Is this the right W-2?
Drop a W-2 and pick the tax year you asked for. The check reads in seconds whether the file is a W-2, whether it is legible, and whether it is the year you needed. Free, no account.
A W-2 from another year is named as such rather than passed as usable.
PDF, JPEG, PNG or HEIC, up to 10 MB and 5 pages. On a phone, a photo of the W-2 works. 3 checks a day, no account.
Tick the box above to start a check.
Need the W-2 from a client rather than from your own desktop? Open a DokuTrak request with the W-2 already on the list — they upload it through one link, no account.
Send via DokuTrakWhat the check reads on a W-2
The W-2 check is built around the mistake that costs the most time in tax season: a genuine W-2 from the wrong year. Pick the tax year you asked the client for, and the review compares it with the year printed on the form. When the two differ, the answer is "wrong year", not "usable".
It recognizes the form under its official names, Form W-2 and Wage and Tax Statement. An IRS wage and income transcript is a different document to the check, even though it reports the same wages, so a transcript sent in place of the form is named as the wrong type.
Unlike the pay stub and bank statement checks, this one keeps no list of required boxes. What a W-2 must show depends on the year and the filer, so the check reads the form and its year and makes no claim about individual boxes.
What it catches on a W-2
- Last year's W-2 sent for this year's return, when you pick the year.
- A 1099 from a contract job sent in place of the W-2.
- A December pay stub sent because it shows the year's totals.
- An IRS wage and income transcript sent instead of the form.
- A photo of the form taken at an angle, or too blurred to read the year.
How to read a W-2, box by box
To read a W-2, start with who and when: the employee (boxes a, e and f), the employer (boxes b and c), and the tax year printed at the bottom. Then come a year of pay and withholding. Federal amounts are in boxes 1 to 12, checkboxes in box 13, other employer notes in box 14, and state and local amounts in boxes 15 to 20. The IRS General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 define every box.
| Box | What it holds |
|---|---|
| a | Employee’s Social Security number, as shown on the Social Security card |
| b | Employer identification number (EIN), nine digits in the format 00-0000000 |
| c | Employer’s name, address and ZIP code |
| d | Control number, an optional reference the employer may leave blank |
| e, f | Employee’s name, as on the Social Security card, and address |
| 1 | Wages, tips, other compensation: taxable pay for federal income tax |
| 2 | Federal income tax withheld |
| 3 | Social Security wages, up to the year’s wage base |
| 4 | Social Security tax withheld |
| 5 | Medicare wages and tips, with no wage base limit |
| 6 | Medicare tax withheld |
| 7 | Social Security tips |
| 8 | Allocated tips |
| 9 | No entry. The box is left blank |
| 10 | Dependent care benefits |
| 11 | Nonqualified plans |
| 12a–12d | Coded items, such as D for 401(k) elective deferrals and DD for the cost of employer-sponsored health coverage |
| 13 | Checkboxes: statutory employee, retirement plan, third-party sick pay |
| 14 | Other information the employer labels, such as union dues or state disability tax. On the 2026 form it becomes 14a “Other” and 14b “Treasury Tipped Occupation Code(s)” |
| 15–20 | State, employer’s state ID, state wages and tax, local wages and tax, locality name |
An employee receives three copies:
- Copy B is filed with the federal return.
- Copy C is for the employee’s records.
- Copy 2 is filed with a state, city or local return.
A document is still a W-2 whichever copy you hold. Employers must furnish these copies by early February: the dates are in the questions below.
Common W-2 errors, and two that only look like errors
The problems below fall into three groups:
- The wrong document: another year, a 1099, or a transcript.
- Identity details that do not match the Social Security card.
- Amounts that do not follow from the last pay stub.
Two things that look wrong usually are not: box 1 lower than boxes 3 and 5, and two W-2s from the same employer. The list below separates them from the real errors.
- Wrong tax year. A genuine W-2, but last year’s. The checker above flags this one when you pick the year you need. It also flags the wrong form in the next item.
- Wrong form. A 1099-NEC from a side contract, a December pay stub showing the year’s totals, or an IRS wage and income transcript. None of them is the employer’s Form W-2, and the document checker names each one as the wrong type.
