Are You Missing Tax Documents You Need to File Your Return?

W-2

Employers have until January 31st to issue W-2s - Wage and Tax Statement forms to their employees, either electronically or in paper form. You should generally receive your W-2 in the mail, or it should be available on your employer's website, by the first few days of February. The IRS says you should generally allow about two weeks to receive W-2's sent by mail.

If you still haven't received your W-2, there are a few possible reasons. The W-2 may simply have been lost in the mail. You may have left an employer, moved to a new address, and forgot to give your former employer your new address. Your mail may be forwarded for a certain period of time, and after that, the W-2 may have been returned to your former employer as undeliverable. Your former employer may have gone out of business and neglected to take care of its tax reporting responsibilities. Or you may have received your W-2 but misplaced it.

Contact Your Employer

The first thing you should do is contact your employer's payroll, personnel, or human resources department and ask them to send you a copy of the W-2, or the original if it was returned to them. Make sure they have your correct address. If your employer uses an outside payroll service, they should be able to give you a phone number to call. You should note that your employer is allowed to charge you a fee for a re-issued W-2.

Contact the IRS

If you are unable to get your W-2 from your employer, you can call the IRS for assistance at 1-800-829-1040. You should have the following information on hand when you call: your employer's name and address; your name, address and Social Security number; and an estimate of your wages, the federal income tax withheld, and the period you worked for that employer. You can find this year-to-date information on your final paycheck stub for the year, or on your leave-and-earnings statement, if you left that employer.