Former Restaurant Worker Seeking W-2 Help After Employment at The Cheesecake Factory

You have a couple of options here. First, try contacting The Cheesecake Factory's payroll department directly instead of your former manager. Large restaurant chains typically use a third-party payroll system like ADP or Paycom where employees can access their tax documents. If you remember receiving any emails from their HR system while employed, check those for information about the employee portal. They should have sent you setup instructions when you were hired. Search your email for "Cheesecake Factory portal" or "payroll access." If you still can't access your W-2, you have the right to request it. Call their corporate office at the employee/HR helpline and explain your situation. By law, they must provide your W-2 by January 31st. If you can't get it from them by mid-February, you can contact the IRS at 800-829-1040, and they'll reach out to the employer on your behalf. As a last resort, you can file Form 4852 (Substitute for Form W-2) with your tax return, but you'll need to estimate your income and withholding as accurately as possible. Your final paystub from 2022 would be extremely helpful for this.

I had this exact problem with The Cheesecake Factory last year! After struggling for weeks and getting nowhere with their HR department, I finally tried taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it was a lifesaver. Their W-2 finder tool helped me locate and access my documents in literally minutes when I had spent days trying to track them down myself. I uploaded my last paystub and they were able to match my information with the right employer reporting system. The best part was they told me exactly how to set up my access credentials for the employee portal (turned out I did have an account, I just didn't know how to access it). This saved me from having to file for an extension or deal with the IRS directly.

I'm eating my words! I tried taxr.ai after posting my skeptical comment and wow, it actually worked perfectly. I was really suspicious it would be a waste of money but they identified that The Cheesecake Factory uses Workday for their payroll system in my region. They showed me exactly how to recover my login (which I never even knew I had) and guided me through the specific steps to download my W-2. The whole process took like 15 minutes. I even found out I had some unused PTO they had paid out that I'd forgotten about. Definitely saved me from filing that 4852 form and guessing at my withholdings!

If you're still struggling with getting your W-2 and The Cheesecake Factory isn't being helpful, you might want to try Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was in a similar situation last year where I couldn't get my W-2 from a previous employer, and after trying for weeks to get through to the IRS (constant busy signals), Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes. The IRS agent was super helpful and initiated contact with my former employer on my behalf. You can see how the service works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Basically they navigate the phone tree for you and call you back when they reach a human. Saved me hours of frustration!

Ok I have to admit I was wrong. I tried Claimyr today out of desperation after getting hung up on by the IRS three more times. It actually worked! Got a call back in about 45 minutes with an IRS agent already on the line. The agent explained that I could file Form 4506-T to request wage and income transcripts that would show all my W-2 information, even without having the actual form from my employer. She also said they could send a notice to my former employer about the missing W-2. The whole call took maybe 15 minutes once I got connected, and I got exactly what I needed. Definitely better than the hours I wasted trying to call them myself!

Former resturant worker here too... you can actually request a wage and income transcript directly from the IRS online which will show all of your W-2 data! Go to IRS.gov and search for "Get Transcript Online" - you'll need to create an account and verify your identity, but then you can download your wage and income transcript which shows all the info that was reported to the IRS on your W-2. The only downside is sometimes it takes until May or June for the current year's data to be fully uploaded. But this is super helpful if you're dealing with a difficult former employer or need W-2 info from previous years.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned checking your last paystub from 2022! It should have your year-to-date income and withholding information which would be really close to what's on your W-2. You can use that to file if you're in a real pinch.

I work in HR and can confirm that The Cheesecake Factory uses Workday for their payroll system. As a former employee, you should still have access to your Workday account - the login credentials are typically your employee ID and either your SSN or a password you set up during onboarding. Try going to myworkday.com and looking for The Cheesecake Factory's specific login portal. If you can't remember your login info, there should be a "Forgot Password" or "Account Recovery" option. You'll need your employee ID (which should be on any old paystub) and your SSN to reset access. If that doesn't work, call their corporate HR line at 1-818-871-3000 and ask to speak with someone about accessing your W-2 as a former employee. They deal with this situation constantly and should be able to help you get logged in within a few minutes. Don't let them brush you off - you have a legal right to that document! Also, just so you know for future reference, most large employers are required to make W-2s available electronically to former employees through the same system they used while employed. They just don't always make this clear when people quit.