Taxes.......I think my ex boss is trying to screw me and the government!

So the company I use to work for moved from NY to NJ end of May, 2010. I never worked one day in NJ yet when I get my W2 from them, I get 2, one for NY and one for NJ. The NY one is missing everything but my wages and personal info., state and local tax. The NJ one has 2 days pay and all my federal, ss, medicare tax withheld from what I made in NY and more NJ under other! I don't know what to do, who to ask what to do! This guy is a real a**hole, if this is a scam, it's one of many he has pulled on his employees!
Extremely frustrated

I have never dealt with state taxes so that might be a problem. But I don't think it matters which W-2 everything is reported on for federal taxes, as long as everything is reported in the correct amounts.

Originally Posted by Willowy

I have never dealt with state taxes so that might be a problem. But I don't think it matters which W-2 everything is reported on for federal taxes, as long as everything is reported in the correct amounts.

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But I can't send in the NJ form for NY, and I shouldn't have anything for NJ since I never worked there........

Yeha, like I said, I've never dealt with state taxes, so that could really be a problem, I don't know. It shouldn't be a problem with your federal taxes, though.

Is there an HR department you can call? If not (if it's a privately owned small business), call the boss directly and ask about it. If he won't help, you'll probably have to contact a tax professional.

Originally Posted by Willowy

Yeha, like I said, I've never dealt with state taxes, so that could really be a problem, I don't know. It shouldn't be a problem with your federal taxes, though.

Is there an HR department you can call? If not (if it's a privately owned small business), call the boss directly and ask about it. If he won't help, you'll probably have to contact a tax professional.

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Thank you for responding, I have been stressed about this for a couple of weeks. I keep pulling out all the papers, looking at them, and telling myself this is so not right . My friend also suggested calling them and requesting the proper paper work, but since I know they have screwed employees over in the past, and are currently involved in several law suits because of, I am assuming it is intentional. Your right, I need to call and atleast request the proper W2 forms..........

Call the employer and tell them that you received your tax forms, but they are incorrect and request that they reissue it correctly to reflect that all of your income was earned in New York because that is the only place that you ever worked.

Give them 30 days to reissue the correct statement. If they don't, then call the State Tax Department of New Jersey and New York and tell them what happened: That the company you worked for in New York, moved to New Jersey and that you only worked for them in New York, and that they issued you a tax receipt for the State of New Jersey. Provide each of the State Offices with copies of each of the tax receipts.

I remember some years ago I used to telephone solicit for an insulation company. My hours were fixed and I worked out of their office, using their telephone. Yet when it came time to give me a tax receipt, they refused. They claimed I was a private contractor. When I insisted I wasn't and demanded a tax statement, they fired me and refused to give me my final pay statement of earnings I had earned the prior 2 weeks.

I contacted the tax office, explained the situation. They asked if my hours were set by me (they weren't), if I worked from home if I wanted to (I couldn't and didn't). According to them I did not meet the requirements of being a "private contractor", and that I should be getting a tax receipt.

The whole situation turned into a whole big mess. It was so long ago I can't recall all of the details, but I remember that I ended up taking them to small claims court, and won. He appealed it and lost, and reappealed it again. And some time later, when I called the courts to make an inquiry about something I needed for my part to prepare for the reappeal, they had conveniently "lost" the entire case/claim. As a result I never got the money they owed to me from my prior 2 weeks work. The interesting thing is that one of his in-laws worked for the courts. And I'm sure had something to do with everything having gone missing.

The guy ended up closing up his business because while you can muck with the court system if you have someone on the inside, you sure can't do anything when you have the Provincial and Federal governments breathing down your neck. So he got his just desserts, even though it cost me 2 weeks wages.

So far as my own tax return went, the government helped me with my tax return that year and averaged out the deductions etc.

I live on the border of 2 states and have worked for companies where I actually went to offices in both states. They always taxed me at my home office location. At a city level the rules were a little different - one of the cities taxed you if you worked there. Since my office was in that city, I could file exceptions to taxes for the days I worked in adjacent cities. At the state level, I was always the same. At the city level, the taxes were different.

I also suggest that you call HR and ask them to change the W2 to have you listed under a single state.

I just spoke with someone who I worked with and we left the company the same day! She received the same doubled W2 forms, so now I know it wasn't a mistake.........