How to file back taxes when missing W2 forms? Help needed

I'm in a bit of a bind trying to help my buddy catch up on his tax situation. He's applying for a state job, but they won't consider him until he gets current with the IRS. He's behind since 2020, and the main problem is that he's missing several W2s from that period. The frustrating part is that many of the companies he worked for have gone out of business, so he can't just contact them for copies. We managed to get an income statement from the IRS that shows his earnings, but it's missing crucial information like the employer EINs and complete company names. He's called the IRS multiple times but can never get through to a real person. At this point, he's just ready to file with whatever information he has and include the IRS income statement as backup, but I'm not sure if that's sufficient. Has anyone dealt with this situation before? What's the best approach to file back taxes when you're missing W2s from employers that no longer exist? Any advice would be super appreciated!

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18 comments

Diego Fernández

•8M

Based on your situation, your friend is on the right track. When W2s are missing and employers are no longer in business, the IRS Wage and Income Transcript (that income statement you mentioned) is actually the official backup you need. Your friend can file Form 4506-T to request a complete Wage and Income Transcript if he hasn't already. This will show all reported income from those years. While it might not have the complete employer information, it has enough for the IRS to process the return. When filing, he should use Form 1040 for each missing year and enter the information from the transcript. For any missing employer details, he can write "defunct employer" where the EIN would go and use whatever partial information is available for the employer name. The key is to report ALL the income shown on the transcript.

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Diego Fernández

•8M

Using "defunct employer" in place of an EIN won't trigger an audit by itself. The IRS already has the income records, and they're more concerned that all income is being reported correctly. What might trigger issues is if the income amounts don't match what's on their records. These back tax returns will need to be mailed in. Unfortunately, e-filing is only available for the current tax year and two years prior. For anything older than that, you'll need to print the forms, fill them out, and mail them to the IRS with any supporting documentation.

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Sean Fitzgerald

•8M

I went through something similar last year when I needed to file several years of back taxes. I tried everything your friend did but kept hitting walls. Then I discovered this service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that was a total game-changer for my missing W2 situation. Their system analyzed my wage transcripts from the IRS and helped me properly report everything even without the complete employer information. What I really appreciated was that they could extract the data from those hard-to-read IRS transcripts and organize it in a way that made filling out the 1040 forms much easier. They even helped identify potential deductions I was missing from those years.

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Sean Fitzgerald

•8M

They don't just read the transcript - they use AI to analyze it and extract all the income data, then organize it by employer (even partial info) to make filling out your forms easier. They don't file for you, but they give you everything prepared so you can file confidently. It was absolutely worth it for my situation. While there is a cost, it was way less than what tax professionals quoted me for multiple years of back taxes, and it saved me tons of time and stress. Plus, they helped identify deductions I would have missed on my own that actually saved me money in the end.

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MoonlightSonata

•8M

Just wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai after our conversation. I decided to give it a try for my cousin's similar situation with 3 years of unfiled taxes and missing W2s. The service was surprisingly straightforward - uploaded the wage transcripts we had from the IRS and within a day got back organized reports showing exactly what needed to go on each line of the 1040s, even with the partial employer information. What impressed me most was how they identified some education credits and a retirement contribution deduction from one of the years that wasn't obvious from just looking at the transcripts. We've already submitted the returns about two weeks ago and just got confirmation that two of them were processed. Definitely made the whole ordeal less stressful than I expected.

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Mateo Gonzalez

•8M

After reading through your situation, I think I can offer another solution that might help. I had a similar issue last year trying to get information for back taxes, and could NOT get through to the IRS no matter how many times I called. I finally used this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that actually gets the IRS to call YOU instead of you waiting on hold forever. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. I was super skeptical at first, but it worked amazingly well. Once I actually got through to an IRS agent, they were able to provide me with more detailed employer information that wasn't on my wage transcript, including some of the missing EINs. This made filing my back taxes much smoother since I had complete information.

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Mateo Gonzalez

•8M

The service basically holds your place in line with the IRS so you don't have to. It works by using their call system to navigate the IRS phone tree and wait on hold, then when an agent picks up, it calls you and connects you directly to that agent. No more waiting on hold for hours. I got a call back from the IRS in about 45 minutes, which was amazing considering I'd previously wasted entire afternoons on hold only to get disconnected. And yes, the agent was able to pull up more detailed records and provide the EINs for two of my previous employers. They can't always get every detail, but they definitely had more information than what showed on my wage transcript.

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Luca Ricci

•8M

I have to admit I was totally wrong about Claimyr. After seeing the responses here, I decided to try it yesterday because I was desperate to get some info about my 2019 missing W2s. I figured it would be another waste of money but I was at my wit's end. Set it up around 10am, and at 10:42am my phone rang with an actual IRS agent on the line! I nearly fell out of my chair. The agent was super helpful once I explained my situation with the missing employer info. She was able to give me the full company names and EINs for all three jobs I had that year. Now I can finally complete my back tax returns correctly. Just wanted to share since I was such a skeptic. Would have saved me months of frustration if I'd known about this sooner.

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Aisha Mohammed

•8M

Another option worth exploring is contacting your state's unemployment office. Sometimes they have employer information on file even when the IRS transcript is incomplete. I had to do this when filing back taxes from 2018, and the state labor department had the EINs for two companies that had gone bankrupt. Also, if your friend contributed to a 401k during that time, the plan administrator might have records with the employer information. Same goes for any health insurance he had through those employers - the insurance company may still have the employer EIN on file.

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Aisha Mohammed

•8M

I contacted the wage record unit within the state's Department of Labor. Most states have a division that handles wage reporting from employers for unemployment tax purposes. Just call the main unemployment office number and ask to be directed to whoever maintains employer wage records. For the health insurance angle, you'll want to contact the member services department and explain you need the employer information for tax purposes. Sometimes they'll need a written request, but in my experience, they were pretty helpful once I explained the situation.

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