Receiving a W-2 from a non-US employer, or one that has a foreign return address listed on it, can be a bit of a
problem; but fortunately there is also a choice of
solutions for you. Please allow us a moment to explain.
The
only truly critical information on your W-2 (that the IRS looks to see,
anyway) is your Social Security Number, your employer's 9-digit
Employer Identification Number (EIN), and your actual wage data. The
rest of the information shown there is not really critical, or
essential, to the accurate acceptance and processing of your tax
return. Yet, for reasons of completeness, the TurboTax program asks
users to fill in all of the fields from their W-2.
When there is a
foreign employer, or a foreign address involved, you can see that this
sometimes becomes an issue. As for solutions, then, you have a couple of them.
Does your employer have an office or divisional headquarters
anywhere in the United States? If so, then you can safely substitute
and use that address (even if something different is printed on your actual W-2
. . . just don't change the EIN). Alternatively, you can just input
your own street address, including state and ZIP code, into the W-2
address field. As long as your employer's EIN is correct, the IRS, and
anyone else such as a state department of revenue, will know what the
truth is.
Thus, either of those choices is an acceptable way to
enter your W-2, and file your tax return. The TurboTax program, the
IRS, and your state department of revenue (if applicable) will all
accept this; and the ZIP code will "match" that range of ZIP codes for your state.
One final word of caution is indicated, however. When you
have an issue such as this, please don't try to electronically "import"
your W-2; instead, simply enter your data manually, by hand. Doing so
will avoid the creation of any additional problems.
If you've already input a W-2, and received an error of some kind related to the ZIP code data, then it's a good idea to delete the entire W-2 entry in the program, and then re-enter the W-2 from scratch, this time with an "acceptable" (to the software and the IRS) ZIP code.
Thank you for asking this important question.
