Headquartered in Columbus Ohio, The Limited, Inc. was founded by Leslie H. Wexner on August 10, 1963. The Company has since grown to over 3,300 stores and five major specialty retail brands including Limited Stores, Express, Lerner New York, Lane Bryant and Structure. The Limited also owns approximately 84% of Intimate Brands, Inc.

Between February and April each year, The Limited was inundated with telephone calls from current and former employees requesting a copy of their W-2 form. Fulfilling numerous employee requests was a distracting task for the payroll department throughout these three months. In order to keep up with the requests, The Limited dedicated a full-time employee and two temporary employees just to answer calls. Processing duplicate W-2 requests was a tedious task that involved printing, sorting, and mailing forms to employees. The manual reissue process was so time-consuming that the payroll staff could not respond promptly to the requests. In many instances, employees had to wait as long as two weeks to receive their W-2 reprint since the duplicate forms were printed only twice a week.

The Limited needed a more efficient way to handle reissuing W-2 forms during tax filing season. The payroll staff set a goal to eliminate the need to answer phone call requests for W-2 reprints. Furthermore, The Limited wanted to improve service to their employees by providing them with faster turnaround for their duplicate W-2 requests.

The Limited chose TALX as their application service provider (ASP) for automated W-2 reissue service. W-2 Services are offered in conjunction with The Work Number for employment and salary verification. Since The Limited was already a client of The Work Number, it was an easy decision to add W-2 reissue to their service offering.

W-2 reissue service provides instant duplicate W-2 service using Web and interactive voice response (IVR) self-service technology. The Limited employees are able to request a duplicate W-2 from the W-2 service via the Internet or by using a touch-tone telephone. W-2 service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Once employees identify themselves on the Internet or via the phone, they are guided through the simple request process. Employees may select either the current tax year or prior tax year and may choose a delivery method - Web with local print option, fax, or mail. If they select the mail option, employees are asked to confirm current address information. If the address on file is incorrect, the employee is prompted to enter the correct address.

Duplicate W-2 Delivery Options
W-2 service speeds the reissue fulfillment process by offering three quick, convenient delivery options, all on forms approved by the Internal Revenue Service:

1) Web with local printout available immediately
2) Fax back within minutes
3) Mail sent the next business day

Communicating to Employees
In order to communicate the new W-2 reissue process to their employees, The Limited sent a memo to each store and home office describing W-2 service. The memo was sent at the time of the initial distribution of W-2 forms. In addition, The Limited provided instructions on how to use W-2 service via their 800 telephone number for employee payroll inquiries.

Employer Benefits
The Limited’s payroll department realizes many benefits from automating the W-2 reissue process through TALX. W-2 eXpress helps payroll save time and effort because it eliminates the need to answer phone requests and manually reissues forms. Plus, they no longer need to hire and train temporary personnel to fulfill duplicate W-2 requests.

“As a result of using W-2 eXpress, this was the first tax season that we were able to free up our staff to work on more strategic issues, rather than handling the tedious task of reissuing W-2 forms,” said Judy Beery, Payroll Manager for The Limited, Inc.

Employee Benefits
“Our employees like W-2 eXpress because they are able to quickly obtain the information they need, when they want it,” commented Beery. Current and former employees of The Limited are able to easily access W-2 eXpress from their office, home or other location anytime to request a duplicate W-2. By providing fast service, W-2 eXpress helps employees complete and file their taxes on time. The process is also easy to follow. If, however, the employee needs personal assistance, a TALX customer service representative is available to answer questions, weekdays, 7 AM to 8 PM Central Standard Time. The IVR system is available in both English and Spanish languages. And, over 200 other language capabilities are offered through a live interpreter.

Top Notch Security
W-2 eXpress upholds TALX’s highest level of security and ensures employee data privacy. To access W-2 eXpress, employees must go through a series of identification steps to maintain control over the release of personal data. In addition, employee information is securely encrypted on the W-2 eXpress Web site.

Additional W-2 Services
In addition to the W-2 reissue service that The Limited uses, TALX offers full-service W-2 processing capabilities. The comprehensive W-2 services include:

• Initial W-2 printing and mailing
• Request for corrected W-2*
• W-2C printing and mailing
• Duplicate W-2 printing and distribution

* TALX documents the details of employees’ requests and provides the employer with a web review and approval process.