They paid us too much--tax question

JanH · #1 (**permalink**) 01-09-2007, 12:57 PM

Hubby's old company messed up and automatically deposited two checks that are not ours. We tried to contact them but everyone was out for the holidays and now they want their money back. We set it aside when we got it just in case, but my question is how are they going to get back the taxes they paid on our behalf? I don't want to return the money until I am assured that we won't be paying taxes on money we didn't get--will they issue a corrected W-2? How are they going to be able to do this. This will kill our taxes this year if they don't get it figured out.

Staceyy · #2 (**permalink**) 01-09-2007, 04:25 PM

I'd call the company and ask them the question, as no one else knows their accounting procedures.

fairy74 · #3 (**permalink**) 01-09-2007, 04:29 PM

The should issue a corrected W-2, this happened with my ex-husband once. On the W-2, the box for ammended W-2 will be checked. We submitted this to IRS with no problems.

JanH · #4 (**permalink**) 01-09-2007, 05:37 PM

Thanks guys! And thanks for the info Fairy74. I was worried!

MonkeyMama · #5 (**permalink**) 01-10-2007, 07:54 AM

I think the thing is if the money is not yours they will just fix it on your W-2. The taxes you pay to the government are not reported until the w-2 is filed (that is how the taxes withheld are reported to the government).

When you get the W-2 just double check the error is not still there, and if it is have it corrected...

saver25 · #6 (**permalink**) 01-10-2007, 03:03 PM

This is probably more common than you might think. You did the right thing by setting the money aside. The only thing left to do is to compare the initial w-2 with the amended w-2 and if any discrepancies then just give a call to your payroll/accounting dept - nothing to worry about.

kristinecfp · #7 (**permalink**) 01-11-2007, 09:27 PM

I love how everybody assumes the first W-2 will be incorrect. Isn't it possible that the payroll department/company will fix the problem before the W-2s are issued? Not that I work in a payroll department; I just thought it was funny how pessimistic this thread was.

Regardless, MonkeyMama is correct. No taxes have been reported on your behalf until the W-2 is filed.

The most important thing is that the W-2 is correct. Hopefully the first W-2 will be correct. If not, the payroll can always issue a corrected W-2 (corrected W-2s are very common, so don't worry if you do have to get a corrected W-2). Since you caught the error right away, it's possible (just maybe) that the problem will be fixed before anything is reported to the IRS.