How Many W2s Can You File on One Tax Return?

There is no limit to the number of W-2s you can include on a single tax return. It is common to receive multiple W-2 forms if you changed jobs, worked for several companies, or held more than one job simultaneously. You will receive a separate Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, from each employer. Each document reports your annual wages and the taxes withheld by that employer, and all of this income must be reported to the IRS on one tax return.

Gathering All Your W-2 Forms

Employers are legally required to send W-2 forms to their employees no later than January 31 each year. These forms are sent by mail to your last known address, but many companies now offer secure online portals for you to download a digital copy. Keeping your pay stubs throughout the year can serve as a temporary reference if a W-2 is delayed. If you have not received a W-2 by early February, contact the employer’s human resources or payroll department to verify your mailing address and request a duplicate copy. If you are unable to obtain the form from your employer by the end of February, you can contact the IRS, which can provide Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, allowing you to file using estimates from your final pay stubs.

Combining W-2 Information on Your Tax Return

You must aggregate the financial information from all your W-2s onto a single Form 1040. Tax software simplifies this process by providing prompts to add each W-2 individually. The software then automatically combines the totals and places them on the correct lines of your tax return. For those filing manually, you will need to sum the amounts from identical boxes on each W-2. For example, you will add together the figures from Box 1 (Wages, tips, other compensation) from all of your W-2s and enter the total on the wages line of your Form 1040, and do the same for Box 2 (Federal income tax withheld).

Tax Withholding Considerations

Having multiple jobs can lead to the under-withholding of taxes. This happens because each employer’s payroll system calculates your tax withholding based only on the income from that one job, without knowledge of your other earnings. This can place you in a lower tax bracket at each job than your total combined income would warrant, leading to an insufficient amount of tax being paid. This discrepancy can result in an unexpected tax bill when you file your return. To avoid this, you can adjust your tax withholding by using the IRS’s Tax Withholding Estimator tool or by submitting a new Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Certificate, to your employers to withhold an additional amount from each paycheck.