did my employer break any federal laws?

[doc1876]

So, I found out that my employer has been holding my federal taxes at 6 dependents when I did not claim that on my W4. I claimed single + $25. Now I have to come up with $2500 before uncle sam has his way with me, so I want to know is there a law that they broke when they took it on themselves to change my deductions?
I have been trying to find some kind of IRS contact, but all you get is recordings and "that is not a valid ........"

[ShooterAZ]

Not sure if they broke any laws or not, if it was an unintentional mistake? They should still bear the responsibility of helping you get it straightened out.

[JSnover]

Anyone who does tax prep for a living should be able to help.

[southpaw]

I don't know but I always claim all my deductions right from the start. I put the extra money to the side for the end of the year. I refuse to give uncle sam a free loan. I would rather pay in.

Jerry Jr.

[DoubleAdobe]

This happened to me one year, and I worked for the state of AZ. I went round and round, and remember distinctly filling out the withholding similar to what you did.
Boy, was I surprised, and what I found out is that no one cared, I still owed it, and made arrangements to pay it out over time.
Sorry, it is painful but I think that will be the bottom line.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I don't know but I always claim all my deductions right from the start. I put the extra money to the side for the end of the year. I refuse to give uncle sam a free loan. I would rather pay in.

Jerry Jr.

What Jerry Jr said.

And, I always keep a copy of my W-4 that I send in, and check out the paycheck stubs. It is seldom intentional or malicious. I make mistakes too.

[TXGunNut]

I don't know but I always claim all my deductions right from the start. I put the extra money to the side for the end of the year. I refuse to give uncle sam a free loan. I would rather pay in.

Jerry Jr.

Writing Uncle Sugar a check ticks me off more than letting him sit on my money all year. I'm cranky for 2-3 days after writing "IRS" on the top line of a check. I generally get a little back and that's lots of fun until I consider how much I paid in.

[Moonie]

Your employer did not benefit from it so why would they do it intentionally? You are the only one that benefited from it.

[Bzcraig]

Don't know if any laws were broken but I too don't think it would have been intentional as your employer has absolutely nothing to gain by changing your deductions. If your pay rate didn't change you should have seen a fairly decent increase in your net pay. As an employer, W4 remain the same over the course of employment unless the employee asks to make a change. Though I could see a mistake being made if another employee asked for a change and they changed yours in error. Good luck in getting this resolved!

[runfiverun]

the way my job works out I pay multiple states income tax unfortunately when I am doing that I am not paying my home state.
when it's all said and done I usually get back about 1/3 from them what I owe Idaho, I try to apply their returns but I can only apply so much from each state and have to take a refund.
on top of that I have to pay the tax guy $50.00 to fill out and file each states tax form.
one year I was owed the whole $2.00 I had paid into one state, but had to pay the $50.00 to fill out the paperwork [so I could show it on my federal return] otherwise there would be a penalty.....for them owing me money.

I think there must be a team of Helen Keller's that write these stupid tax codes.

[doc1876]

I know that I "benefited", and there is no money lost or stolen,however I would have liked to have known, and I would have been prepared. What I want to know is that because I filled out a federal form, and it was not followed as agreed upon by me and the feds, did the employer break a rule by not respecting the requested guideline.

[osteodoc08]

Fix it for this year, pay your dues, and move on with life.

Taxes are fines for doing what's right. Fines are taxes for doing what's wrong.

[MaryB]

Only crime would be if they changed it, kept withholding at the normal rate but paid as 6 to the feds and pocketed the balance. I had a boss do that... last I heard a former coworker caught up with him in the Bahamas and took revenge. He was found floating in the bay one morning...

[FISH4BUGS]

Writing Uncle Sugar a check ticks me off more than letting him sit on my money all year. I'm cranky for 2-3 days after writing "IRS" on the top line of a check. I generally get a little back and that's lots of fun until I consider how much I paid in.

Try being self employed. If you get a check for $5000, it isn't all yours. You need to pay Uncle Sam out of your own pocket every quarter, PLUS any shortfall at tax time.
You want to turn conservative? Just be self employed for while. You will learn to really dislike the IRS.

[freebullet]

try being self employed. If you get a check for $5000, it isn't all yours. You need to pay uncle sam out of your own pocket every quarter, plus any shortfall at tax time.
You want to turn conservative? Just be self employed for while. You will learn to really dislike the irs.

amen!!!

Ahh the simple days when the employer dealt with a small portion of government involvement in their cut of your life.
Sometimes I have a moment to ponder about those days but it's to early to break out the whisky.

