TaxSlayer flagged my employer withheld too much Social Security - what now?

You're absolutely in the right to want your money back! When an employer withholds too much Social Security tax, you can get that money refunded when you file your tax return. The good news is that you don't need to contact your former employer at all. