IRS - Form W-2

As the central tax system in the United States, the IRS expects employers and business owners to report employee remuneration details continuously. This information is usually reported using IRS Form W-2. This document will mostly contain information about state, federal, and other general taxes withheld directly from the workers’ paycheck. Likewise, an employee W-2 Form normally contains dependent care, health savings, health insurance, and much more. Therefore, workers must provide all relevant tax return information on their W-2 tax form.

IRS W-2 is usually given to each employee at the start of every year. Likewise, workers must be given a fillable W-2 if a business withheld taxes directly from a paycheck.

How to Get W-2 From IRS

An employer is required to provide a worker with a copy of Form W-2 before January 31st. This document is always presented to the employee for the previous tax year. As such, an employer needs to mail this document on or before the 31st. However, you may not necessarily receive this document on that day. A worker that is unable to fill and report this document on this date can request an extension of 30 days. This extension application is made using Form 8809.

How Do I Get My W-2

In the event a worker does not receive this document, requesting a W-2 From IRS is easy. An employee may likely receive a downloadable W-2 Form. With the W-2 Form online, an individual can complete the electronic document until they receive a physical copy.

How to Get My W-2 From Unemployment

If you are unemployed, you do not need to report your taxes using this form. Instead, for unemployed benefits, you will receive Form 1099-G.

Fill & Sign IRS Form W-2

Can You File Taxes Without a W-2

It is possible to file taxes in another way. How to file taxes without W-2 is easy. Therefore, all you need is to get your hands on Form 1099. If you are unable to, you can look for Form 4852. This document lets you document your income and withholding taxes. To complete this document, you will need your end-of-the-year payslip. However, you can equally estimate earnings if you do not have access to this document.

How to Fill out a W-2 Form 2021

Although you may know how to fill out a W-2 form in 2020, there have been changes to form W-2 in 2021. The changes are:

  • Tax relief due to extraneous circumstances;
  • Paid leaves taxation.

Nonetheless, the general processes for filling this form remain the same. There are Boxes A to F and Boxes 1 to 20 to fill.

Box A

A worker is required to provide their SSN (social security number) here. The phrase “Applied For” can be written if a worker does not have it yet.

Box B

In this section, the employer or business provides their EIN (employer identification number. The phrase “Applied For” should be written if the employer does not have this number.

Box C

This section is for the name, ZIP code, and address of the worker.

Box D

Box D is a section for a control number, which is used internally. Therefore, this section can be left blank.

Boxes E and F

These sections are for the name, ZIP code, and employer’s address.

Boxes 1 to 20

Boxes 1 to 20 have several sections for providing income, taxes, and income tax withheld. Some of the information that is provided includes:

  • Wages and compensations;
  • Federal income tax withheld;
  • Social security wages;
  • Social security tax withheld;
  • Medicare wages and tax withheld;
  • Social security tips;
  • Allocated tips;
  • Employer State Identification;
  • Other taxable incomes.

Fill & Sign IRS Form W-2

W-2 vs W-4

Form W-2 shows the amount of money an employer pays a worker and the tax withheld on this income during a year. On the other hand, Form W-4 informs employers of the amount of withholding tax from their workers’ paycheck.

Please check other IRS forms: