In a small step toward eliminating reams of paper and making digital signatures as common as the John Hancock, the Social Security Administration is providing some companies with the technology to file tax documents over the Internet.
About 100 small businesses with 30 employees or fewer in Maryland and Connecticut will file W-2 and W-3 forms with the SSA through the Net this winter in a pilot project with Pitney Bowes, a company providing the digital credentials that the government hopes will eventually replace the need for handwritten signatures on forms.
"We are trying to anticipate how people want to do business," said Chuck Liptz, project manager for the SSA. Some 6.5 million employers in the United States file W-2 forms, and 5.5 million do it via paper forms. Other means of filing with the SSA are through diskettes and BBSes. Forms filed over the Internet will be encrypted and the information provided will not be used for other purposes, Liptz said.
The SSA will review the pilot program by May, and begin designing a broader system for filing forms over the Internet, to be completed in 1998.
