Form W-2: Wage and Tax Statement

Box a: Employee's social security numberThe number exactly as shown on the employee's social security card; never an ITIN. If the card has been applied for, enter Applied For on paper or zeros if e-filing, then file a W-2c when the number arrives.Click to open the row in the table belowBox b: Employer identification number (EIN)The same EIN used on your Forms 941, 943, 944 or CT-1. Never a prior owner's EIN and never your SSN; enter Applied For if the EIN has not been issued.Click to open the row in the table belowBox c: Employer's name, address, and ZIP codeShould match the name and address on your employment tax returns. An agent under Form 2678 shows its own name with Agent for (name of employer).Click to open the row in the table belowBox d: Control numberOptional internal identifier for each form. Not required.Click to open the row in the table belowBox e: Employee's first name and initial, Last name, Suff.The name as shown on the social security card, first name and middle initial in the first field and surname in the second. Compound surnames use a hyphen or space, never run together, and no titles such as Dr. or RN.Click to open the row in the table belowBox f: Employee's address and ZIP codeStreet, apartment or P.O. box; for a foreign address, city, province or state, and country without abbreviating the country. An address-only error on a filed W-2 does not need a W-2c to the SSA.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 1: Wages, tips, other compensationTotal taxable wages, reported tips, taxable fringe benefits and other compensation for income tax. Excludes elective deferrals such as 401(k) and 403(b) contributions (except 501(c)(18)), so it is often lower than box 3.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 2: Federal income tax withheldTotal federal income tax actually withheld for the year, including the 20% excise tax withheld on excess golden parachute payments. Must agree in total with the income tax withholding on the year's Forms 941.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 3: Social security wagesWages subject to employee social security tax, before payroll deductions, excluding tips. Includes 401(k) and other elective deferrals; boxes 3 and 7 together cannot exceed $184,500 for 2026.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 4: Social security tax withheldEmployee share only, including tax on tips; for 2026 no more than $11,439. A nonzero box 4 with zero in boxes 3 and 7 is rejected by the SSA.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 5: Medicare wages and tipsSame wages and tips as boxes 3 and 7 but with no wage base limit. Must equal or exceed boxes 3 plus 7 or the SSA rejects the report.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 6: Medicare tax withheldEmployee Medicare tax including any Additional Medicare Tax withheld on wages over $200,000; not your employer share.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 7: Social security tipsTips the employee reported to you, even if there were not enough funds to collect the tax. Include the same tips in boxes 1 and 5.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 8: Allocated tipsTips allocated by a large food or beverage establishment under the Form 8027 rules. Not included in boxes 1, 3, 5 or 7.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 10: Dependent care benefitsAll dependent care assistance paid or incurred, including amounts over the $5,000 exclusion; the excess also goes in boxes 1, 3 and 5.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 11: Nonqualified plansDistributions from a nonqualified or nongovernmental 457(b) plan (also in box 1), so the SSA can apply the earnings test. Leave blank if you are also reporting deferrals in boxes 3 or 5 for the year.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 12a to 12d: See instructions for box 12Code then amount, no more than four items per Copy A (use a second W-2 for more): common codes are D (401(k)), E (403(b)), G (457(b)), W (HSA), C (group-term life over $50,000) and DD (cost of employer health coverage, not taxable). New for 2026 under P.L. 119-21: TA (employer Trump account contributions), TP (total cash tips reported to the employer, which also requires a code in box 14b) and TT (qualified overtime, only the half portion of time-and-a-half).Click to open the row in the table belowBox 13: Statutory employee, Retirement plan, Third-party sick payCheck Statutory employee only for the four statutory categories, never for common-law employees. Retirement plan means an active participant in a 401(a), 403(a), 403(b), SEP, SIMPLE, 501(c)(18) or government plan (not a 457(b) or nonqualified plan); checking it wrongly is a listed common error.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 14a: OtherFree-form, labeled items: 100% of a vehicle's annual lease value if included in income, state disability tax, union dues, after-tax or employer plan contributions. Railroad employers report certain RRTA items here.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 14b: Treasury Tipped Occupation Code(s)New for 2026: up to two Treasury Tipped Occupation Codes when cash tips are reported with code TP. If any tips came from a nonqualifying occupation, 000 must be one of the codes.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 15: State, Employer's state ID numberTwo-letter state abbreviation and the state-assigned employer ID. Two states fit on one form; use a second W-2 for more.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 16: State wages, tips, etc.Wages for that state's income tax. Contact the state for its reporting rules.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 17: State income taxState income tax withheld for the state in box 15.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 18: Local wages, tips, etc.Wages for the locality named in box 20.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 19: Local income taxLocal income tax withheld.Click to open the row in the table belowBox 20: Locality nameName of the city or local taxing jurisdiction.Click to open the row in the table below

Hover over a box for what goes in it; click to open its row in the table below. On a touch screen, tap the box to jump to the row.

