To fill out a W-2, copy the employee’s name and Social Security number from their card, add your EIN and business address, then the year’s payroll totals: wages in boxes 1, 3 and 5, the taxes you withheld in boxes 2, 4 and 6, and state figures in boxes 15 to 17.
The hard part is that the three wage boxes rarely match. The worked example below is a restaurant server, because tips and a pre-tax health premium pull those boxes in different directions, and because tipped jobs get two new entries on the 2026 form.
What to gather before you start
- The employee’s legal name and Social Security number from their card, not from the job application, and their current mailing address.
- Your EIN, the business name and address the IRS has on file, and your state withholding account number.
- The year’s payroll totals: gross pay, tips the employee reported, pre-tax deductions such as health premiums or a 401(k), and every tax withheld. The last stub of the year holds most of them.
- Your four quarterly Form 941 returns, so the W-2 totals can be checked against what you already reported.
A filled-in W-2, box by box
This is the 2026 W-2 for an invented server at a small Oklahoma City restaurant. They are paid an hourly wage every two weeks, report their tips to the restaurant, and pay a health premium through a cafeteria plan. All 26 paychecks in the year were the same.
| Box | What goes in it | This W-2 |
|---|---|---|
| a. Employee's SSN | From the Social Security card. Employee copies may show only the last four digits; Copy A needs all nine. | XXX-XX-4417 |
| b. Employer identification number | Your EIN, never a Social Security number | 12-3456789 |
| c. Employer's name and address | The name and address on file with the IRS | Red Dirt Grill LLC, Oklahoma City, OK |
| d. Control number | Optional, for your own filing | Blank |
| e and f. Employee's name and address | Name exactly as on the Social Security card, then the current address | Server's name and home address |
| 1. Wages, tips, other compensation | Hourly pay $15,600.00 plus tips $13,520.00, less the $1,040.00 cafeteria plan premium | $28,080.00 |
| 2. Federal income tax withheld | What payroll actually withheld, from the last stub's year-to-date column | $1,198.08 |
| 3. Social security wages | Hourly pay less the premium; tips go in box 7 instead | $14,560.00 |
| 4. Social security tax withheld | Withheld on boxes 3 and 7 together | $1,740.96 |
| 5. Medicare wages and tips | Box 3 plus box 7 | $28,080.00 |
| 6. Medicare tax withheld | Withheld on box 5 | $407.16 |
| 7. Social security tips | Tips the server reported to you | $13,520.00 |
| 8. Allocated tips | Only large food or beverage establishments that allocate tips | Blank |
| 9 | Not used | Blank |
| 10. Dependent care benefits | Only with a dependent care program | Blank |
| 11. Nonqualified plans | Only with a nonqualified deferred compensation plan | Blank |
| 12. Codes | TP with the cash tips reported to you, new for 2026 | TP $13,520.00 |
| 13. Checkboxes | Retirement plan only if the employee was an active participant | None checked |
| 14a. Other | Optional notes, each one labeled | Health premium $1,040.00 |
| 14b. Treasury Tipped Occupation Code | Required whenever box 12 has code TP | 102 |
| 15. State and employer's state ID | Two-letter state and the ID the state gave you | OK and the withholding account number |
| 16. State wages | Wages taxable for the state; equal to box 1 here | $28,080.00 |
| 17. State income tax | Oklahoma tax actually withheld | $718.12 |
| 18 to 20. Local wages, tax and name | Only where a city or county income tax applies | Blank |
Boxes 2, 4, 6 and 17 report tax actually withheld from the employee’s pay during the year. Take them from payroll records rather than recalculating them from the rates, and make sure the four quarters of Form 941 add up to the same totals across all your employees.
Box e takes the name exactly as printed on the Social Security card, without titles such as Dr. An employee still waiting for a number gets Applied For on a paper Copy A. Employee copies may show just the last four digits; Copy A needs all nine.
