My Employer is Making Tax Filing Errors - What Can I Do?

So I'm at my wit's end with my current employer's payroll department. They've consistently messed up my tax withholdings for the past three months. I noticed on my latest paystub that they're taking out the wrong state tax amount - I live in one state but work remotely from another, and they're withholding for the wrong one despite me filling out the correct tax forms TWICE. I've emailed HR four times and called twice, but keep getting the runaround. They promised to fix it "next pay period" but nothing has changed. I'm worried this is going to cause major headaches when filing my 2025 taxes. Has anyone dealt with something similar? Do I need to just adjust my own withholdings to compensate somehow, or is there some way to force them to correct this? I'm especially worried since I'll end up owing taxes to my resident state while having too much withheld for the state where I don't actually work. I don't want to end up with penalties because of their incompetence!

0 coins

18 comments

Caesar Grant

•8M

This is unfortunately pretty common with remote work arrangements. Your employer's payroll system is probably set up to automatically withhold for the state where their office is located. The good news is that you're catching this early in the year rather than discovering it at tax time. You have a few options here. First, document everything - keep copies of all the forms you've submitted and emails you've sent. This creates a paper trail showing you tried to correct the situation. Next, you could ask your employer to issue a corrected W-4 and state withholding form. Be specific about which state should be withholding taxes and which shouldn't. If they continue to ignore this, you might need to adjust your withholdings by completing a new W-4 with additional withholding amounts to cover what should be going to your resident state. The most important thing is to make sure you're setting aside enough to cover your actual tax liability for your resident state, even if it means you'll get a refund from the work state later.

0 coins

Caesar Grant

•8M

Yes, you can absolutely file a nonresident return for the state they're withholding for and claim a refund for those taxes, then pay what you owe to your resident state. This won't create any red flags with the IRS - it's a common situation for remote workers. Just make sure you file returns for both states. The nonresident return will show you had withholding but no actual tax liability there, while your resident state return will show your full tax liability. Your federal return won't be affected by this state-level issue.

0 coins

Gemma Andrews

•8M

I was in almost the exact same situation last year and I found an amazing tool that helped sort everything out. I used https://taxr.ai to analyze my paystubs and withholding patterns. It showed me exactly how much was being withheld for each state and calculated what I should expect to owe or get refunded. The best part was I could upload my previous communication with HR and the tax forms I'd submitted, and it generated a detailed letter explaining the exact tax laws that applied to my situation. When I sent that to my employer with all the legal references about remote work taxation, they finally fixed the issue within a week!

0 coins

Gemma Andrews

•8M

The tool has specific features for multi-state taxation and remote work scenarios. It can track your days worked in different locations and calculate proportional tax liability based on each state's rules. You'd just need to log your work locations throughout the year, and it helps determine the correct allocation. When it comes to accuracy, I was skeptical too initially. What convinced me was that all advice includes references to specific state tax codes and IRS publications. I actually checked a few of the citations against official state tax department websites, and everything matched up. They also have tax professionals who review the automated guidance.

0 coins

Mae Bennett

•8M

I wanted to follow up about the taxr.ai tool mentioned earlier. After being skeptical, I decided to try it with my complicated situation (working remotely while living on the state border). I was genuinely impressed! It identified that my employer was applying the convenience of employer rule incorrectly and showed me exactly which forms to file. The document analysis feature saved me hours of research - it spotted discrepancies between my W-4 and how taxes were actually being withheld. I submitted the generated letter to my HR department, and they admitted they hadn't been handling cross-border remote work correctly. Just got my first correctly-processed paycheck yesterday!

0 coins

Beatrice Marshall

•8M

If you're still struggling to get your employer to fix this, you might consider using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to get direct help from the state tax agencies involved. I was in a similar situation where my employer refused to correct my withholding, and I couldn't get through to anyone at the state tax department for guidance. Claimyr got me connected to an actual human at my state tax agency in less than 20 minutes, when I had been trying for weeks on my own! The agent walked me through the exact forms my employer needed to file and even sent me documentation I could forward to HR. There's a video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c It was honestly a game-changer when I was ready to pull my hair out dealing with both my stubborn employer and impossible-to-reach tax agencies.

0 coins

Beatrice Marshall

•8M

It's not a premium line - they use technology that navigates the phone systems and waits on hold for you. When a human representative finally answers, you get a call connecting you directly to that person. You don't have to sit there listening to hold music for hours. I was extremely skeptical too. I had spent multiple days trying to reach someone at the tax office with no success. The way it works is their system keeps dialing and navigating through all the prompts, then sits on hold so you don't have to. When a human finally answers, it calls your phone and connects you to the live agent who's already on the line. It's basically just solving the hold time problem.

0 coins

Dallas Villalobos

•8M

I have to come back and eat my words about the Claimyr service. After posting my skeptical comment, I figured I had nothing to lose and tried it for my situation with New York state taxes (which is notoriously impossible to reach by phone). It actually worked exactly as described. I got a call back in about 45 minutes, and was connected directly to a NYS tax department representative who was already on the line. The agent explained exactly what forms I needed my employer to file and even emailed me the relevant tax code sections to forward to my HR department. My employer finally took the issue seriously when they saw I had actually spoken with the tax authority. Problem solved after months of frustration! I never thought I'd say this, but it was completely worth it to finally get this resolved.

0 coins

Reina Salazar

•8M

That's a valid concern. While retaliation for filing a wage complaint is technically illegal, that doesn't mean it won't impact your workplace relationships. I'd suggest trying all the direct approaches first - the formal letter with tax code references that others mentioned, escalating to higher management, etc. The DOL complaint should be more of a last resort if nothing else works and you're really concerned about the tax implications. Sometimes just mentioning that you're considering this option can motivate employers to take the issue more seriously.

0 coins