If You Don’t Have a W-2, Do You Still Have to File Any Taxes?

In adulthood, things that aren’t your fault are still your problem.

Internal Revenue Service W-2 document. (Lost_in_the_Midwest/Shutterstock)
By Marty Smith

Last year, my then-place of employment imploded in a cloud of mismanagement. Unsurprisingly (to me, anyway), I haven’t received a W-2 from them for tax year 2024. Does this mean I don’t have to file any taxes? —Furlough Guthrie

When you’re a kid and the bus doesn’t come, you say, “Yea! No school today!” When you’re a grown-up and the bus doesn’t come, you say “Great, now I’m walking to work.” In adulthood, things that aren’t your fault are still your problem—in other words, yes, you have to file, and it’s going to be an even bigger pain in the ass than usual.

Step one is to find your ex-employer (I’m sure you can’t wait to rekindle the friendship) and request the form. If (when) that doesn’t work, you can call the IRS and request Form 4852, “Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement.” This lets you reconstruct your W-2 based on all those pay stubs that you totally didn’t throw away. Can you just file Form 4852—which is available online—without first spending a day on hold with the IRS? Nope! Why not? I suspect the reason is something along the lines of “We’ll ask the questions here, Mr. Guthrie.”

Can you blow the whole thing off? The IRS usually knows what’s supposed to be on your tax form before you send it (as you’ll learn if you get anything wrong). They know this because employers send them your W-2 (technically this one’s a W-3) when they send yours. But maybe your former boss didn’t send either one—the feds will never know you even had a job!

Don’t count on it. Your employers would have been filing quarterly tax reports with the IRS. While these don’t name specific employees, it will be pretty suspicious when no W-3s show up. There are also quarterly reports filed with the state, and those do have employee-level data. It’s not a smoking gun, but there’s certainly a paper trail if someone wants to follow it.

Right about now you may be wondering: If the IRS already knows what my tax return should say, why do I have to file one at all? As reported previously, tax-preparation companies (which profit from the current system) collude with tea party types (who want to demonize taxes), lobbying Congress to make sure the process never stops being a complete nightmare. Happy filing!

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.

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