• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

employer accounting mistake for health premiums

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

croginela

Junior Member
in early 2002 i was laid off and rolled over onto my husbands insurance policy where he works. we were receiving family coverage and assumed everything was fine. last week, my husband was called into his bosses office and told that there was an accounting error and that for the past year, they had only been deducting for single coverage and not family coverage and that since we received family coverage that we owe them close to $7k!! We obviously do not have that kind of money laying around so they made a deal with my husband that he could trade this years vacation (2 weeks) to cover this amount. He accepted that deal but they offered him nothing in writing.

Here are my questions:

Can his employer do this? The accounting mistake was on their end...it was not anything we had anything to do with....can they come back on us like this?

Since we have two small children who had A LOT of medical bills this past year, we would like to be able to include this extra money they are taking from him (the vacation day trade) in our itemized taxes. I spoke to the accountant and he said that it will not be classified as medical premiums - even though they are collecting it for medical premiums so we can not do that. Can this be? How can they ask for money for medical premiums that they are not applying to medical premiums?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thank you!!!
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Can they look for repayment from you, in one form or another? Certainly they can. The fact that it was their mistake does not mean that they are not entitled to repayment. I don't mean to be insulting, but I'm sure if they had deducted too much you would have expected a refund. Why are they not likewise entitled?

Whether or not they can do it in the way they suggest (by trading vacation time) will depend in part on what state you're in and possibly, depending on what state it is, whether or not the time being traded is time he had already accrued or time he would not be accruing until this year. If you can provide that information I can give you more information. However, it is PROBABLY legal.

I can't answer the tax question.
 

croginela

Junior Member
We are not really contesting if we owe it...we are fine with that (but you never know if you never ask the question so i was not insulted by your reply)...we did not realize it was not the right amount...i totally admit that since his check is direct deposited we are not diligent on reviewing the deductions. So that is fine. We are in IL and are fine with the vacation trade also....in fact we appreciate being able to do that over just losing the next couple of paychecks! We just never received anything in writing and that made me wonder if they could ask for that money. I am afraid that they might come back in the future and do the same thing if we do not have it documented.

I would like the tax deduction though!! If they had not made the mistake, we would be able to deduct it in our taxes....so now they not only get the full premium amount from us (which we did owe) but we lose the ability to deduct it since it is not on our W2 as a medical insurance premium....so ultimately we are going to have a negative financial impact from their mistake. That is what does not seem fair

Thanks!!!
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
If you're fine with the vacation trade, there's no problem. I see no reason why your husband should not be able to ask for verification in writing.

I still can't answer the tax question.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top