Last day to file and I can’t find one of my W-2’s. I do have the last pay stub of the year for that employer so I can figure my taxes, but no W-2 to send yet so will have to file an extension.
Don’t owe the IRS anything…will be getting a small refund. So there will be no penalty.
Went on IRS.gov to find out how to get a duplicate W-2…and it was very vague. I think I have to get a dup W-2 from my employer.
Or is there a simpler way to just download that W-2 on my computer? If I could do that I won’t need to file for an extension. Don’t see any way to do that on IRS.gov.
Some employers upload them to a cloud type service that gives programs like TurboTax or TaxCut the ability to import them electronically.
But, I’d say just call the employer. I do the W-2s for my employees. If you called me for a copy of your W-2, I can have a new one for you in about 15 seconds. It’s really not a big deal.
One thing that is sort of annoying is that you can’t quickly look up your W-2’s online. That would be government site that might be valuable to citizens. We already have a site where you can see your Social Security contributions and whatnot. It could also be done so that electronic tax software (e.g. standalone software and websites) could automatically pull down your W-2’s as part of some sort of pre-e-filing step. Or, e-filers could check a box saying that they don’t know what their W-2’s say but are OK with the IRS automatically inputting the data and calculating as appropriate based on the filing status/exemptions/etc. that the person claimed. If W-2’s are downloaded or checked as part of e-filing, there could be a bypass where you can check a box to indicate that you disagree with the W-2’s that were automatically downloaded and you could be given an opportunity to input your own. Then, when you submit, it would be up to the IRS to decide if they want to audit you.
Wow. I disagree about the “not a big deal”. I use an accountant who mails my employees their W-2s. Once I had an ex-employee who lost her W-2 and called me for another. It is my accountant’s “busy time” and I couldn’t get through by phone for a few days. In the meantime, the ex-employee was calling daily asking where her paperwork was.
You won’t be able to get any copies of your W-2 from the IRS until about autumn. And the copy you get from the IRS won’t include your state tax information. About the only practical alternative is to contact your employer.
The IRS has proposed making many electronic services available. But, unfortunately, the tax preparation industry’s lobbying arm has many friends in Congress. That’s the reason you still can’t efile your federal tax returns with the IRS. You have to send them to a commercial tax preparer who then forwards them to the IRS on your behalf. Yes, when you use Turbotax (or any other service) and efile, the efiling does not get sent directly from your computer to the IRS. It first gets sent to Turbotax, which keeps a copy for its files and then reformats it according to IRS specifications and sends it to the IRS. Even the “fillable forms” link on the IRS web site that many people think goes directly to the IRS, actually goes to a tax preparation service chosen by the Free File Alliance, which is the lobbying arm of the tax industry. (If you don’t believe me, click on the privacy notice.)
Why are you not e-filing? The IRS assumes they don’t necessarily have all the info, too.
1099s are easier to estimate. Often they’re just pure income, thus the employee can look at their pay stubs and add them up. W-2 may contain FICA, 401k withholding, state and federal tax, etc. which aren’t as easy to estimate. With a 1099, it’s up to the employee to figure out the tax hit, and many people are unaware that this will happen the first time. Also, I notice that more unscrupulous employers are more likely to just give a 1099 instead of going through to process for a W-2 (although many good employers use 1099, but it depends on what industry it is).
The OP can estimate a W2 using withholding tables and file extension if needed, or do a 1040X if that doesn’t work out. If you worked for them last year, it may help you see what kinds of things they did before.
One of the reasons is that the deadline for electronic filing (with extensions) of W-2s is 5/1/13. In other words, there’s a good chance the IRS doesn’t have the W-2 until after you file. I’m sure I’m not the only payroll service provider that extends every client automatically, so that we can make corrections to W-2s on the original filing without the hassle of a separate filing to amend them.
This is one of the reasons why the IRS says these things are not available until Autumn, as another poster noted.
Consider Form 4852. It’s for cases when you never received one in the first place or received an incorrect form and want to report something dif but it may serve your purpose.
Or as mentioned above but perhaps not clearly explained, if you efile you don’t have to send a copy of the w-2.
It might be different for an accountant that handles lots of clients, but in Quickbooks, it’s like 3 clicks and I can print it out. Or, if you just need it to show a landlord or to lease a car, I’ll just photocopy my copy of it. Even faster.
