How do I retrieve old W2s from previous employers for back tax filing?

You've got several options for retrieving old W2s! The IRS transcripts you already accessed are a great start, even with the encrypted EINs. For the employers you can't remember, try checking your email for any onboarding documents or pay stubs that might mention company names. Also check your bank statements from those years - deposits might help you identify forgotten employers. The Social Security Administration (SSA) keeps a complete record of your work history with all employers. You can request a "Detailed Earnings Information" report from them which will show all employers who reported your wages. This costs about $92 but gives you everything you need including the employer names and EINs. If you know the years but not the employers, you can file Form 4506-T with the IRS requesting "Wage and Income Transcripts" which will show the actual W2 information.

After struggling with a similar situation last year, I found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to be incredibly helpful! I had accessed my transcripts like you did, but couldn't make sense of all the encrypted info. Their system helped decode my tax documents and identified all my previous employers from the partial information available on my transcripts. The tool analyzed my transcript data and was able to match the encrypted EINs with actual employer names by cross-referencing with their database. It even organized everything by tax year which made it super easy to file my back taxes. They have a feature specifically for reconstructing employment history when you're missing documentation.

I wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here. I was really doubtful it would work, but I was desperate to figure out my employment history. It actually worked surprisingly well! I uploaded my IRS transcript PDFs and within about 20 minutes, they had identified 5 of my 6 previous employers, even with those partially redacted EINs. The system matched the wage amounts and partial EIN data with employer information in their database. For the one employer they couldn't automatically identify, they provided a short questionnaire about the industry and location, which helped narrow it down. I was able to get all the information I needed to file my back taxes without having to wait weeks for the SSA report.

If you're having trouble reaching the IRS to get more help with those transcripts, I'd recommend using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I spent DAYS trying to talk to someone at the IRS about getting complete W2 information, but kept getting disconnected or waiting for hours. Claimyr got me connected to an actual IRS representative in about 20 minutes who was able to provide more details about my wage information that wasn't showing correctly in the online transcripts. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The IRS agent I spoke with was able to read off the actual employer names that matched the encrypted EINs on my transcript.

I need to apologize for my skepticism about Claimyr. After posting that comment, I decided to try it since I was desperate to resolve an issue with some missing W2s from 2021. It actually worked exactly as described. I was connected to an IRS agent in about 25 minutes (they estimated 30). The agent was able to see all my employer information including the full company names that were encrypted on my transcript. They even offered to mail me complete wage and income transcripts with the unredacted information, which solved my problem. I'm still somewhat shocked at how well it worked after spending weeks trying to get through on my own.

Another option nobody's mentioned is contacting your state's unemployment office. I went through this last year and discovered that because employers report wage data to state unemployment agencies, they often have records of all your past employers. In my state, I was able to create an online account and view my complete employment history, including company names and dates.

Has anyone tried just using previous years' tax software accounts? I realized that even though I never filed, I had started the process in TurboTax a couple times and it had saved some of my W2 info from employers where I had entered it but never completed filing.

Don't panic about the penalties - the IRS is generally understanding about first-time filers, especially when you're making a good faith effort to catch up. You might qualify for first-time penalty abatement if you do end up owing anything. For tracking down those mystery employers, try checking your old resumes or LinkedIn profile - sometimes we forget about short-term jobs but they're still listed there. Also, if you have any old performance reviews, reference letters, or even business cards tucked away somewhere, those could help jog your memory. One thing that worked for me was going through old social media posts from those years - I found posts about new jobs, complaining about work, etc. that reminded me of places I'd completely forgotten about. Sometimes we document our lives without realizing it could be useful later! The unemployment office suggestion is solid too - that's probably your fastest free option while you're waiting on other documentation.

I need 2021-2023