Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Fund: W-2 Wage Statements for Wellness Incentives

MADISON, Wisconsin, Jan. 29 -- The Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds issued the following news:

ETF has distributed the 2019 W-2 tax statements for fringe benefits to affected Wisconsin Retirement System members. The statements were mailed to retirees' home addresses on file with ETF.

* W-2 statements are issued to retirees who received wellness incentive payments from their state group health insurance plans in 2019. 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 are not always the same year in which you performed the action to qualify for the wellness incentive payment.

If you have questions regarding your W-2 form issued by ETF, please reference our Taxes and My Benefits webpage (https://etf.wi.gov/benefits/taxes-and-my-benefits/w-2-wellness-incentive-taxes).

If you do not receive your statement by February 12, contact ETF at 1-877-533-5020 or send an email (https://etf.wi.gov/contact-us) to request a reprint. Please note that February 12 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.