IRS Form W-3, Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements, is only required when the employer is opting to paper file.
A Form W-3 is a transmittal or cover sheet that comes before the stack of W-2 forms.
It provides the SSA with a summary of the information being filed.
Employers should never file a Form W-3 by itself; it should always be accompanied by the corresponding Form W-2.
The form includes information about the filer, the total number of forms, and totals of all of the wages, withholding, and other amounts being filed.
For more information, check out this Essential W-3 Guide for 2023.