Every year, your employer sends you a W-2 form so that you can file your income tax return. Mostly, the process is straightforward. You receive your W-2 from the employer, file your taxes then you either pay what you owe or wait to receive a tax refund.
You need to be aware of these situations to file your taxes and keep your tax record clean. This means that it is possible to get multiple W2 forms from the same employer. In this blog we will be touching upon this same topic. Let’s get started.
Understanding Withholding Allowances
Your annual tax can be influenced depending upon the number of compensation in your W4. To understand withholding allowances, you will first need to understand the tax withholding basics. With each paycheck, your employer withholds some amount from your paycheck.
The amount then covers your taxes, in such a way that you pay them in smaller portions rather than paying them a huge amount of money at the end of the tax year.
Employers are obligated to withhold that amount for purposes of federal taxes remittance. The amount the employer withholds depends upon how much amount you earn and the details are in your W4. Whether your spouse works, your claimed dependent and multiple jobs can affect the withholding allowance. Earning information in your multiple W2s will be reflected in your W4.
What is the Main Aim of W2?
A Form W-2 commonly known as Wage and Tax Statement, is what citizens and the residents of the United States use to report income and taxes deducted in a tax year. The form is utilized by the employers with various employees who have a regular pay cycle.
This can be a daily wage, monthly salary or any payment as a part of an employment contract. The W2 form needs to be sent to the employees by the end of January each year. This is to afford you, as the taxpayer, have enough time to prepare your income tax returns and file them by the deadline which is generally in April. You also need the W2 for filing your Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes which are normally deducted from your paycheck.
A W2 form is what the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) generally uses to document and organize your and other employee’s earnings. This lets them know the amount of tax paid against what was withheld from your paycheck and other deductions.
Why did you Get Two w2s from same employer?
There are various scenarios why you can get two w2s from same employer. The first scenario is when the employer by mistake sends you two identical W2 forms. This could be a mistake. You need to report the issue to the IRS and send only one W2 form. In any case, it is recommended that an employer issues only one W2 per employee.
When an employer enters two W2 forms, they risk increasing the errors in inserting the employee details in the W-2. Besides it is unnecessary to issue multiple W2s though the W2 form summarizes the employee’s earnings in a tax year.
Even though you have worked twice or more with the same employer, your earnings need to be totaled and shall be entered in one W2 form. However in some cases warrant that you receive more than one W2 form.
This exception persists when your work is in more than one capacity which is paid on a different pay scale. You will also receive two W2 forms if you work in more than one location for the same employer.
For example, if you work as a government employee as a part- time for the local government and a state state. In this case, you might get two W2 forms for the two jobs, though you are working for the same employer. Also some state university professors are employees of the state but might receive W2s from each university they teach.
Another reason your employer might give you more than one W2 is if you work for an employment agency or ownership. The aim of multiple W2s from the same employer is to enable you to report all of your income.
How Can You Deal With Multiple W2 Forms For The Same Employer?
In case your W2s have slightly different (EIN) Employer Identification Number in box b, you can insert every one separately. You may get more than one W-2 if you work for an employment agency or you have changed the ownership of your firm or payroll providers.
If your W2s are identical till the last digit and letter, just insert one of them. Keep the duplicate with your tax records or destroy it completely.
In case your federal wage information in boxes 1-14 is the same and the state information in boxes 15-17 is different, then you should insert both in the same W2 field. Enter the whole information from the most recent W2, then insert the different local and state information from the other W2.
In case the only difference is of box 12, then insert all the information from the most finished W2, then insert the different box 12 information from the other W2 on the same screen.
Can You File Two W2 Forms?
The answer is Yes! You can file two W2 forms if they are from different employers. You will need to send both W2 forms to the IRS at the same time and not separately. This is because you have an obligation to report all of your earnings.
The amount you pay as an income tax depends on your earning, either it is from a single or multiple source. Even if you have multiple Wage and Tax statements, they will show your total revenue. But this does not mean that you will be required to pay more taxes than someone holding only one W2 form.
Though having multiple W2s might arise the need to alter your withholding tax to reflect the withholding allowances you claim on your total earnings.
Having two W2 forms from the same employer does not raise your taxes over an individual with only one W2. All you need to do is file your paperwork in a proper manner. Your tax amount depends on the total amount and not in any way with the number of W2 you file.
Conclusion
The legal guidelines and the tax laws are the same for every individual filing multiple W2 as those with a single job or W2. Keep in mind to always keep yourself updated with the tax updates to know how specific changes might affect your taxes and withholding allowances.
If you are looking for a paystub generator then you can always rely on Online Paystub.
