reporter by selecting Utilities -> Manual Entries -> Taxable & Tax (T5UT1) or Deposit, Interest, Penalty (T5UT2),
For Release 4.5B and below, you need to use transaction pu20 and follow the menu path: Preparation -> Manual Entries -> Taxable & Taxor Deposit, Interest, Penalty
6. What type of information is contained in the Tax Reporter log ?
Answer: The four possible sections of the Tax Reporter log are:
Selection Criteria/Output
Adjustments (Form Summary)
Adjustments (Employee Details)
Configuration Remarks.
Each section contains valuable information for a specific Tax Reporter run including: tax company, employees processed, forms produced, form/control numbers, spool/print files produced, magnetic files produced, tax form errors, employee errors and general configuration problems.
The log should be reviewed after each Tax Reporter run. In the case of employee or tax company form errors, corrective action may be needed prior to a final Tax Reporter run. In addition, these items must be used during the tax reconciliation process.
7. When should I set the filing date for a Tax Reporter run?
Answer: The tax filing date should be set for all regular Tax Reporter runs. The filing date is the date that the form/magnetic tape is actually filed with the tax authority. However, you should realize that once this date is set, a regular tax form can no longer be produced. After this setting is made, it is only possible to generate correction tax forms for the selected period.
For Release 4.6B and above, the filing date can be set using the “Preparation/Generation Dates” Tab.
8. We have a custom program to load table T5UT1 with manual Tax Reporter entries. However, when we run Tax Reporter, our entries are not getting picked up. What could be a possible cause?
Answer: If you are loading manual entries to T5UT1 via batch input, the best option is to create one manual entry from the Tax Reporter screen by selecting the menu path Utilities -> Manual Entries for each payroll area in which you will have manual entries. Then, you need to use the “Tax Pay Date” field as part of the batch input load for your manual entries in table T5UT1.
Actually, tables T5UT1 and T51T9 work together. In order for Tax Reporter to account for any manual entries loaded in T5UT1, the proper links between these tables must be maintained. The key field that links T5UT1 and T51T9 is the “Tax Pay Date” field. This is not an actual date field but rather just a number from the number range TAX_PAY_DATE.
This field is also populated in table T5UT1 when a manual entry is created and ensures that the proper links between these tables are maintained.
9. How are negative amounts handled on tax forms?
Answer: As a general rule, SAP does not report negative numbers on the W-2 form. In the case of a deduction (which would normally have a negative value in SAP), the sign would be reversed so that it would be presented on the W-2 form as a positive value through the tax form configuration. In the cases where the system encounters a negative value that it does not expect, it will, in some cases, convert the value to zero and prints a message in the Tax Reporter log. In other cases, Tax Reporter may error the employee from the tax run altogether and also note this information in Tax Reporter log.
10. If the W-2 process fails in the middle of the process, can we restart the job? Are there any special precautions we need to take if this occurs?
Answer: The Tax Reporter guide describes the restarting process if the system goes down. The system keeps track of the employee number for the last commit and will re-start from there.
11. How does table T5UQR really work as it relates to Tax Reporter?
Answer: Table T5UQR is used to record cross-quarter payroll retro-calculations. Function UCQRC within sub-schema UEND populates table T5UQR when payroll runs. This is significant for Tax Reporter as it determines whether amounts reported in a previous Tax Reporter run could be affected. This may or may not trigger the need for a correction form to be run. In the case of W-2 forms, the Employee List button on the Tax Reporter Screen is significant after an initial productive Tax Reporter run as it contains a list of employees who have had retro-calculations into the previous year (reporting period). The Employee list is actually reading T5UQR.
12. This is the first year that we are live. When I try to run Tax Reporter, I get an error message about the payroll control record status. These are for payroll control records that we do not use. What is happening?
This problem generally relates to inconsistencies between tables T569V and T549A. This problem can occur during project configuration and subsequent table cleanup if invalid entries are not deleted in the correct sequence.
In this case, it is probable the entries were deleted from table T549A before they were deleted from T569V. Table T569V entries are created when you create the control record using transaction PA03. However, if you delete the entries in T549A before deleting them in T569V, the entries still exist in T569V but are “hidden” from the view of PA03. You cannot maintain T569V manually. However, Tax Reporter reads T569V to determine whether all control records have the status “Exited” before allowing a productive run.
In order to resolve this, proceed as follows:
a) Add the entries that correspond to these control records back to table T549A and transport them.
b) Re-create the payroll control records for these payroll areas using transaction PA03.
c) Change the status to “Exited”.
d) Delete the control records that you just created using transaction PA03. This will delete them from T569V.
e) Delete the entries from T549A that were created and transport them.
13. What impact does the “Consider Payroll Results” date have on Tax Reporter?
Answer: The Consider Payroll Results date is significant because it determines the payroll results that will be selected for a given Tax Reporter run. You must extend the Consider Payroll Results date beyond the Reporting Period End Date to capture any payroll adjustments that have been run after the reporting period ended, but that you want to be included in the current reporting period reports. As an example, if you made year end payroll adjustments with a check date of 12/31/2001 which were not processed until a payroll run on 1/5/2002, the Consider Payroll Date would need to be extended to 1/5/2002 or higher in order to include these adjustments in the current Tax Reporter run.
Tax Reporter Technical
1. What is the key for PCL4 and what does it mean?
Answer: The PCL4 Key can be broken down as follows:
Area (2) always U1;
Tax Reporter form number (6);
Status (1);
Control number (5);
Personnel number (8);
Tax company (4);
Tax authority (4);
Worksite (2).
The key represents a pointer to the actual PLC4 database record stored by Tax Reporter.
2. How can I maintain security for Tax Reporter ?
Answer: Feature UTXSS is used to activate/deactivate Tax Reporter security. See Note 430595 for additional details.
3. How does Tax Reporter handle voided payroll results vs. out of sequence reversals?
Answer: From the Tax Reporter point of view, a VOID is a reversal of the last payroll result, which after being VOID, gets a ‘V’ in the payroll cluster directory.
In contrast, a reversal is a payroll result, which is not the last one, and which is also cancelled. For an out of sequence reversal, the system will NOT mark the payroll cluster directory with a ‘V’. Instead, payroll for the period needs to be re-calculated in the next payroll run. When such result is recalculated via retro, then payroll function UCQRC flags the employee in table T5UQR, and Tax Reporter appropriately re-evaluates the employee for tax forms that have been already produced.
Tax Reporter overlooks and does not report clusters marked as voided with a “V”.
4. What is constant TRCOM in T511K and what does it do?
Answer: Constant TRCOM is used to define the number of employees to be processed by Tax Reporter before committing the data to PCL4. This becomes important if a process breaks, since any uncommitted employee data will have to be processed again during restart. On the other hand, it is not advisable to commit for a small number of employees. During a PCL4 database commit, the corresponding summary entry in PCL4 is locked to protect data integrity preventing other parallel processes from accessing it. However, this means that if we commit too often, the other processes will spend a lot of time waiting for the lock to be released, thereby reducing performance.
To configure the PCL4 database commit number, define the constant TRCOM as follows:
a) Execute table view maintenance (transaction SM30).
b) Enter Table/view V_T511K and select Maintain.
c) Enter Country grouping (10 for the U.S.) and continue.
d) Look for Constant TRCOM (Number for commit) by selecting ‘Position’.
e) If constant TRCOM does not exist, create it by selecting ‘New Entries’.
f) Enter the desired value against the constant.
g) Save the Payroll Constants view (V_T511K).
See Note 414496 for more details.