Who files Form W-2

File a Form W-2 for each employee to whom you paid wages (including noncash payments) for services in your trade or business, even if the employee is related to you, when any of these applies: you withheld any income, social security or Medicare tax, regardless of the amount of wages; you would have had to withhold income tax had the employee not claimed exemption on Form W-4; or you paid $2,000 or more in wages even with nothing withheld. The $2,000 figure is new: the 2026 instructions say P.L. 119-21 increases the “wage reporting threshold from $600 to $2,000 if no federal income, social security, or Medicare tax was withheld” for wages paid after 2025, indexed after 2026.

Copy A goes to the SSA (with a Form W-3 if on paper), Copy 1 to the state or locality if required, and Copies B, C and 2 to the employee. Household employers with a single employee still file. An agent with an approved Form 2678 puts its own EIN in box b and “Agent for (name of employer)” in box c.

Using a payroll provider does not move the obligation: the instructions warn that a third-party payroll service “does not relieve an employer of the responsibility” to file and furnish correctly and on time.

Box by box

Due dates

Penalties

Failure to file correct W-2s (IRC 6721). Applies to late filing, missing or incorrect information, an incorrect or missing TIN, paper filing when e-filing was required, and paper forms that are not machine readable. For 2026 Forms W-2 (filings due after December 31, 2026): $60 per form if corrected within 30 days of the due date, $130 if corrected by August 1, $340 after August 1 or if never filed, and at least $690 per form with no maximum for intentional disregard. The annual maximums are $698,500, $2,095,500 and $4,191,500 ($244,500, $698,500 and $1,397,000 for small businesses with average gross receipts of $5 million or less).

Failure to furnish correct employee copies (IRC 6722). A separate penalty in the same amounts if Copies B, C and 2 are late, incomplete or wrong.

Exceptions. Reasonable cause; inconsequential errors (but errors in a TIN, a surname or any money amount are never inconsequential); the de minimis rule for returns filed on time and corrected by August 1 (the greater of 10 returns or one-half of 1%); and the safe harbor where no amount differs by more than $100 and no withholding amount by more than $25, unless the employee elects out. The instructions add that if you willfully file a fraudulent W-2, the person named may sue and “you may have to pay $5,000 or more in damages.”

Withheld income, social security and Medicare tax that is not paid over is a separate matter: the trust fund recovery penalty is “100% of the unpaid trust fund tax” (Pub 15). See Form 941.

Corrections

If you catch an error before sending Copy A to the SSA, check VOID on the bad Copy A, prepare a new W-2, and mark the employee's new copies CORRECTED. Once Copy A has been filed, correct it on Form W-2c with Form W-3c, “as soon as possible after you discover an error.” If you were required to e-file the original, you must e-file the W-2c; BSO lets you file W-2c online for current and prior years.

A changed wage or tax amount usually means the matching Form 941 is also wrong; fix that on Form 941-X for the quarter. Do not use a W-2c for back pay (Form SSA-131 and Pub 957) or for Form W-2G.

Corrections filed by August 1 drop the 6721 penalty to the $130 tier, and filing them by August 1 is one of the conditions of the de minimis rule.

Where it goes wrong

• W-3 vs 941 mismatch (CAWR). The instructions direct you to reconcile boxes 2, 3, 5 and 7 of all W-3s with the year's four Forms 941 and warn that where they differ “you will be contacted to resolve the discrepancies.” See CAWR reconciliation for payers, Letter 98C and Letter 99C.
• Different EIN or name than the 941. Box b and box c must be the EIN and name on the 941s; a prior owner's EIN, or a typo breaks the match. If another EIN was used on a 941 for the year, show it in box h of the W-3.
• Name and SSN. The SSA posts earnings by name and SSN. Use the card, not the HR system's preferred name, and verify through the SSA's Social Security Number Verification Service. The IRS instructions describe SSA's online name/SSN verification as “free services”; the SSA says SSNVS “can only be used to verify current or former employees and only for wage reporting (Form W-2) purposes.” Pub 15 adds it handles up to 10 names per screen or a file of up to 250,000.
• ITINs in box a. An ITIN is for people not eligible for U.S. employment; the instructions say “Do not auto-populate an ITIN into box a.”
• SSA rejects. Reports are rejected when Medicare wages and tips are less than social security wages plus tips, or tax appears with zero wages in the matching box.
• Truncation in the wrong place. You may truncate the SSN on employee copies only (for example XXX-XX-1234); Copy A must carry the full SSN and the EIN may never be truncated.
• Paper Copy A printed from IRS.gov. The downloadable Copy A is not scannable and may draw a penalty. Use the official red-ink form, an approved substitute, or e-file.
• Retirement plan box. Checking box 13 for 457(b) or nonqualified plan contributions is wrong.

