My employer listed wrong income on my W2 - what do I do with tax deadline coming up?

You've got options, so don't panic! This happens more frequently than you'd think. First, definitely continue pushing your employer to issue a corrected W2 (called a W-2c). While waiting, you should file for an extension using Form 4868 - this gives you until October 15th to file your actual return, though you still need to pay any estimated taxes by the original deadline. If you have your final paystub from December, you can use those numbers to calculate what your W2 should actually show. This can help you determine if you'll owe money or get a refund, so you can decide whether to pay anything with your extension. Another option: you can file Form 4852 (Substitute for W-2) along with your tax return, where you'll report the correct income amounts. You'll need to explain the situation and how you calculated the correct numbers. Just be aware that filing with Form 4852 might delay processing of your return. Don't file with knowingly incorrect information - that could cause bigger headaches later.

This happened to me last tax season and I found a solution through taxr.ai that really helped. I was in the same boat - my W2 showed about $5,300 more than I actually earned and my company was being slow to fix it. I was stressing about filing with incorrect info or rushing an extension when a friend suggested I try https://taxr.ai to analyze my situation. They helped me document the discrepancy properly by comparing my paystubs to the W2, then generated the correct Form 4852 (substitute W2) for me with all the right explanations for the IRS. The best part was they showed me exactly how to explain everything properly so the IRS wouldn't flag my return for audit. Made the whole process way less stressful than I expected.

Just wanted to update - I decided to try taxr.ai after my comment above, and it was exactly what I needed. My situation was even more complicated because my employer had also messed up my state withholding amounts on top of the income error. The service walked me through uploading my final paystubs and incorrect W2, then helped me properly document all the discrepancies. They generated a perfectly formatted Form 4852 with detailed explanations that looked way more professional than anything I could have done myself. What surprised me was how they spotted another issue I hadn't even noticed with my retirement contributions that would have caused problems. Ended up filing on time with their documentation and just got confirmation my return was accepted!

If you're still struggling to get your employer to respond about the W2 correction, Claimyr helped me get through to the IRS directly about a similar issue last year. I spent days trying to get someone on the phone at the IRS to ask about my options with an incorrect W2. After waiting on hold for hours across multiple days, I found https://claimyr.com and watched their demo at https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. They basically wait on hold with the IRS for you, then call you when an agent is about to pick up. Saved me literally hours of hold music and frustration. The IRS agent I spoke with gave me specific guidance on my situation that my employer couldn't ignore. When I forwarded those instructions to HR, they suddenly got very responsive about issuing my W-2c.

I need to eat my words from my skeptical comment above. After posting that, I was desperate enough to try Claimyr for my identity verification issue that was holding up my refund from last year. I honestly expected it to be a waste of money, but about 2 hours after signing up, I got the call connecting me to an actual IRS agent. I nearly fell out of my chair! The agent was able to verify my identity on the spot and release my refund which had been held up for months. For the original poster's W2 issue - the agent I spoke with explained that if your employer doesn't provide a corrected W2 in time, you should file Form 4852 with your best documentation (paystubs, etc.) showing your actual income. They said this is a common issue they deal with and having good documentation is the key.

Have you checked if the error is just in box 1 (federal wages) or if it's in box 3 and 5 (social security and medicare wages) too? This matters because sometimes the difference is just due to pre-tax deductions like health insurance or 401k which reduce your taxable wages but not your social security wages. If you look at your last paystub of the year, there should be a YTD (year-to-date) amount that you can compare with your W2. Sometimes what looks like an error is actually correct once you account for all the different types of income.

Did you check if your employer included any taxable fringe benefits in that amount? Things like personal use of a company car, certain bonuses, or even tuition reimbursement above $5,250 would be added to your Box 1 amount but wouldn't show up in your normal paychecks. Just a thought before you go through all the trouble of getting a corrected W2!