Under section 232 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 432), SSA and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) entered into an agreement under which employers are instructed by IRS to file annual wage reports with SSA. Correct names and Social Security numbers (SSN) on wage reports are the keys to successful processing of employers' and self-employed individuals' annual wage report submissions. As necessary, we may disclose relevant non-tax return and tax return information to employers that originally reported employment and wage information without the consents of wage earners for the following purposes:

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  to the extent necessary to correct or reconstruct earnings records, or

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  for Social Security tax purposes (taxes collected from earnings that go into the Social Security Trust Fund).

We may disclose relevant non-tax return and tax return information from the following systems of records including, but not limited to:

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  60-0058— Master Files of SSN Holders and SSN Applications;

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  60-0059—Earnings Recording and Self-Employment Income System; and

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  60-0089—Claims Folders System.

We encourage all employers to verify the SSNs in their wage records that they submit to us. To this end, we established processes to provide SSN verification services to employers quickly and efficiently. See https://www.ssa.gov/bso/services.htm for information about these processes. When handling requests from employers for SSN information, adhere to the following:

When handling requests from employers for SSN information, adhere to the following:

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  The employer must state that they need SSN verification of the employee to keep proper wage records or to prepare a tax return.

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  Do not verify the SSN to an employer in response to a request made via the telephone.

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  The employer must provide the name, SSN and date of birth of the employee. If the information matches, you can advise the employer that the SSN of the employee matches what is contained in our records.

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  SSA may only provide a positive verification of an employee’s SSN to an employer. If the name and SSN do not appear to match, do not disclose this fact. Instead, advise the employer to have the employee contact the nearest SSA field office.

A formal determination of coverage or wages must be prepared whenever a substantive wage question is involved or in any other situation where wages are being added or deleted from an individual’s earning record. When requested, we may provide an employer or former employer a copy of a coverage or wage determination relating to the employee in question, if the determination concerns services for, or wages paid by the employer or former employer.