From the time I hand them out until the next time I hand them out the following year, I probably have to make 10 or 15 copies for people that lose them, need extra copies, don’t realize they need to keep them so they toss them or say I never gave them to them to begin with. Either way 15 seconds, you’ll have a new one from me.
But like I said, if you have an accountant doing it for you, it very well could take longer, that makes sense. I used to have my accountant do W-2s for me and back then when someone would ask me for a copy for the second or third time I would just give them my accountants phone number and tell them to figure it out (And then call the accountant and make sure to send any billable hours to that person if it costs anything for the extra work).
Also, QuickBooks now has a feature called ViewMyPaycheck.com which uploads all your paystubs and your w-2s to a website that your employees can log onto to get their paystubs and w-2s. It’s kinda nice when they ask for a copy of that stuff, instead of printing it out and faxing it somewhere, you can just tell them to log onto the website and print out whatever they need. Takes me (and my time) out of the equation.
Yep. When I finally talked to her, she was very stressed. She said she has two crazy weeks every year and the other 50 are fine. She pointed out that the law required me (through her) to provide a W-2 by a certain date. She complied with the law. Calling requesting another April 13th is a crapshoot.
I efiled and I had to type all the W2 info from my W2 into the efile form. W/o the W2, I wouldn’t have all the info to type in… most notibly the employers tax ID - but you could get that from a co-worker.
What you may want to do in the future is ask your accountant for a copy of the part that they keep. That way when it’s April 14th and an employee calls you asking for a new W2 you can say “Well, if you need the actual one to mail in, you can call the accountant, but if you just need the numbers so you can e-file, I can make a photocopy for you.”
But if you do that, remember something that I learned the hard way…there’s usually two or three on a page so if you photocopy the entire page and hand it to the employee you also gave him/her the w-2 belonging to at least one other person. :smack:
As an accountant, I can say that this is pretty funny. Clients keeping the files I send them is about as likely to happen as leprechauns riding into town on unicorns.
But… what you describe is my practice. Clients get both the employer and employee copies of W-2s as PDF files so that they can reprint them at their leisure. The employee copies have just one person per page to solve the problem you discovered.
So, then, take your time. I Googled around for the necessity of an extension if you’re getting a refund and everyone said there’s no penalty for being late in that case, except that you have three years to claim that refund (unless you made a mistake and you really owe money). Get a new W-2 from your employer and file at your leisure.
IANAA
Some payroll companies allow employees to look up their records including W-2s through a web portal.
Also, it’d be nice if employers emailed W-2s as a file for easy reprinting and reference.
Thanks for all the replies. I just mailed my request for an extension. Will be back at that company to work on Wednesday and will request a duplicate W-2 then.
Have never lost a W-2 before or ever had to file for an extension, so it worried me some. Maybe I would get on an IRS shit list or something.
I keep everything I get from my accountant. The only way I throw something out is if it looks really useless and even then I only do it with permission. (For example “Hey, I faxed you that blank Personal Property tax form and you emailed me one that was filled out and I mailed it in, can I throw out the blank one that I faxed to you or do I need to do something with it” is an email that I send almost every year) And I learned from experience to get the permission via email, that way in two years when they ask for it, I can show them the email where they said it was okay to throw it out. I also save all my email correspondence from my accountant. Saves a lot of headaches. For example, when they ask why I’m accruing something some specific way, I can pull up the email from their partner and forward it to them and let them figure it out or if there’s a mistake I can send them the email with the J/E in it that caused the mistake and they can send me a J/E to correct it, and they can deal with the repercussions of the mistake, not me.
Ha! It would be even more valuable to thieves, scammers, deadbeat relatives, etc.
At least now, I can tell a begging relative that I just don’t have any money to ‘loan’ to him. Or a solicitor for a charity or church. Imagine if they could simply look online to find out how much I had earned this year.
I’m already targeted with ‘suggested’ amounts based on my previous donations. What would those be if the solicitors could look up my income online. If your church could actually check to see if you are actually ‘tithing’?
Not that I trust the government to keep your information secure from “hackers,” but surely he meant it was secure, yeah? You know, like the next form that students or their parents will fill out - FAFSA? Where you have to give identifying info before accessing your file.
I’ve seen churches give end of year statements. Of course it helps if you pay by some other means than cash.
What any one software program requires and what is required to eFile are two dif things.
As you mentioned though, there are alternative methods of getting the FEIN and the last check stub would be all that is required to get the amounts needed. Granted, some situations are more complicated than others and some don’t have the knowledge needed.
