What Is a W2 Form?
By April 15 of every year, you file tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and your state so they know how much you earned and how much tax you need to pay. But how do they know that the amounts your reported are legitimate? They check those amounts through your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement.
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What is a W-2 form?
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As an employee, you receive a W-2 form as proof of the wages paid and the taxes withheld by your employer for the previous calendar year.
Form info
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The form contains not only wage and tax amounts, but contact information for you and your employer as well as your Social Security Number and your employer's federal and state tax IDs.
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Deadlines
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Your employer must mail this form to you on or before January 31, though she has until March 1 to submit copies of those forms to the Social Security Administration (SSA) or until March 31 if filing electronically.
Social Security
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The SSA uses this form to calculate your Social Security benefits when you retire. However, it also reports relevant tax information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Tax forms
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You need to write much of the W-2 information onto corresponding blanks on your income tax forms. For example, the wages and tips amount in line 1 of the W-2 goes into line 7 of the 1040 federal income tax return.
Corrections
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If your name, Social Security Number or address is incorrect, make corrections on all copies before sending them out. Also, ask your employer to correct the employment record and to inform the Social Security Administration of those corrections through Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement.
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