W-2 employee

Chiefly a US term. A W-2 employee is a worker treated as an employee for US tax purposes, with wages reported on Form W-2.

In the UK, do not write W-2. If someone is an employee for tax purposes, the employer operates PAYE and tells HMRC when they start or stop. UK legal status is still employee, worker, or self-employed — a different three-way split from the US W-2 / 1099 pair. IR35 is a tax-intermediary question, not a synonym for W-2.

Related: 1099 contractor, independent contractor.