Basic Information Regarding W2 Forms
All governments worldwide collect money from their citizens in the form of taxes. Without taxes, the government does not have enough funds to provide social amenities, infrastructure, and other public resources. In some cases, a person pays taxes directly to the government. In such a case, the W-2 form comes in play for US residents. The form provides the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with a report on what the wages of an employee for the entire year, and the amount of money the employer has withheld in form of taxes. This article discusses the essential elements of what you need to know about the W-2 form.
What you earned in the year that has passed is what the form will show. No matter where you work, the form has the same fields for you to fill. There are two levels of government, which are federal and state. Since there are two levels of government, a W2 form includes both levels. Some fields, such as the Employer Identification Number and state Identification number, do not change in every form an employee fills out. Some details have to keep changing as the year changes.
A W2 form specifies any income you obtained in the previous year. For instance, it has a box for filling in the cumulative amount an employee got from employment under the year and employer in question. An employee also has to fill in the social security wages and what the employer withheld from his salary. A job that allows an employee to get tips from clients will also have the employer including such income in the employee’s form.
An employer should facilitate the employees to file their taxes. W2 forms are filing any compensation an employee receives. An employer should send out W2 forms way before the deadline so that employees file them in time. He does this by sending the forms before 31st January since the deadline for filing usually falls on 31st January. If you prefer to send your forms by mail, you will still pay the penalty if you do not submit in time.
W2 forms are in various categories, one of which is Copy A. Since the paper is unique, you cannot obtain it by downloading it from the internet. An official form is available in copy shops. Though the W2 forms are for employers, not all employees have to fill it. If you are self-employed, or are a contracted worker, you should not fill out the W2 form. An employee employed on a contract basis uses a W-9 form to file taxes for their previous year. Only when they start working for a company, do they fill out a W9 form. If a contracted employee completes work worth $600 or more, they get a 1099 form from the company for which they have provided the service.