Which form provides a summary of an employee's annual wages and taxes for the year?

• A. W-4
• B. I-9
• C. W-2
• D. 1040

Answer: (C)

Year-end wage and tax reporting is about identifying the form that shows how much you earned in a year and how much tax was taken out. The form that does this is the W-2. Employers issue a W-2 to each employee after the year ends, and it lists total wages (Box 1) and federal income tax withheld (Box 2), plus other withholdings like Social Security and Medicare. You use the W-2 when you file your personal income tax return. The W-4 is the form you fill out to tell your employer how much tax to withhold from each paycheck, not a year-end summary. The I-9 verifies your eligibility to work in the U.S., and the 1040 is the tax return you file to report income and calculate tax owed (often using the W-2 information).