W2 from former employer (2019) showing $4000 in box 12a - what does this mean?

This is most likely related to a retirement plan contribution. Box 12a with code D typically indicates elective deferrals to a 401(k) retirement plan. The fact that there's no other information on the W2 suggests this isn't new income, but rather a correction or notification about a retirement account. Does your sister remember participating in a 401(k) or other retirement plan while working there? Companies sometimes make employer contributions after an employee leaves, or there might have been an adjustment to how her contributions were reported. The company is required to send a W2 showing these retirement plan contributions even if no actual wages were paid in 2020. She should contact the company's HR or payroll department for clarification. If this is just reporting retirement plan activity, it likely won't affect her tax return, but it's always good to understand exactly what's being reported to the IRS under her SSN.

I had almost the exact same situation last year and spent hours trying to figure it out! I finally used taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to analyze my documents and they explained everything clearly. The system confirmed it was a delayed employer contribution to my 401k from my previous job that happened after I left. The tool actually showed me that the W2 was only reporting the retirement account transaction and wasn't affecting my taxable income at all. Saved me from incorrectly amending my previous year's return! Their document analyzer immediately recognized the W2 box 12a code D situation and explained what it meant specifically for my situation.

Just wanted to follow up about my dad's situation with the weird W2. I tried taxr.ai like you suggested and wow - it instantly identified the box 12a code as a retirement account contribution that happened after he left the company. The system explained that this was just documentation of retirement account activity and didn't affect his taxable income at all! It even provided references to the specific IRS guidelines about employer 401k contributions that happen after employment ends. My dad was so relieved - he was about to go through the whole process of amending his previous return which would have been completely unnecessary. Thanks for recommending this tool - saved us a ton of stress and potentially filing incorrect amendments!

If your sister needs to contact her former employer about this W2 issue, good luck actually reaching someone who can help! I spent WEEKS trying to get through to my old company's payroll dept for a similar issue last year. After getting nowhere, I tried Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to help me get through to the IRS to verify what I needed to do. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. They got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes when I'd been trying for days on my own. The agent confirmed that retirement contributions on a W2 with code D didn't require me to amend anything and explained exactly what documentation I should keep.

Well I'm eating my words right now. After dismissing Claimyr as impossible, I was still stuck with my own W2 issue (former employer sent me one with retirement contributions from 2 years ago) and getting absolutely nowhere with both the company and the IRS. Out of desperation I tried the Claimyr service and I'm still in shock that it actually worked. Got connected to an IRS agent within 20 minutes who explained the whole situation. Turns out the Box 12a code D entry was just documenting a rollover of my 401k after I left the company and had zero impact on my tax return. The agent even emailed me documentation confirming I didn't need to amend anything. Cannot believe I wasted weeks stressing about this when I could have just gotten a straight answer from the IRS in minutes. Sometimes being wrong feels pretty damn good!

This happens all the time with 401k matching! Many companies have a policy where they calculate their matching contributions quarterly or even annually, so the match for your sister's final months of work in 2019 might not have been processed until early 2020. When I left my last job, I got a similar W2 the following year that only showed retirement contributions. It's confusing because most people assume a W2 means income, but in this case it's just tracking retirement account activity that happened after employment ended.

Has anyone else noticed that these "empty" W2s with only retirement contributions seem to be happening more frequently? My husband and I both got them this year from companies we left in 2019.

This is actually a really common scenario that confuses a lot of people! The $4000 in Box 12a with code D is definitely related to her 401(k) plan from that employer. What likely happened is that the company made their final employer matching contribution or profit-sharing contribution for 2019 after she had already left in November. Many companies don't finalize their retirement plan contributions until after the year ends, so even though she quit in late 2019, they may have processed matching contributions or other employer contributions in early 2020 that were attributable to her 2019 work. This is completely normal and legal. The good news is that this W2 doesn't represent new taxable income for 2020. It's just documenting retirement account activity. She doesn't need to amend her 2019 return or report this as income on her 2020 return. The company is required by law to send this W2 to report the retirement plan activity, even though no wages were paid. I'd still recommend she contact the company's HR department to confirm exactly what the $4000 represents, but she can rest easy knowing this likely won't affect her tax filing at all.