You Can Find Your W-2 Online Now!

The deadline for taxes is approaching! Your employer is required to send you your W-2 forms by the end of January each year.  The W-2 forms have your total wages and tax withholdings for 2024. Tax preparers need your W-2 to be able to prepare your tax returns correctly.

Sometimes employers don’t send out the W-2 on time, or even if they did, you might not have received it or lost it. Starting this year, the IRS is making W-2 information available online right now.  In past years, the IRS didn’t make this information available until after the April 15th deadline to file tax returns. Notably, the IRS is only including the federal wages and income tax withholdings, so it will only give your tax preparer enough information to file your federal tax return, not your state and local returns.

If you got health insurance through the Healthcare Marketplace, the IRS is also posting 1095-A Forms to taxpayers’ accounts. You’ll need to give this form to your tax preparer so that they can figure out if you got the right amount of government assistance to help pay for your health insurance last year.

If you had other income in addition to what is on your W-2, you need to include that income on your return, too.  However, forms such as 1099s from things like app-based driving and delivering, independent contracting, and unemployment or retirement payments, are not yet posted on your IRS account. The IRS says it will try to post those to online accounts later in the year.

To login to your IRS online account, you need an ID.me account to authenticate your identity.  You can create an ID.me account and then log in to your IRS account at this IRS link:  https://www.irs.gov/payments/online-account-for-individuals by clicking on the blue “Sign in to your online account” button.

If you are filing a joint return with your spouse, and your spouse hasn’t received their W-2, they’ll need to log in to their own IRS account by following the same steps.

If you have questions, or if you haven’t received your W-2 and you log in to your online account and there is no W-2 there either, contact us to see if we can help! Call our intake at 215-981-3800 between 9:30am and 12pm Monday through Thursday or apply online at philalegal.org/apply.