W-2's

[pennypinch]

W-2's include very important information needed in order to file your taxes. If you earned any wages in 2008 from being employeed, your employer must mail you a W-2 statement by January 31 of 2009.

In box 1 of your W-2 is the amount of your total wages from 2008. This includes any income you have reported such as wages, salary, tips and bonuses.

Box 2 is any Federal Income Tax that was withheld throughout 2008. This is the portion of your paychecks that were withheld for Federal tax.

Box 3 is Social Security wages. This is the total amount of your income that was subject to Social Security taxation.

Box 4 is Social Security tax withheld. This is the amount of your wages that were withheld for Social Security tax.

Box 5 is Medicare Wages and Tips. This is the amount of your wages that are subject to Medicare taxes.

Box 6 is what amount of your wages was withheld for Medicare taxes.

Box 7 is Social Security Tips. This is the amount of tips you have reported for the year.

Box 8 is Allocated tips. This is the amount of tips that your employer thinks you have earned but have not reported.

Box 9 is Advanced EIC payment. This is the amount of any advance against your Earned Income Tax Credit paid to you by your employer.

Box 10 is Dependant Care benefits. This is any amounts reimbursed for dependent care expenses, or the dollar value of dependent care services provided by your employer.

Box 11 is non-qualified plans. This is any amounts given to you from your employer's non-qualified deferred compensation plan or non-government Section 457 pension plan.

Box 12 is Deferred Compensation and Other Compensation. This is any type of compensation and benefits.

Box 13 is check the box. Any of the three boxes may be checked if any of these situations apply to you.
1. You are a Statutory employee.
2. You participated in your employer's retirement plan.
3. You received third party sick pay.

Box 14 is Other tax information. This is any other tax such as union dues or health insurance premiums you paid.

Box 15 is State and State Employer's Identification. This is your employers state and their state tax i.d. number.

Box 16 is State wages. This is the total amount of taxable wages you earned in that state.

Box 17 is State income tax withheld. This is the amount of state tax that was withheld from your paychecks.

Box 18 is Local wages. This is the amount of wages you earned which are subject to local, city, or other state income taxes.

Box 19 is Local income tax withheld. This is the amount of taxes withheld from your paychecks for local, city or other state income taxes.

Box 20 is Locality name. This is a brief description of the local, city, or other state tax being paid. This may include a particular city, or may identify a state tax such as State Disability Insurance (SDI) payments.

[carol b]

We can be expecting these in the mail this month. I am anxiously awaiting mine. I file my income tax as soon as they are all in. This make getting my rebate early a possibility. If you wait until March 15th to file you may have to wait. I hate that.

[dimetime]

Some jobs do not send out W2's, in cases such as this what can be done to take care of your taxes? What information will be needed to file your taxes?

[moneysense]

If you are self employed, you will recieve a 1099 stating what your wages were.

You can also go online to check to see what deductions you can take as a self employeed person. For instance, if you were a truck driver, you can claim the cost of fuel, repairs, tires etc. Plus depreciation on your truck and trailer.

If you work from home, you can claim office space, depreciation on printers, computers, etc.

But make sure to check which deductions are legal for you to take.

[pennypinch]

If you are self-employed and recieve no W-2 or no 1099, you can claim your income by keeping your own records of the work you did and the amount you got paid.

As an example:

Say you do landscaping on your own and get paid by the job. Keep track of everything you do and the amount you make for each job throughout the year. Also, keep all reciepts for gas, equipment and so on. This can be used to file your income tax.

[dimetime]

Great thanks for the information. This sure will be comming in handy soon. Thankfully I have kept great track of all that I have done. This will hopefully make tax time this year quite easy!