What is Form W-3 used for?

Form W-3 serves as a transmittal form that summarizes all the W-2 forms issued by an employer to their employees for a particular tax year. It consolidates the total earnings, Social Security wages, Medicare wages, and taxes withheld from all employees, providing the IRS with a comprehensive overview of an employer's payroll for that year.

This summary is crucial for accurate reporting and record-keeping, ensuring the IRS can match the individual W-2 information with the employer's overall payroll and tax contributions. This form is filed with the Social Security Administration alongside the W-2 forms, which detail individual employee earnings and withheld taxes.

The other options, while related to tax filings, do not accurately describe the function of Form W-3. For example, it does not deal with corporate earnings, claim tax deductions, or report employee benefits specifically. Instead, it focuses solely on reporting and summarizing wage and tax information related to employees, making it an important component in the overall management of payroll reporting for employers.