Didn’t Receive Your Form W-2? Here’s What You Need To Know

January 31st is the deadline for employers to provide copies of Form W-2 to their employees. If the deadline passes and you still haven’t received your Form W-2, there are a few things you should know to make sure you receive your copy. So let’s take a look at what it is and why it’s required.

Form W-2 is important for your tax filings

You might be asking what’s so important about Form W2. 

Form W-2 is used to report an employee’s annual earnings and taxes withheld. The employer is required to file the W-2s with the SSA and provide the employees with the copies of the Form W-2.

You will need Form W-2 copy to do your income tax reporting.

What are the Form W-2 copies you should get?

The employer has to send three copies of Form W-2 to the employees. They are

• Copy B – used by an employee for tax filing purpose with Federal
• Copy C – is for employee’s records
• Copy 2 – used by an employee for tax filing purpose with State, City, or Local

What are the possible reasons for not receiving W-2 on time?

Business got closed

If your W-2 wasn’t received because the business is now closed, your employer is still required to file your copies with the SSA and provide you with the copies by the last day of January.

End of employment

If your employment was ended for any reason, your previous employer is required to provide your W-2 within 30 days of your request or within the final pay schedule, whichever is later.

Other Reasonable causes

The IRS allows extensions for employers to file W2 in rare cases such as:

1. The employer have suffered from a catastrophic event in a federally declared disaster area or the records of his/her business are unavailable.
2. Illness, unavoidable absence or death of the person who handles filing.
3. Fire, casualty, or other natural disasters affected the operations of the business or the person responsible for filing.
4. The employer was in the first year of establishing their business.

So this could be another reason that your employer might not send you a copy of Form W-2.

What can be done if you did not receive Form W-2?

1. Contact your employer and make sure you have furnished the correct address.
2. In case you don’t receive any response from your employer, you have to wait until February 15th in order to allow the employer the proper amount of time to issue the forms.

If you haven’t received your Form W-2 even after February 15th, then follow the steps mentioned below.

1. If CC IRPTR information is available, use CC IRPTRW to request sanitized online payee transcript screens.
2. If CC IRPTR information is not available, you need to have the employer name & address.
3. You can file your federal income tax by attaching Form 4852 (substitute of Form W-2). You can use your paystubs to calculate the withholding to report on your federal income tax Form 1040 return.

If you have received your Form W-2 after filing your income tax return (Form 1040), follow the steps below.

1. If you received your W-2 Form, after you filed Form 1040 return using Form 4852 and the information differs from the information reported on the 1040 return, you should amend your return by filing a Form 1040-X.

Filing 1040 Extension using TaxBandits

Still, if you didn’t receive your W-2 or not sure about the Form 4852 information, you can apply for a six-month extension of time to file your Form 1040 using Form 4868.

Get Started Now with TaxBandits and apply extension using Form 4868 and get 6 more months additional time to file your 1040.

Apply extension in minutes, no explanation is required when you file 4868 (automatic extension) and get instant approval from the IRS.