- Name or SSN that does not match the card. The IRS instructions tell employers to use the name and number shown on the employee’s Social Security card. A misspelled last name or a transposed digit needs a correction.
- Box 3 above the wage base. Social Security wages and tips (boxes 3 and 7 together) cannot exceed 176,100 dollars for 2025 or 184,500 dollars for 2026. A higher figure is an error.
- Missing or wrong state boxes. When an employer reports wages for two states, for example after a move, each state gets its own line. One form holds two states and two localities. More than that takes a second W-2.
- Two W-2s from one employer. This is not always a mistake. Employers issue a second form when box 12 needs more than four codes or box 15 more than two states. Read both before you assume one duplicates the other.
- Box 1 lower than boxes 3 and 5. This is usually correct. Box 1 leaves out elective deferrals such as 401(k) contributions, while boxes 3 and 5 include them. Below the wage base, the gap usually equals the box 12 amounts coded D, E, F, G or S.
Once the employer finds an error, it issues a Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement. The W-2c is filed with the Social Security Administration and given to the employee. If you received a W-2c, use its corrected figures on your return, along with the unchanged figures from the original W-2.
How to verify a W-2 by hand
Verifying a W-2 by hand takes eight comparisons: the year, the identity boxes, then the money boxes against the last pay stub of the year and the payroll tax rates. When something does not reconcile, the employer corrects it with a Form W-2c. The IRS steps in only when the employer does not.
- Read the year printed at the bottom of the form. It must be the tax year of the return you are preparing.
- Match box a and box e to the Social Security card, digit for digit and letter for letter, suffix included.
- Check box b. The EIN has nine digits (00-0000000). It usually matches the EIN on earlier W-2s from the same employer. A change after a merger or reorganization can be legitimate, but it is worth a question.
- Compare boxes 1, 3 and 5 with the year-to-date figures on the last pay stub of the year. Box 5 is usually closest to gross pay. Box 1 is lower by the pre-tax deductions. Our pay stub checker reads that stub if it came as a photo.
- Recompute box 4. It should be 6.2% of boxes 3 and 7 combined, up to 10,918.20 dollars for 2025 or 11,439 dollars for 2026.
- Recompute box 6. It should be 1.45% of box 5. On wages above 200,000 dollars in the calendar year, the employer also withholds a 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax, so box 6 runs higher.
- Read every box 12 code. Codes D, E, F, G and S (elective deferrals to 401(k), 403(b) and similar plans) usually account for the gap between box 1 and box 3. Code DD is information only and is not taxable.
- Check boxes 15 to 17 for each state the employer withheld tax for, with the employer’s state ID. A state you worked in but do not see there is worth asking about.
If something is wrong, ask the employer for a Form W-2c first. IRS Tax Topic 154 says to contact the employer if a W-2 is missing or incorrect. If the missing or corrected W-2 has not arrived by the end of February, you can call the IRS at 800-829-1040. The IRS then contacts the employer and sends you Form 4852, a substitute for Form W-2. If a corrected W-2 arrives after you file and differs from your figures, you amend with Form 1040-X.
Collecting W-2s from several clients? The same order works for every file. Our tax preparation document checklist lists what to ask for alongside the W-2, and the tax document checklist guide explains why each item matters.
What happens to the file
DokuTrak doesn’t store your file. It travels straight from your browser to the check, is held in memory while it is read, and is dropped when the answer comes back. It is scanned for malware on the way in, and nothing — not the file, not a detail read off it — is written to our storage or our logs. The page is sent to Cloudflare Workers AI to be read; what Cloudflare keeps is covered by its own terms, which our security page links.
Cloudflare Workers AI does the reading. It is the same review that runs inside DokuTrak, and it is the only AI vendor in the chain. Our privacy page names it too.
This is not a forgery detector. It reads what the page says — the document type, the legibility, the details present — never whether the page is genuine. A verdict here is a first pass to save you a look, not a judgement on the document or on the person who sent it.
What the answers mean
- Usable
- It reads as a W-2 and carries what one carries. You still look before you rely on it.
