W-2 form: What it is, when to expect it

Depending on your tax situation, you may have several forms to keep track of come filing time. But if you’re employed by a company or organization that pays you a salary or wages, there’s one form that will be key to completing your tax return: Form W-2, also known as the Wage and Tax Statement.

What is a W-2 form?

A W-2 tax form summarizes how much income an employee earned from an employer and the amount of taxes that employer withheld from paychecks. Employers typically withhold income, Social Security and Medicare taxes.

You’ll receive a copy of your W-2 from your employer, as will the IRS.

Who files a W-2 form?

Employers are required to send W-2 forms to the IRS for each employee who receives payments of at least $600 for the year. If you have more than one employer, you’ll receive more than one W-2 form.

And if your employer changes payroll companies, you probably need to look for two W-2s — one from each payroll company, says Adrianna Adams, a financial advisor and head of financial planning at Domain Money.

“I’ve seen clients make that mistake where they just take the latest one and they don’t realize they should be looking for a second one,” Adams says. “Then when they file their taxes, their income looks off.”

If you’re a self-employed worker, you won’t receive this form; instead, you’ll likely get a Form 1099. While employers withhold taxes on behalf of their employees, self-employed workers need to manage their tax payments on their own.

When to expect your W-2

Employers are required to send W-2s to the federal government and to employees by Jan. 31 of the following year — as in, they should send your W-2 for tax year 2024 by the end of January 2025. There can sometimes be a delay of a week or two before you receive the form.

If you don’t receive your W-2, check with your employer’s payroll department. You may end up needing to alert the IRS and, if necessary, file your taxes using Form 4852.

How to read a W-2 form

When it’s time to file your individual tax return, you’ll need to use the information on your W-2 to fill out Form 1040. The form is broken up by numbered boxes, making it easy to pull the information that you need. (Most reputable tax software companies will make it easy to import your W-2 or will help guide you as you enter the information on your tax return.)

Your wages, tips and other compensation will be listed in the box numbered 1. While you want to make sure the wages and income look about right, know that it’s not going to match your salary, since your pre-tax deductions won’t be included, Adams says.

For example, if your salary is $100,000, but you contributed $10,000 to your 401(k), the number you’ll see is $90,000 (assuming you don’t have any other payroll deductions).

Boxes two through six show how much of your income was subject to the following taxes, and how much of those taxes were withheld: federal income tax, Social Security tax and Medicare tax. Boxes seven and eight cover tip income, and how much was subject to taxes.

If you received dependent care benefits from your employer, or if money was distributed to you from the employer’s non-qualified deferred compensation plan, those amounts will be included in Boxes 10 and 11, respectively.

Box 12 is where your employer can provide more information on your income or deductions. It can include contributions to a 401(k) or 403(b) or the cost of employer-sponsored health coverage, for example. There are 30 codes your employer can choose from when inputting information into this box, all of which can be found on page 32 of the IRS’ general instructions for the W-2 form.

The rest of the boxes are used to indicate pay not subject to certain withholdings, additional information about pay that didn’t fit into other sections on the form, and how much income is subject to and withheld for state and local taxes.

What is a W-4 vs. a W-2?

While a W-2 form is filled out by your employer and sent to you, Form W-4, also known as the Employee’s Withholding Certificate, is paperwork you need to fill out when you get hired.

Form W-4 is used by your employer to calculate how much tax to withhold from your pay. While you’re not required to fill out a new W-4 each year, it’s smart to check up on your tax withholding once a year, or when your financial circumstances change.

For example, if you receive a big tax refund every year, that means you’re having more withheld from your pay than you need to. You might consider submitting a new Form W-4 to your employer to adjust how much you have withheld — so that more of that money is in your paychecks each month.