If by the end of February, your Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement has not been corrected by your employer after you attempted to have your employer or payer issue a corrected form, you can request that an IRS representative initiate a Form W-2 complaint. Call the IRS toll free at 800-829-1040 or make an appointment to visit an IRS taxpayer assistance center (TAC). 

• The IRS will send your employer a letter requesting that they furnish you a corrected Form W-2 within ten days.
• The IRS will send you a letter with instructions and Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, or Form 1099-R, Distributions from Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc. You can use the Form 4852 in the event that your employer doesn't provide you with the corrected Form W-2 in time to file your tax return, except for situations involving qualified overtime compensation and qualified tips.  See below for more information. 

When you call the IRS or visit a TAC office, please have the following information available:

• Your employer's or payer's name and complete address including ZIP code, your employer’s employer identification number (EIN) (if available) and
• Your name, address including ZIP code, and Social Security number.

Depending on the time of year, the IRS may have federal wage information in the form of a wage transcript; check your online account. We may have received the corrected Form W-2. If we have, you can use it to file instead of Form 4852. 

If you file your return and attach Form 4852, you’ll need to enter the actual wages you earned, taxes withheld, and the period for which you received an incorrect Form W-2. You should base the entries on the year-to-date information from your final pay stub, if possible. However, any amount of qualified overtime compensation reported on Form 4852 cannot be used to determine the deductible amount of qualified overtime compensation. Please refer to Q22 and Q23 in FS 2026-13 PDF. Similarly, the amount of qualified tips reported on Form 4852 cannot be used to determine the deductible amount of qualified tips. However, you can use Form 4137, Social Security and Medicare Tax on Unreported Tip Income, to report tip amounts not reported to your employer. Qualified tips reported on Form 4137 can be used to determine the deductible amount of qualified tips.  

When filing a Form 4852 instead of a Form W-2, there may be delays processing your refund while we verify the information you gave us.

To help protect your Social Security benefits, keep a copy of Form 4852 until you begin receiving Social Security benefits, just in case there's a question about your work record and/or earnings in a particular year. After September 30 following the date shown on Form 4852 line 4, use a my Social Security online account or contact your local SSA office to verify wages reported by your employer.

If you receive a corrected Form W-2 after you filed your return with Form 4852, and the information differs from the information reported on your return, you must amend your return by filing Form 1040-X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.