According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America, information on wages and salaries for employees must be reported on W-2 form that are made available to employers by the same body. As a working class American citizen, this is a necessary document you must possess.
Answer Paragraph: To get a W-2 form from the government, you will have to go through the IRS. To request the W-2 form, which includes a Copy A paper that must be scannable for filing, go to the Online Ordering for Information Returns and Employer Returns page of the IRS, or visit www.irs.gov/orderforms and select Employer and Information Returns.
What is a W-2 Form?
Form W-2 (which is officially, the “Wage and Tax Statement”) is a tax form that is used in the United States by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to report wages that have been paid to employees as well as taxes that have been withheld from them. Employers of labour must complete a Form W-2 for each and every one of their employees who receives a wage, a salary or other some other form of compensation as part of the terms before employment and the employment relationship. The Form W-2 must be mailed to employees by the end of January. This deadline provides these taxpayers with approximately two months to collect and get their returns ready prior to the income tax deadline which is on the 15th of April.
Also, the W-2 form is used by the Social Security Administration to report FICA taxes. Along with Form W-3, FormsW-2 is generally required by the Social Security Administration to be filed by every employer by the end of February. The Social Security Administration reports to the Internal Revenue Service the amounts on Forms W-2 that are significant. In various areas, the W-2 is denoted by a two-letter code, for example, the code W-2GU is for the Guam territory. If there are any changes required, they can be made on an already filled W-2 form.
Your W-2 form also includes important information such as the amount of federal taxes, state taxes, and other taxes that have been withheld from your paycheck, as well as other employer perks such as health insurance, dependent care assistance, adoption, health savings account contributions, and many more. While you are preparing your tax return as an employee, the information on your W-2 is extremely important.
In general, if you have worked as an employee in a particular year, you should have received a W-2 from your employer while it was almost the start of the following year. If your employer had deducted any taxes from your paycheck, you should expect to also receive a W-2 form.
The Information Needed to Fill a W-2 Form
Regardless of the employer, every W-2 has the same fields. Because employees must pay and file taxes at both the state and federal levels, W-2 forms are divided into different sections. Some fields contain information about the employer, such as the Employer Identification Number (EIN), which is relevant for the federal level, and the state ID number. The rest of the fields majorly contain information about the employee’s earnings of the previous year.
If you have more than one job and each one provides a W-2 form, you must enter each one individually. When you as an employee file our taxes, the amount of tax that has been withheld per the W-2 form is taken out from your total tax obligation. Certainly, a refund will be made if the amount of tax that has been withheld is more than what was owed or due for collection.
A W-2 form is also used by the IRS to keep track of an employee’s earnings and tax liability. If the income that is reported on the tax return of an employee differs from the income that is reported on the W-2, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may get the employee or taxpayer thoroughly audited. Taxpayers must report all wages, salary, and tip income, even if it is not reported on a W-2 form.
It is expected of employers by law to supply copies of your W-2 form to the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as your local and state tax authorities. After comparing the income that you have reported on your tax return to the information that your employer sent to the government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — and the state, that is if your state requires income taxes — will most likely send you a terse letter.
How to Get a W-2 Form from the Government
Certainly, nobody expects to go directly to the government office to get W-2 forms, so the government supplies them to citizens, at the federal and state levels, through various offices of the IRS, which are located in different areas. This is so that they can be accessible to citizens at whatever level and area that they may be. You need this especially if you are an employer of labour and would have to supply the W-2 forms to your employees and staff. If you are an employee, on the other hand, you should get your W-2 form directly from your employer.
To request any official IRS documents or information returns such as the W-2 forms, which includes a Copy A paper that must be scannable for filing, go to the Online Ordering for Information Returns and Employer Returns page of the IRS, or visit www.irs.gov/orderforms and select Employer and Information Returns.
Finally, this article has established the essence of a W-2 form, how you can get it from the government and how it can enhance your professional integrity as a citizen of the United States. If you work under someone, with a firm or not, getting the W-2 form is not only necessary, but also compulsory. You must do well to get yours and fill it accordingly.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- How much does it cost to get a W-2 form?
In general, you will receive a W-2 from an employer if you earned at least $600 in a given year.
- How do I recover my lost W-2 form?
If you forget your password or login information, you can usually request automated password recovery. If you still can’t access it, contact your employee, HR supervisor or payroll.
