How to Get a Copy of Your W-2 Forms

Tax time is coming and many of are going to need our W-2's. But what do you do if you have lost yours or didn't receive it? All you need to do is go to the company that you worked for and ask them if you can access it online. Many companies have the ability for you to have an online account with them. At that account you can update your tax information. It is at that account that you can also access your W-2. If you are not sure how to do this you can contact the Human Resources personnel from that particular company. Another way to receive your W-2 quickly would be to ask the Human Resources department if they could e-mail you a copy of it. Once you have received the email then you can print it out on your printer.

But what do you do if you need past tax W-2's and information? This can be done simply by requesting the information from the IRS. The IRS will send you a form to fill out. This form is called the 4506-T form. Once you receive this form you will fill it out and send it back to the IRS. When they have finished processing your request they will send you a copy of your W-2's. The copies that you receive will not be identical to the original ones though. As far as the processing time it can take a little while for you to receive your copies. It all depends on what time of year it is and how busy the IRS is at the time.

If you want to speed things up a little bit you can access the form on the IRS website. The way to do this is to go to http://www.irs.gov/. When you have reached the site you will go to Forms and Publications. This can be located on the front page of the site. It will be on the left-hand side in the margin. The next page that you will be sent to will have a button to push that says Form and Instruction number. You will need to push that button. This will take you to a page where you can enter your 4506-T form number. After entering the number it will take you to a button to push for the form. In order to read this form you will have to have Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your computer. If you do the form will pop up and you will have the ability to print it off of your printer at that time. This form also comes with instructions on how to fill out the form. At the bottom of the instructions it will tell you where to mail your form. There are different addresses for different states. Again you need to remember that the amount of time that it takes to receive your information back will vary.