What if my employer entered the wrong social security number on my w-2? (2024)

• TurboTax Free Edition Online

‎May 31, 20194:44 PM

you will want your employer to issue a corrected W-2, called a W-2c. This will take some time.

What to do?Enter the correct W-2 in place of the wrong one.

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

Just go back to the W-2 section - Wages & Income, I'll choose what I will work on, Wages & Salaries, W-2.

Edit the W-2 that is wrong and makethe necessary corrections.

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

Oh - you are correct, your SSN is auto-populated from your personal information so you really do not need to change anything - it is already correct on your return.The W-2C will be sent to the IRS so that it will match what is on return.I forgot that your SSN is not something that comes from the W-2 in the TurboTax interview (they do that precisely so you cannot get the wrong SSN entered on the W-2).

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

Your employer sends it.You don't send anything if you e-file.If you mail file you attach the W-2C to the tax return.

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

No, contact your employer for a corrected W-2.It will not sort out on it's own.The IRS gets copy of the W-2 and so does the Social Security Administration.Your SS tax payments will not get credited to you if the wrong SSN is on the W-2.

If your employer refuses to fix the error, thencontact the IRS for assistance.

See this IRS topic for an incorrect W-2 if your employer will not correct it.
<a href="http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc154.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc154.html</a>

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**

@ldeans2 - Yes, you should wait because when the IRS matches your SSN on the tax return with the W-2 information on your tax return, they will not find a matching W-2 filed by your employer which will put a hold on processing your tax return.Also any tax withholding and Social Security tax might have been paid to the wrong SSN and will not be credited to you.

You might need to file an extension so you do not need to file until October 15 (but if you have tax due you must still pay by April 17).

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**