[cajun shooter]

It could of really been a very intentional thing as I had a very similar incident happen to me back in the 70's. I was a co-manager at a large gun store and worked an average of a 60 hour week. The owner had the money given to him by his parents to open the store and was a very "It's all for me person".
My wife was about to give birth to our son and I went in to speak to him about a raise as I was having trouble making ends meet. I was already casting bullets after hours and on my one day off to increase my weekly pay.
When I had my FTF talk and told him that I was going to have to leave his employ and go back to the South Louisiana construction fields to do better for my family, he agreed to a very good raise for me. I was ecstatic and feeling like I had a future at the store. That lasted until tax time rolled around and I went to a tax office to do my taxes. It seemed that this underhanded person had went to bookkeeping and put me down for 7 dependents instead of the one I claimed every year so that I always had a small refund.
Our checks were always just an amount paid and did not have the break down stub attached as most other businesses paid with. He used the tax withholding tables to make it appear I had received a nice raise but the truth was I ended up having to take out a bank loan to pay my tax bill.
I went to bookkeeping and asked the Lady in charge how such a large mistake had taken place and darn near cost me everything I had. She informed me what the owner had done and he told her that if she said anything, she was fired. I wanted to strangle the SOB. I went into his office and threw my store keys at him and walked out.
I went back to working with my dad in the bricklaying trade. The blank-Blank- blank person even had the nerve to find me on my construction job by asking my wife where I worked and tried to get me to return. He gave me a huge box of steaks and a Tonka truck for my son. I told him thanks but no thanks.
I hope your job did not have a similar thing take place. Those that said an employer has nothing to gain are wrong as I was a case in point. Later David

[buckwheatpaul]

Ask for a reiew of the actual w-4 you filled out...if they made the error...then they should help you.....the solution is in the actual document.....hope this helps.

[phaessler]

+1 buckwheatpaul, the employee is responsible for completing and monitoring his/her W4 status. An employer is not allowed to intervene in your decision regarding withholding of taxes. Trust no-one.

[doc1876]

Buckewheet, I did get it, which is why I know I am in the right, however as I see here, what I feared is indeed true. There is nothing I can do.
Thanks guys, I was just wanting some restitution for being abused.
Cajun, I won't loose everything, as I have options, but I feel that way. Yes I am feeling the way you did about them, unfortunately today, I don't have many options here. I have been self employed, and it was not easy making things work out, which is why I went back to work for someone else.
Thanks again, I knew I could rely on the people here.
Doc

[gmsharps]

That's a good reason to look at your pay slips from time to time. You should be able to know from your average salary and be able to calculate about how much your tax liability would be and make sure you have enough deductions to make it work for you. It's not the employer's responsibility to know what you would owe.

gmsharps

[jonp]

Last year a former employer did not with hold anything from my check in the way of taxes even though I filled out a W4. They said that since I split my jobs between one that paid one way and one that paid by the hour and got separate checks they couldn't figure out how to do it. We went around for several weeks on this before I finally called the company VP and told her what was going on and if taxes were not withheld by the next week I'd let the state tax dept inquire about what was going on as I had a small suspicion federal or state taxes on this were not being paid by the company. Funny thing was that after 2 months of telling me they couldn't figure out what to do in less than 7 days they figured out how to do it.

It's up to you to monitor your paycheck every week and make sure you are being paid correctly and that the withholdings are correct. Your company is not going to do it for you.

[MrWolf]

The employer's tax obligation has no bearing on the number of dependents you claim. Only your Federal/State income tax is impacted by what you claim.

[popper]

You owe, you owe, it's off to work you go. It's up to you to correct any mistakes, plus penalties for underpayment. Same with the bank fine print - you are responsible for reporting errors.

[white eagle]

I don't know but I always claim all my deductions right from the start. I put the extra money to the side for the end of the year. I refuse to give uncle sam a free loan. I would rather pay in.

Jerry Jr.

+1
I do not believe that any tax laws were broken
from what I read that as long as you do your taxes and pay in if you have to you are golden
but let your tax prep know what has happened
more dependents mean more of my money in my pocket not for the Obama care

[merlin101]

I know that I "benefited", and there is no money lost or stolen,however I would have liked to have known, and I would have been prepared. What I want to know is that because I filled out a federal form, and it was not followed as agreed upon by me and the feds, did the employer break a rule by not respecting the requested guideline.

Just go into your company's HR office and ask to see your old W-4, that will solve the mystery.

[scb]

Sorry to hear about your predicament but, I don't know how you get paid (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) but if you were being paid weekly your check would have had at least $73.00 more than it should have had in it. I'd have noticed that. 2500/52= $48.00+ the extra $25.00. Again sorry but you can not trust ANYONE to do what they've been told, especially when it comes to payroll.

[doc1876]

yea, the problem really starts with the fine print, and being older, and not seeing that well, it just seems like something more to try to do when busy, so I didn't.......yup, my fault.

[TXGunNut]

Try being self employed. If you get a check for $5000, it isn't all yours. You need to pay Uncle Sam out of your own pocket every quarter, PLUS any shortfall at tax time.
You want to turn conservative? Just be self employed for while. You will learn to really dislike the IRS.

I couldn't be self employed, I had a good look at the operations of a close friend who was for most of his life. His highest paid employee was Uncle Sugar and he only showed up to cause trouble.

[MaryB]

I am retired/self employed. I do not show a profit yet though so not taxes. If I have a profit I stack extra materials for jobs so I have it.