For W-2s
Prove your wages without sharing your SSN.
A lender, landlord, or verification service asks for your W-2 — and gets your Social Security number, your employer’s EIN, and your home address. clean.ink finds those and truly removes them while you keep your name, employer, and wages, entirely in your browser, so the file never leaves this device.
Free on-screen preview · $6.59 once to download — unlimited clean exports · no account, no subscription
- 100% local
- Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.
- No upload
- Your W-2 is never transmitted, stored, or seen by us.
- True redaction
- Covered content is destroyed in the file, not hidden under a box.
How it works
Upload, auto-detect, keep what proves wages, export. Scanned paper W-2s work too, with on-device OCR.
- 01
Open your W-2 PDF
Drop the W-2 from your payroll portal or a scan of the paper form. It loads straight into your browser — nothing is uploaded.
- 02
Let it find the identifiers
clean.ink scans the text and flags your SSN, the employer's EIN, other tax identifiers, dollar amounts, and your address.
- 03
Keep what proves wages, hide the rest
Dismiss your name, employer, and Box 1 wages to keep them, then box out any bare box amounts or the control number the detector doesn't read as structured.
- 04
Export and send
Preview the redaction free — it stays on your device with a watermark. Unlock once to download a clean copy. The redaction is real — the text is gone, not hidden.
What it catches
clean.ink automatically flags the structured identifiers on a W-2 — your SSN, the employer’s EIN, and other tax IDs — and you review each before it’s redacted. Wage boxes often print bare numbers with no dollar sign, so check them and box out any the detector didn’t flag, which truly removes them.
Social Security numbers
Auto-found123-45-6789
Employer EIN
Auto-found12-3456789 · EIN 123456789
Other US tax identifiers
Auto-foundITIN, ATIN, PTIN, labeled IP PIN
Dollar amounts with a $ sign
Auto-found$48,500.00
Address, phone & email
Auto-found1450 Elm St · (415) 555-0148
Bare box amounts & control number
Draw a box48,500.00 · Box D — draw a box
Your W-2 never leaves this device
Every other PDF tool uploads your document to a server before it can do anything with it. clean.ink can’t — it has no server to upload to. The parsing, detection, redaction, and export all happen in your browser, with on-device OCR for scanned paper forms. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and still finish the job.
And the redaction is real. A black box you can copy the text out of isn’t redaction — that’s the common failure, including macOS Preview. clean.ink destroys the underlying content so it can’t be recovered.
The honest version
- Nothing is uploaded. The only network call clean.ink ever makes is to verify a payment — never your W-2.
- Bare wage-box amounts are a manual check. Amounts without a dollar sign or pay label aren’t auto-found — review the boxes and draw a box over any you want gone. Every box truly removes the text.
- Always preview before sharing. The free on-screen watermarked preview lets you confirm the result yourself before you trust it.
Pricing
$6.59 once. Redact forever.
Redact and preview your document free — the preview is watermarked and stays on this device, with no account. One payment of $6.59 removes the watermark from clean exports for this document and every document after it. No subscription, no per-document charge, no account.
Questions
- Is my W-2 uploaded anywhere?
- No. clean.ink never uploads your document. Opening the PDF, finding sensitive details, redacting, and exporting all happen locally in your browser. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and still redact and export — there is no server to send the file to.
- What does clean.ink detect automatically on a W-2?
- It automatically flags your Social Security number, the employer's EIN (both the hyphenated 12-3456789 form and a labeled compact form), other US tax identifiers like ITINs and labeled IRS Identity Protection PINs, dollar amounts with a dollar sign, street addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. You review each detection before it is redacted.
- Will it catch the wage amounts in the numbered boxes?
- Sometimes — check them. W-2 wage boxes often print bare numbers like 48,500.00 with no dollar sign or pay label, and the detector only auto-flags amounts that carry a dollar sign or a pay label. Draw a redaction box over any box amount it did not flag; the box truly removes the underlying text.
- Can I prove my wages but hide my SSN and the EIN?
- Yes. You stay in control of the final result. Dismiss the detections you want to keep — like your name, employer, and Box 1 wages — and redact the SSN, the EIN, your address, and anything else. Review the export before sharing to confirm exactly what is covered.
- Is the redaction permanent and safe to send to a lender or landlord?
- Yes. clean.ink destroys the underlying content in the exported file rather than drawing a black box over it. Unlike highlight-and-print or a black rectangle in a markup tool, the redacted text cannot be copied out or recovered. Always preview the export before you send it.
- How much does it cost, and do I need an account?
- No account and no subscription. Redacting and previewing are free and unlimited — the on-screen preview is watermarked and stays on your device. Downloading a clean file is a one-time $6.59 purchase for lifetime access — pay once, download forever, with every future document unlocked. Your W-2 still never leaves this device.