Home › Guides › Switched payroll providers mid-year? Getting code TT and TP right
Switched payroll providers mid-year? Getting code TT and TP right
Last reviewed October 6, 2026, against FS-2026-13 (August 2026) and the 2026 W-2/W-3 instructions.
Code TT and code TP are full-year amounts. If the employer changed payroll providers during 2026 and the new provider issues the Forms W-2, it needs the qualified overtime and cash tips from the payrolls it didn't run.
General information, not tax or legal advice. The employer remains responsible for its Forms W-2. IRS FAQs are not binding law. Check your facts with a CPA or your payroll provider. Halfmark is not affiliated with the IRS.
Why it goes wrong
- The old provider may not have tracked qualified overtime separately before the switch, and its year-to-date wage import may carry only overtime pay, not the FLSA premium.
- Overtime pay ÷ 3 is not always the right number: it is wrong when overtime includes state daily overtime or double time, or when bonuses should have raised the regular rate (FS-2026-13, Q12, Q16).
- Code TP needs all cash tips reported for the year, from both providers, and box 14b needs the occupations from both periods (2026 General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3).
What to do
- Export the old provider's payroll register (by pay date, with earnings detail) and the new provider's register for the year so far.
- Get daily or weekly hours for any pay period longer than a week (time clock export).
- Recompute code TT per workweek for both periods, and total the tips by occupation.
- Enter the prior-provider amounts in the new provider the way it asks for them. For example, Gusto's help center describes an “OT Premium” field for the federally mandated overtime premium from payrolls run outside Gusto. Other providers use their own prior-payroll or year-to-date adjustment screens: check your provider's current documentation.
- Keep the workpaper and method memo with the payroll records.
Which provider owns a week?
Workweeks that straddle two pay periods are assigned to the pay date of the period containing the end of the week, since weekly overtime is usually paid then (29 CFR 778.106). A bonus paid by the new provider for months run by the old one adds qualified overtime on the bonus pay date (FS-2026-13, Q3; 29 CFR 778.209).
Deadline
2026 Forms W-2 are due to employees and the SSA by February 1, 2027 (2026 General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3). Fixing the amounts in payroll before the forms are produced avoids Forms W-2c.
Reconstruct code TT across two providers: import registers and hours, recompute code TT per workweek, and compare with your provider. Runs in your browser; payroll data is not uploaded.
Open the worksheet