LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Start by writing your former employer: they are required to furnish your W-2 by January 31, and most missing W-2s are just delayed mail. If the employer does not respond, write to the IRS with your employer's details and your own, and you can still file your return using your final pay stub plus Form 4852. This is general information, not tax advice.
Employers must furnish W-2s to employees by January 31, which is also the deadline for them to file the forms with the Social Security Administration. In practice, most "missing" W-2s are not missing at all. They were mailed to an old address, sat in a pile of unopened mail, or are sitting in the payroll portal the employee never logged into. Before you write anyone, check your last known address on file with the employer, look through your email for a digital copy, and log into any payroll system you used. Former employees often forget that companies like ADP and Paychex keep W-2s available online for years after you leave.
Keep it short and specific. A plain business letter works better than a form.
| Include | Example |
|---|---|
| Your full name and Social Security number | Needed to locate your records in their payroll system |
| Dates of employment | "Employed March 2024 through November 2025" |
| The tax year you need | "Tax year 2025" |
| Your current mailing address | Where the reissued W-2 should go |
| A deadline | "Please send it within two weeks of this letter" |
Send it to the payroll or HR department, not just your old manager. Managers leave; payroll keeps the records. If you know the company's employer identification number from an old pay stub, include it: it helps the IRS match records later if you have to escalate.
Then you go to the IRS, and you still have options. The IRS asks that you wait until mid-February before contacting them, because late January W-2s are common and most resolve on their own. After that, you can call or write the IRS with the employer's name, address, and EIN (if you have it), plus an estimate of your wages and withheld tax from your final pay stub. The IRS will send the employer a letter urging them to comply, and sends you Form 4852, the substitute for a missing W-2. Here is the part people do not expect: the IRS does not guarantee the employer will respond. Form 4852 exists precisely because sometimes they never do.
Yes. File with Form 4852 attached, using the wage and withholding figures from your final pay stub of the year. Your return is processed like any other; the IRS reconciles it against the W-2 the employer eventually files. If the W-2 shows up later and the numbers differ from what you estimated, you file an amended return with Form 1040-X. One caution: estimates on Form 4852 should come from real documents, your pay stubs, not from memory. If your estimate is far off, expect the IRS to notice when the employer's copy arrives.
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