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united-states income-tax form-w-2

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March 20, 2025 Score: 12 Rep: 116,969 Quality: Expert Completeness: 20%

A W-2 is only required to be generated by an employer for an employee if they were paid more than $600 or if they had any tax withheld from their pay (or would have if the employee hadn’t claimed as many exemptions on their W-4).

Since you were not paid anything in 2024, you won’t be getting a W-2 for 2024.

Also, since you weren’t paid anything, there is no income to declare or tax withholding to claim for this job on your tax return.

If they end up paying you in 2025 for the work you did in 2024, you should get a 2025 W-2 next year. That income would go on your 2025 tax return, even though the work was performed in 2024.

March 20, 2025 Score: 2 Rep: 150,405 Quality: Low Completeness: 20%

Now that you have cleared up the fact that they never paid you, you need to contact either the Federal department of labor or the state department of labor. You were owed that money. Depending on how long it has been, and how sketchy the company was it is possible that you will never see the money.

There is a chance that they claimed they paid you, and that paperwork that was submitted to the state or federal government claims that you were paid.

If they never paid you and they never told the government they paid you, there will be no 2024 W-2. File your taxes as if there was zero income from that job.

March 20, 2025 Score: 1 Rep: 3,272 Quality: Low Completeness: 50%

You don't "include a W-2" on your taxes if you're filing electronically. There is no need to send the IRS your W-2 when filing electronically. However, if you're using a third party to file your taxes, they will likely be required to collect it from you.

Note that you need to accurately state all of the income you received last year, including from that employer (if you received any), so even if you file your taxes yourself, you'll probably need the information that the W-2 has on it. Not including all of your income is a violation.

I'm not 100% sure how you account for back pay that you're owed but have not yet received, so perhaps one of the answers could address that point.

TL;DR You don't need to send the IRS your W-2 (unless you're filing but mail), but you'll probably need it (or at least the information on it) in order to be able to file your taxes.