Inside the IRS: what happens to Form W-2

Where the W-2 goes after you file it. Copy A never goes to the IRS directly. IRM 20.1.7 notes that “Forms W-2 are filed with the Social Security Administration and can be filed electronically through SSA Business Services Online.” Under a data-sharing agreement, “SSA shares Form W-2 data with the IRS and the IRS shares Forms 941, 943, 944, (henceforth called Forms 94X) and Form 1040 Schedule H data with SSA” (IRM 4.19.4.1.1). The IRS also loads the W-2 records into its Information Returns Master File, where the Withholding Compliance Program uses them to spot employees who are underwithheld (see Form W-4).

The CAWR match. Combined Annual Wage Reporting is “a document matching program” that compares your processed W-2 totals with the year's Forms 941, 943 or 944. The IRS compares four fields: “Social Security wages, Social Security tips, Medicare wages and tips, and Federal Income Tax (FIT) withheld.” Mismatches run in two directions:

• W-2s higher than the 94X returns (IRS-CAWR). An apparent underpayment of tax, or more income tax on the W-2s than you reported, opens an IRS-CAWR case and a Letter 99C. Before writing, the IRS looks for another EIN you may have filed under.
• 94X returns higher than the W-2s (SSA-CAWR). IRM 20.1.7 says this discrepancy “is identified when the employer reports more Social Security Wages to the IRS than to SSA.” SSA writes to you first (“SSA will make two attempts to contact the employer”), then refers the case to the IRS, which sends Letter 98C to get the missing W-2s so employees get credit for their earnings.

What happens if you do not answer. On an IRS-CAWR case, once the suspense period ends, “additional tax due is assessed” on the last quarter of the year. The IRS also adds a 10% deposit penalty to a CAWR tax assessment (IRM 20.1.4.21.6.1). On an SSA-CAWR case, the IRS charges the intentional disregard penalty under IRC 6721(e) to employers “who do not comply with our requests to file correct Forms W-2,” and notifies you of the assessment on CP 215. “There is no maximum to the Intentional Disregard penalty.” Original W-2s you file in response to SSA-CAWR letters are generally charged the late filing penalty at the top per-form rate.

Getting a penalty removed. First Time Abate is not available here: the IRM says “the First Time Abate Penalty relief option does NOT apply” to the intentional disregard or late filing W-2 penalties. Reasonable cause requires that you “acted in a responsible manner (both before and after the failure occurred)” and that there were significant mitigating factors. A reply that explains what you did when you found the error and what you changed so it does not happen again is the one that works.

What to do. Reconcile W-3 boxes 2, 3, 5 and 7 to the four 941s before you file. If a CAWR letter arrives, answer with the missing W-2s, Forms W-2c, a Form 941-X or a written explanation; IRM 20.1.7 lists those as the ways a discrepancy is resolved. See the CAWR reply template and the reasonable cause statement.

Notices about this form

• Letter 98C
• Letter 99C

Questions people ask about Form W-2

Other employer, withholding and ACA forms

Payroll and employment tax returns: W-4 · 941 · 941-X · 944 · 943 · 940 · W-3 · W-2c · 8027
Withholding returns: 945 · 1042
Health coverage (ACA) returns: 1095-C · 1094-C · 1095-B · 1094-B
Paper transmittal: 1096
All of them on one table · Information returns (1099 series)

Sources: 2026 Form W-2; 2026 General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 (posted January 2026); Pub 15 (2026) sections 4, 9 and 11; Pub 1099 (2026) for T.D. 9972; SSA, Social Security Number Verification Service page (ssa.gov/employer/ssnv.htm); IRC 6051, 6721, 6722.