- Wrong type
- It is a document of another kind — a 1099, a pay stub, an IRS transcript. Ask again, naming the W-2.
- Unreadable
- Blurred, cropped or too dark to read. A flat scan or a straight-on daylight photo usually fixes it.
- Incomplete
- A W-2, but the review could not read it closely enough to call it complete. Unlike the other two checks this one names no missing field: what a W-2 must carry depends on the year and the filer, so the check does not claim a list.
- Wrong year
- A W-2, but for another tax year than the one you picked. Only answered when you pick a year — without one there is nothing to compare against.
- Not sure
- The review was not confident enough to say either way. Low confidence is reported as uncertainty rather than rounded to the nearest answer.
Questions
What does this W-2 checker actually check?
That the file really is a Form W-2 rather than a 1099 or a pay stub, that the page is legible, and that it reports the tax year you picked. It reads what the page says — it is not a forgery detector, and it checks no figure against the IRS.
Why does it ask me for the tax year?
Because a check that names no year cannot tell you the year is wrong. A W-2 is right in every other respect and still the wrong one, and without a year to compare against the review has nothing to say about it. Pick 2025 and it can answer that the file is a 2024 W-2 instead of shrugging. Without a year it still reads the form.
Do you keep the W-2 I upload?
No. DokuTrak doesn't store your file: we hold it in memory for the length of the check and write it nowhere — not to our storage, not to our logs, and no detail read off the page either. The page itself is sent to Cloudflare Workers AI, our AI subprocessor, to be read; what Cloudflare retains is governed by its own Workers AI terms rather than by a promise we make on its behalf. Our security page names the subprocessor and links the terms. The same holds for a W-2 as for anything else you drop here.
Which AI reads the file?
Cloudflare Workers AI, the same review DokuTrak runs inside the product. There is no other AI vendor in the chain, which is what lets us name the one that is.
Why did it answer "not sure"?
Because the review was not confident enough to say either way, and a low-confidence read is reported as uncertain rather than dressed up as an answer. AI flags; the reading is still yours.
What file types and sizes work?
PDF, JPEG, PNG and HEIC, up to 10 MB and 5 pages. On a phone, a photo of the W-2 taken straight on in daylight works as well as a scan.
Is this W-2 checker free, and does it work online?
Yes. It works online, on this page, with three free checks a day and no account. Pick the tax year you need, and the AI review suggests whether the file is a W-2, whether it is legible, and whether it is for that year. You still read the boxes yourself: the check reads no amount and compares nothing with the IRS.
How do I know if my W-2 is correct?
Start with the year and the identity boxes: your name and SSN must match your Social Security card. Then compare boxes 1, 3 and 5 with the year-to-date figures on your last pay stub. Check that box 4 is 6.2% of boxes 3 and 7, and that box 6 is at least 1.45% of box 5. If a figure does not reconcile, ask your employer.
What should I do if my W-2 is wrong?
Ask your employer to issue a Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, and to file it with the Social Security Administration. File your return with the corrected figures. If you still do not have the corrected form by the end of February, IRS Tax Topic 154 says you can call 800-829-1040. The IRS contacts the employer and sends you Form 4852 to use if needed.
When should I receive my W-2?
Employers must furnish Copies B, C and 2 by February 2, 2026 for tax year 2025, and by February 1, 2027 for tax year 2026. A form mailed by that date meets the rule, so allow a few days for delivery. If you left the job and ask for it, the employer must provide it within 30 days of your request or of your final paycheck, whichever is later.
Why is box 1 lower than box 3 or box 5?
Box 1 is the pay subject to federal income tax, and it leaves out elective deferrals such as 401(k) contributions. Boxes 3 and 5 are the pay subject to Social Security and Medicare tax, and they include those deferrals. Below the Social Security wage base, the difference usually equals the box 12 amounts coded D, E, F, G or S. It is normal, not an error.
Can I check W-2s a client has to send me?
Yes — that is the product rather than the tool. A DokuTrak request lists the document, the client uploads it through one link with no account, and the same review runs on what arrives. 14-day free trial, no card. Add one only to keep going.