What if you didn’t receive or lost your Form W-2?

If you are requesting information to file an income tax return for the current tax year, request a copy of Form W-2 from your employer; we cannot provide you with information for the current tax year until April 19. Incomplete or inaccurate information on your return may cause a delay in processing. New York State and the IRS recommend you contact your employer to request your W-2.

Reminder: Employers have until January 31 to mail W-2s to their employees; you should wait until mid-February to receive your W-2 before requesting a copy from your employer.

Request a copy of your federal return or Form W-2

To get a copy of your federal return

There are several ways to request a copy of your previously filed federal tax return:

Contact your tax preparer.
Log in to the tax preparation software you used that year. (If you need assistance accessing the software you used, see E-file-approved commercial software: Personal income tax for contact information.)
Contact the IRS. (Visit Welcome to Get Transcript to learn about your options.)

To get copies of your current tax year federal Form W-2

If you lost or haven’t received your W-2 for the current tax year, you can:

contact your employer;
contact the Social Security Administration (SSA); or
visit the IRS at Transcript or copy of Form W-2 for information.
The IRS provides the following guidance on their website:

Wage and income transcripts are available for up to 10 years but current tax year information may not be complete until July. This transcript doesn't include any state or local tax information reported by your employer to SSA on Form W-2.

The quickest way to obtain a copy of your current year Form W-2 is through your employer. Your employer first submits Form W-2 to SSA; after SSA processes it, they transmit the federal tax information to the IRS.

Request a transcript of New York State wages and withholding

To get current tax year information

Your current tax year wage and withholding information is the information you need to report to New York State on the return you file this year. Your employer provides this information to us by filing a quarterly report with all the employees’ wage and withholding totals. These returns contain New York State information only.

Beginning April 19, if you've contacted your employer and were not able to obtain a copy of your W-2, we can provide you with a state wage and tax transcript that includes any information your employer has reported to us.

To get prior tax year information

You may request a transcript of your New York State wage and withholding totals for a previous year. Once we verify your identity, we will mail you a New York State wage and tax transcript for each employer who reported wage and tax information to us. The information will include the following:

tax year
employer’s name
employer’s federal employer identification number (EIN)
total of any New York State, New York City and Yonkers wages
total of any New York State, New York City and Yonkers withholding

Note: Wages and withholding are shown as total amounts and are not broken down by New York State, New York City or Yonkers.

To request a transcript, call our Personal Income Tax Information Center at 518-457-5181, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Have a tax return at hand so we can verify your identity for your protection.

Updated: July 9, 2024