What Is a W-2? Your Wage and Tax Statement Explained

The W-2, or Wage and Tax Statement, is the official record of what a single employer paid you and what they withheld in taxes during the calendar year. Your employer fills it out, sends you a copy, and sends another copy to the IRS.

The full document runs several pages, but the part you actually use fits on about two pages. Everything you need to file sits in the boxes on the main form. If you held two jobs, you get two separate W-2s, one from each employer.

Your employer issues your W-2, and federal law requires them to. The lettered boxes at the top confirm who is who: box A is your Social Security number, box B is the employer's identification number, box C is the company name and address, and box E is your name and address.

Employers must furnish your W-2 by the end of January for the prior tax year. So the form you get in January or early February covers the year that just ended.

Box 1 is the headline number: your total taxable wages for the year. This is the figure that flows onto your federal tax return as income. For most people, boxes 1, 3, and 5 show the same amount, since your Social Security and Medicare wages usually match your taxable pay.

They can differ. A common case is military pay earned in a combat tax exclusion zone, which lowers box 1 while boxes 3 and 5 stay full. If your numbers do not line up, there is usually a specific reason like that.

Box 2 shows the federal income tax your employer already took out of your paychecks and sent to the government on your behalf. This is the money you watched disappear from each pay stub all year.

It matters at tax time because it is a credit toward what you owe. If box 2 is more than your final tax bill, you get a refund. If it is less, you owe the difference. That single number is why some people get money back and others write a check.

Boxes 4 and 6 cover the FICA taxes: Social Security tax and Medicare tax withheld. Social Security is taxed at 6.2 percent from your pay, with your employer matching it for 12.4 percent total. Medicare is 1.45 percent from you, matched again, for 2.9 percent total.

You do not do anything with these at filing time in most cases. They are already paid. Boxes 7 and 8 handle tips, so if you do not earn tips, expect them to be blank.

Box 12 is where things like retirement contributions and benefits show up, each tagged with a letter code. In this example, code AA with $5,200 means the employee put $5,200 into a Roth 401k that year. Code DD would be the cost of employer health coverage, and there are many more.

Box 13 backs this up with a checkbox marking that you were in a retirement plan. If you see a code you do not recognize, the form's own instructions page explains every one.

Once your W-2 arrives, you use it to file. The numbers transfer onto Form 1040 and your state return. The form even carries its own instructions for the employee, breaking down what each box means if you get stuck.

If your W-2 is wrong or never comes, start with your employer's HR or payroll department and ask for a corrected copy. If that stalls past late February, you can contact the IRS. For the detailed reading of each line, see our guide on how to read your W-2 line by line.