W-2 Wage Statements for Imputed Income, Wellness Incentives

MADISON, Wis., Jan. 23 -- The Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds issued the following news:

The Department of Employee Trust Funds has distributed the 2016 W-2 tax statements for imputed income and fringe benefits to affected Wisconsin Retirement System members. The statements were mailed to retirees' home addresses on file with ETF.

* For retirees who insured their non-tax dependents under the state group health insurance program and the premiums were paid by accumulated sick leave in 2016: W-2 statements were issued for imputed income, per IRS regulations.

* W-2 statements were also issued to retirees who received wellness incentive payments from their state group health insurance plans in 2016. The IRS classifies these wellness incentives as fringe benefits that must be treated as taxable wages. If you and/or your dependents received wellness reimbursements/incentives from your health insurer, you will receive a W-2 wage statement from ETF for those incentives.

Note: Wellness incentive payments are taxed in the year they are issued to you by your health insurance carrier and is not always the same year in which you performed the action to qualify for the wellness incentive payment.

If you received a wellness incentive from your health insurance provider over the course of the calendar year but you did not receive a W-2 tax form from ETF, it could be because ETF did not receive information from your health provider before the reporting deadline. If you do not receive a W-2 from ETF before mid-February, ETF encourages you to self-report the wellness incentive as taxable income when completing your taxes. ETF is not able to process late W-2s for individuals who have a health provider that was late in submitting the information.

If you have questions regarding your W-2 form issued by ETF, please reference our FAQ here (http://etf.wi.gov/faq/retiree_tax.htm).

If you do not receive your statement by February 13, contact ETF toll-free at 1-877-533-5020 or send an e-mail to request a reprint. Please note that February 13 is the earliest date ETF can process your reprint request. We thank you for your patience during the busy tax season. When contacting ETF, be sure to verify your current mailing address.

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