My coworker asked me this today, and on thinking about it, I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t. If you had your last pay stub of the year with all your totals, and you have your employer’s ID number, what would stop you? Is there some information on your W-2 that you wouldn’t have access to until you got it? I’d try it and see if I had more time, but I don’t want to be 30 minutes into it and find out I can’t finish. Do you know?
I have done it to start my taxes and gone all the way through for an estimate. Don’t do it. I forget what it is called, but for me being military, there is always something in box Q that makes a difference. YMMV
SSG Schwartz
If it is truly your final pay stub then the IRS generally doesn’t care, they don’t need to see a physical copy if you’re e-filing. Please note that some employers under certain pay schedules may put a little extra on there if you get paid before the 31st and they pay as hours accrue.
Look at last years W-2 to see if any of the letter boxes are filled in. Some things that you might need to worry about are:
[ul]
[li]Social security and medicare tax, which should be on the stub.[/li][li]Local income tax/ any other taxes e.g. disability[/li][li]401k/403b etc. deductible contributions[/li][li]Employer paid childcare benefits[/li][/ul]
Oh, and if you do file like this, and it turns out something is wrong, you can amend your return. There is no penalty for this if an extra refund is due or if you file the amendment before April 15, but you must file the amendment on a paper form.
Official info on what to do if you don’t get your Form W2 in a timely manner (by February 15) is here.
Yes, you can file now without a W2, but be prepared to file a paper 1040X amended return when the W2 shows up.
Well, I let my coworker come over and she did hers on my computer, and it worked. She had to pay an extra 10 bucks to import her information from last year (she probably didn’t have to but it helped a lot), but it went through just fine. So I did mine. Modern technology is sweet!
Well, okay, it turns out the IRS won’t accept it until this Friday, but it’s in like Flynn at that point.