Really? You can pretty much always FOIA any records about yourself.

In the case of W-2 data, seems like you can get it as part of a transcript if you want it:

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/transcript-types-and-ways-to...

Of course, you also get a copy of the same W-2 directly, but it doesn't seem true that "they won't give it to you" if you ask them.

Agreed, but one ought to be able to FOIA the entire pipeline that handles the data. This is especially so given that the results of the pipeline are used for tax enforcement and litigation.