I don't think My Hubby's Employer Paid his Federal/State taxes

[DuranieGirl]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

First of all, I have no proof that my husband’s former employer did not pay any of my husband's taxes. That being said, I have every reason to believe it though. The way he ran his business and many other warning signs lead me to believe this is the case.

From June until October 2004, my husband worked for his friend’s construction business in Maryland. We learned very early that this guy had no clue what he was doing. His business practices were shady at best. Once he bounced my husband’s payroll check, and a few other employees’ checks, we knew it was time to move on. My husband decided that even though the pay back here was terrible, he would rather work in this state and be home than continue to deal with working for this idiot that we felt we would see on TV some day for tax evasion or being murdered by some disgruntled customer. I believe within a month or two after my husband’s departure, the business went belly-up. Due to this man’s total inability to run a business and due to the fact that his girlfriend decided to help herself to some of the business’ money, it failed. Tax time draws near and I start to get a little worried. By the beginning of January my husband decides to try to get a hold of him to make sure that the W-2 will be sent out. We have 3 small kids and every year we do receive a refund. Every year this refund pays for oil and gets us caught up on bills and puts food on the table. We file as soon as we get everything. We can not get a hold of his former employer. He moved and left no forwarding address or new number. He changed his cell phone number too. Relatives that live in the area all give us phone numbers for him - surprise they don’t work. Finally I am able to reach him via e-mail. I think he forgot to change the address or didn’t think we’d ever be able to find it. I asked him about the W-2 and he says “he didn’t get them yet”, as if to say he didn’t get them in the mail so it’s not his fault. I guess he thinks I am a moron. Duh - he is the one who prepares them. He says he is having problems with the IRS and we will get the W-2 in a few weeks. (What does his problem with IRS have to do with us receiving the W-2?) According to him, we should go ahead and file our return and amend it when we get the W-2 from him. The fact that he never called us to let us know that he wouldn’t be sending out the W-2, the fact that he bounced a payroll check on us before, the fact that his girlfriend who helped him do payroll skimmed some off the top for herself leads me and my husband to believe that although the money was taken out for taxes, as stated on his pay stubs, it was never sent in. We feel it probably went right into their pocket. I believe either the girlfriend (whom he is still with) either did it on her own or they are partners. This is a guy who got a down payment for materials on one of his projects and used it as down payment on his new home (which he lost anyway). I know as far as the IRS goes and the W-2, I have to wait until Feb 15 to notify them and they will send a form out to him regarding the lost/incorrect/never received, etc. W-2. That is great and all, but I don’t have an address or correct number for this guy. Then again, I guess if he is having problems with the IRS, they should have his address. What happens if he didn’t use the employee deductions for what they were for? What if he did pocket them? Does that mean we are responsible for it all? It wasn’t like we knew this was happening or that it was done intentional on our part. Basically the former employer, if he didn’t pay, shouldn't he be held responsible? If the former employee is in some kind of trouble with the IRS and it affects his former employees, shouldn’t we have been notified? I think my husband is going to go insane over this. He works a lot of double shifts. He works a lot of 11pm to 7am shifts so basically I am trying to find this all out. Between work and trying to sleep, he hasn’t been able to investigate this much. He is going nuts not knowing what is happening. Is there any way we can find out for sure if his taxes were paid? Can we sue his former employer for this if he didn’t pay the taxes?

Any help/advice/info is greatly appreciated.

 

[Snipes5]

I got halfway through that and quit.

We don't care about his girlfriend stealing money, or any of the other nonsense in there, it isn't relevant.

Ask a specific tax question, and we will attempt to answer it. Leave out all the other stuff, and for heaven's sake, learn how to separate your verbiage into paragraphs.

Snipes

 

[cc423]

Hopefully you saved all your husbands pay stubs showing the monies that were deducted from his check for State and Federal Taxes? If you never get a W2, thats all you've got as your proof that he had the taxes withheld from his check.
Its been awhile since I worked in that end of the office, but employers used to send tax payments in quarterly. If the employer withheld money and never paid IRS, I'd say he's in some trouble. Thats now between him and the IRS.
I would also suggest if you do get a W2 that you check it carefully.

 

[DuranieGirl]

Thank you cc423. My biggest fear is that we were responsible for those taxes. I have a feeling it might still be up to us regardless. We do have his pay stubs.

*EDITED* I had posted originally a reply to Snipes about how I thought his/her post was pretty much basically rude and yada yada yada. I have decided instead of being a drama queen, I am just going to let this go and I think my days of asking for advice here or trying to give some, which I did so incorrectly on another post, are over. All I wanted was some advice. I apologize my post was hard to read. At the time I was very upset and rambled on. I will say though Snipes, whomever you are, if you are an attorney, tax examiner, whatever, I felt you didn't need to even respond to my post if you felt that some of the contents were irrelevant and that you didn't really care about some of the facts I presented. This was my first post, I was upset and had I been in a better frame of mind it would have been a lot shorter, more to the point and in paragraphs.

That being said, you should have just ignored it or nicely said, hey can you please not make your posts so long and separate with paragraphs. It will help us help you. Instead you made me feel like an idiot. Perhaps it wasn't your intention, but I think it was. You have to realize that I am in a predicament that I have never been in before and I am honestly scared because whether you care or not, whether this is relevant or not, my husband and I are having a very hard time financially, busting our butts trying to make our 3 little kids' lives better and thinking you might have to pay taxes when you really need that refund, well, it might explain my "bad" post and the rambling.

I guess I have made myself a drama queen.

This will all be taken care of any way as I have an appointment with the IRS to discuss this. Thanks and good luck to all of you who are "blessed" with tax problems.