{"id":28071,"date":"2024-02-27T10:55:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T10:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/?post_type=business-glossary&#038;p=28071"},"modified":"2025-04-24T14:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T14:06:08","slug":"form-w-2","status":"publish","type":"business-glossary","link":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/business-glossary\/form-w-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Form W-2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Definition<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Form W-2 is a tax form used in the United States to report wages paid to employees and the taxes withheld from those wages.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is a Form W-2?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The primary purpose of Form W-2 is to report an employee&#8217;s annual earnings from wages, salaries, tips, bonuses, and other compensation received from their employer during the tax year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employers are required to provide a Form W-2 to each of their employees who received wages of $600 or more during the tax year, regardless of whether taxes were withheld. This includes full-time, part-time, and temporary employees, as well as seasonal workers and independent contractors who are treated as employees for tax purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employers are required to provide employees with their Form W-2 by January 31 following the end of the tax year. Additionally, employers must file copies of all Forms W-2 with the Social Security Administration (SSA) by the last day of February if filing by paper or by the last day of March if filing electronically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The information reported on Form W-2 helps employees calculate their federal and state income tax liabilities, determine whether they are eligible for tax credits or deductions, and reconcile their tax withholdings with their actual tax liability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If employers fail to provide employees with Form W-2 by the deadline or who provide incorrect or incomplete information may be subject to penalties imposed by the IRS.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Example of a Form W-2<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Employee<\/strong>: John Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Employer<\/strong>: ABC Company<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tax year<\/strong>: 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Box 1: Wages, tips, and other compensation: $50,000.00<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Box 2: Federal income tax withheld: $6,500.00<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Box 3: Social Security wages: $50,000.00<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Box 4: Social Security tax withheld: $3,100.00<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Box 5: Medicare wages and tips: $50,000.00<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Box 6: Medicare tax withheld: $725.00<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Box 12: Codes for various benefits (401(k) contributions): $2,000.00<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In this example, John Smith received a Form W-2 from his employer, ABC Company, for the tax year 2023. The form details his annual earnings of $50,000.00 and the taxes withheld from his wages. Additionally, it reports his contributions to a <a href=\"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/business-loan-calculator\/401k-retirement-calculator\/\">401(k) retirement plan<\/a> and John will use this information to complete his individual tax return for the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"template":"","class_list":["post-28071","business-glossary","type-business-glossary","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","image_blog":"","image_blog_full":"","image_podcast":"","image_banking":"","image_blog_internal":"","image_blog_medium":"","image_single_banking":""},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>Definition Form W-2 is a tax form used in the United States to report wages paid to employees and the taxes withheld from those wages.&nbsp; What is a Form W-2? The primary purpose of Form W-2 is to report an employee&#8217;s annual earnings from wages, salaries, tips, bonuses, and other compensation received from their employer during the tax year. Employers are required to provide a Form W-2 to each of their employees who received wages of $600 or more during the tax year, regardless of whether taxes were withheld. This includes full-time, part-time, and temporary employees, as well as seasonal&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"","author_info_v2":{"name":"root","url":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/author\/root\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/business-glossary\/28071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/business-glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/business-glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swoopfunding.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}