just got a letter from the irs :-/ please help!

[mcjones00]

"The income and payment information (e.g. wages, micellaneous income, interest, income tax withheld, earned income credit, etc.) that we have on file does not match entries on your 2006 Form 1040EZ."

My employer from 2006 is listed twice under the explanation section of this letter. Both listings say Form W-2. One of the listings is apparently what I included on my return. Then there's this other chunk of change, and the IRS is saying I owe tax on it.

I think it's a little odd that the the first entry says "company name incorporated / address line 1 / address line 2" but the second entry just says "company name inc." could that be a clue? it makes me wonder if the company reported income for me twice.

I know I have to dig up my 2006 taxes, but even if I do, if my w2 only covers what I reported, how can I prove there wasn't another w2? Can a company even do that--have two w2 forms for one employee?

One thing about 2006: I received short term disability for nine weeks. Would that info have been included on my employer's w2? Should I have gotten another w2 from the insurance company? If the money I didn't include on my return was from this STD, do I have any protections? I didn't get a second w2, but I don't think there's any way to prove that. Lastly, if the unincluded sum was from an insurance company, why is my employer's name listed? That makes it awfully hard to track down.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[LdiJ]

Originally Posted by mcjones00

"The income and payment information (e.g. wages, micellaneous income, interest, income tax withheld, earned income credit, etc.) that we have on file does not match entries on your 2006 Form 1040EZ."

My employer from 2006 is listed twice under the explanation section of this letter. Both listings say Form W-2. One of the listings is apparently what I included on my return. Then there's this other chunk of change, and the IRS is saying I owe tax on it.

I think it's a little odd that the the first entry says "company name incorporated / address line 1 / address line 2" but the second entry just says "company name inc." could that be a clue? it makes me wonder if the company reported income for me twice.

I know I have to dig up my 2006 taxes, but even if I do, if my w2 only covers what I reported, how can I prove there wasn't another w2? Can a company even do that--have two w2 forms for one employee?

One thing about 2006: I received short term disability for nine weeks. Would that info have been included on my employer's w2? Should I have gotten another w2 from the insurance company? If the money I didn't include on my return was from this STD, do I have any protections? I didn't get a second w2, but I don't think there's any way to prove that. Lastly, if the unincluded sum was from an insurance company, why is my employer's name listed? That makes it awfully hard to track down.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

The first thing that you need to do is look very carefully at the listings again. Make sure that one of them doesn't say "withholding" rather than wages.

However, yes, its quite possible that you should have received a second W2 for the disability payments. Sometimes they are included in the employer's W2, but more often they are on a separate W2. In addition, I once encountered an error, when the disability payments were included in the employer's W2 AND on a separate W2 from the insurance company.

However, unless you paid the disability premiums yourself, you will owe tax on the disability payments....and there is no way around that. If you had enough medical expenses to making itemizing worthwhile, you might however be able to amend your return to use a regular 1040 instead of a 1040EZ, to include Schedule A.