Where to get my W2 after restaurant closed permanently

You should definitely report all income earned regardless of the amount. The $600 threshold is only for when a business is required to issue a 1099-NEC to independent contractors - it doesn't mean you don't have to report income below that amount. For W-2 employees, employers are required to provide a W-2 for any amount of wages. In your situation, try contacting the IRS directly. You can request a wage and income transcript which will show all reported income under your SSN. If the former employer reported your wages, it will show up there. You can request this online through the IRS website or by filing Form 4506-T. If the business filed for bankruptcy, you might also check with the bankruptcy trustee who may have access to payroll records. The state department of labor might also have information if the company filed unemployment insurance payments.

After I got audited last year over some missing income, I found this service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that has been super helpful with document issues. They can analyze your financial records to help identify exactly what income needs to be reported, especially in weird situations like yours where employers disappear. I uploaded my bank statements showing deposits from that time period, and they were able to create a detailed report showing all my income sources. This made it WAY easier to make sure I wasn't missing anything on my return. They can even help you figure out if your employer filed anything with the IRS that you don't know about.

Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai - I decided to try it after my earlier comment. I was surprised how easy it was! I uploaded my bank statements and they identified several deposits from a side gig I did that I had completely forgotten about. The report they created showed exactly what income I needed to report from each source. They even flagged a payment that might have been misclassified by the employer. Saved me a ton of stress trying to piece everything together myself.

If you need to talk to the IRS directly about this (which might be your best option), good luck getting through to them! I spent THREE DAYS trying to reach someone about a similar issue last month. Then my friend told me about https://claimyr.com - they have this service where they wait on hold with the IRS for you and call you back when an actual human picks up. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was at my wit's end trying to get my wage transcripts sorted out, and using this service saved me literally hours of hold time. When the IRS finally answered, I was able to explain my situation about missing W-2s and they walked me through the exact process for reporting income when you can't get the forms.

I need to eat my words about Claimyr. I decided to try it since I was getting desperate about a similar W-2 issue, and honestly it worked exactly as advertised. Got a call back about 90 minutes after I signed up, and there was an actual IRS agent on the line! They helped me request my wage transcripts and explained exactly how to report income when I couldn't get the actual W-2 form. Saved me from sitting by my phone on hold for who knows how long. Now I feel dumb for being so skeptical!

I had a similar situation last year. Another option is to file Form 4852 (Substitute for Form W-2) with your tax return. You'll need to estimate your earnings and withholdings as accurately as possible. If you have pay stubs, even just one, you can use that to calculate what you earned. Otherwise, try to remember how many hours you worked and your hourly rate to estimate your gross pay. If you're certain there were no withholdings taken out, you can put zeros for those fields.

Have you checked your bank account for deposits? If they paid you by direct deposit or you deposited checks, you should be able to see exactly how much you made there.