what is form w 2 wage and tax statement 
form w 2 also known as the wage and tax statement is a document an employer sends to each employee and the internal revenue service irs and shows income earned from an employer and the amount of taxes withheld from an employee s paycheck so taxpayers can file federal and state taxes a w 2 employee is someone whose employer deducts taxes from their paychecks and submits this information to the government who files form w 2 an employer must send out a w 2 form to every employee to whom they paid a salary wage or other form of compensation this does not include contracted or self employed workers who file taxes with different forms the employer must send the employee the w 2 form on or before january 31 each year so that the employee has time to file income taxes before the deadline commonly april 15 12employers use w 2 forms to report the federal insurance contributions act fica taxes withheld by the end of january employers must file for the previous year form w 2 along with form w 3 for each employee with the social security administration ssa the ssa uses the information on these forms to calculate the social security benefits each worker is entitled to 3tax documents reflect earnings and deductions for the previous year a w 2 form in january 2024 shows income earned in 2023 information included on a w 2employees receive a w 2 for their income taxes sent annually by their employer taxpayers will receive multiple w 2s if they work for more than one employer the irs also gets a copy taxpayers input the data found on the w 2 into a form 1040 individual tax return either by hand or electronically regardless of the employer or company every w 2 includes the same information 2