How tips and a pre-tax premium split the wage boxes
Reported tips count toward income tax, and toward Social Security and Medicare once they reach $20 in a month. They go in box 1 and box 5, but for Social Security they go in box 7 instead of box 3, and those two boxes together stop at the $184,500 wage base.
The premium works the other way: it comes out of boxes 1, 3 and 5 alike, because a cafeteria plan premium is exempt from income tax, Social Security and Medicare. A 401(k) deferral would leave box 1 only; the year-end pay stub guide traces that case.
New for 2026: code TP and box 14b
The 2026 W-2 adds two entries for tipped workers. Box 12 code TP carries the year’s cash tips as the server reported them, and box 14b holds the Treasury Tipped Occupation Code for the job. Wait staff is code 102; the IRS publishes the full list of codes.
The entries exist because people in listed tipped jobs can now deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips on their own return, and the W-2 gives them the figure to start from. If any tips came from a job that is not on the IRS list, box 14b must include the code 000.
Overtime has a matching entry. Box 12 code TT reports qualified overtime, which is only the extra half of time-and-a-half paid to employees the Fair Labor Standards Act covers. Our guide on how to calculate overtime separates the regular part from the premium.
Box 12, box 13 and the boxes most employers leave empty
Box 12 takes a letter code and an amount, up to four per form; an employee who needs more gets a second W-2. Common codes are D for 401(k) deferrals and W for HSA contributions through payroll. Our list of W-2 box 12 codes explains each one.
Code DD, the cost of employer health coverage, is optional for an employer that filed fewer than 250 W-2s the year before, so the restaurant leaves it out.
In box 13, the retirement plan box is checked only if the employee was an active participant in a plan such as a 401(k) at any point in the year.
Box 8 is for allocated tips, which only large food or beverage establishments report, and the example restaurant does not allocate tips. Box 10 is for a dependent care program and box 11 for a nonqualified deferred compensation plan. Box 9 is not used.
State and local boxes
Boxes 15 to 17 repeat the wage and tax story for the state: the two-letter state code, your state ID, state wages and state tax withheld. States set their own wage rules, so box 16 can differ from box 1. In the example the two match; check your state’s rules before assuming yours will.
Boxes 18 to 20 are for city or county income tax and stay empty unless a locality taxes the employee’s pay. One form has room for two states and two localities; an employee with more gets a second W-2.
Which copy goes where, and the deadline
| Copy | Goes to | By |
|---|---|---|
| Copy A | Social Security Administration, with Form W-3 | February 1, 2027; e-file once you have 10 or more information returns in total |
| Copy 1 | State, city or local tax department | Each state's own deadline |
| Copies B, C and 2 | The employee | February 1, 2027, mailed to the last known address or electronically with consent |
| Copy D | Your payroll records | Keep it with the year's records |
Every 2026 W-2 is due by February 1, 2027, both to the employee and to the Social Security Administration. Once your W-2s and other information returns for the year reach 10 or more, counting W-2s and forms such as 1099s together, Copy A must be filed electronically.
An employee who leaves during the year can ask for their W-2 early. It is then due within 30 days of the request or of their final paycheck, whichever is later. The employee’s side of that rule is in how to get your W-2 from a previous employer.
Fixing a W-2 after it is filed
Use Form W-2c to correct wages, withholding, a name or a Social Security number on a filed W-2. Send it to the Social Security Administration with Form W-3c and give the employee their copies. A wrong address alone needs no W-2c: just issue a new W-2 with the right address.
To skip drawing the form by hand, our W-2 generator fills in employee Copies B, C and 2 from the same totals used above and masks the Social Security number down to its final four digits. Copy A still goes to the Social Security Administration through its online filing service or the official paper form.
Sources: the IRS 2026 W-2 and W-3 instructions, Treasury Tipped Occupation Codes, Form W-2 reporting of employer-sponsored health coverage plus Pub 15; 26 CFR 31.6051-1. The server’s year was run through our pay stub engine using federal and Oklahoma withholding tables. Checked October 28, 2026.
