W-2’s are In the Mail

Employers have until – January 31st each year to issue tax forms W-2 to their employees. Most are mailed via US Postal Service the last week of January. So all of your W-2 forms should be received by you sometime this week. Some employers provide the printed form W-2 in person or include it with the January paycheck, but they are still required to have them ready and on their way to you by today.

If you do not receive your W-2 form, consider the following:

Contact your employer and ask when the Form W-2 was mailed and determine if you might still be waiting on the mail. Keep in mind that first class mail generally takes 2 to 4 days. If a reasonable amount of time has passed, you can ask them to re-send the Form W-2. You should verify that they have the correct mailing address for you if you request a duplicate.

You still are required to file your tax return Form 1040 by April 15th even when you do not receive your Form W-2. You may choose to file an automatic extension for your filing date on Form 4868 to allow you time to get your Form W-2. Another option would be to file Form 4852 – a Substitute Form W-2. This form is provided by the IRS to allow you to estimate your income and withholding taxes that would be reported on your Form W-2. This is just an estimate and you will want to be very accurate in using this method. The most likely accurate information to estimate with will be the year-to-date earnings and withholding reported on your last paycheck for the tax return year.

Forms and instructions are of course on the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov along with useful information created by the IRS to help you on YouTube.com .

Resource Links to IRS forms:

Form 4852 : Substitute Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement
Form 4868 : Application for Extension of Time to File
Link to IRS topic on YouTube