What should you do if your W2 is wrong?

What should you do if your W2 is wrong? You want to file your income tax return but you have not received a W-2 or the form you received is wrong. Don’t fret, here are some workable solutions to those problems. 

Question:

The social security number reported on my Form W-2 is incorrect. What should I do?

Answer:

Immediately contact your employer and correct your Social Security number. Ask your employer for a corrected W-2 (Form W-2C, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement). If the W-2 information is not corrected, you will not get social security credit for the wages you earned. If this happens to you make sure your employee record is corrected as soon as possible. The same process holds true with other common errors including a name change when you get married or divorced.

Question:

 I disagree with the amount of wages reported on my Form W-2? What should I do?

Answer: 

Contact your employer and ask for a corrected W-2 (Form W-2C, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement). If you do not receive the corrected W-2, you should report the incorrect amount as noted on the W-2 to avoid an IRS correspondence audit AND then correct the amount on your tax return.

Question: 

My employer went out of business and I didn’t receive a Form W-2. I can’t locate the owner. What should I do?

Answer: 

You must report all your income, whether or not you receive  (W-2s or 1099s) from the parties who paid you. You’ll have to reconstruct your income and income tax withholding based on your paycheck stubs or other documents. Futhermore, make sure your income is properly reported on your account with the Social Security Administration. Your future benefits could be negatively impacted if not properly reported by your employer.

According to the IRS, you should contact the IRS and a representative will take a W-2 complaint.

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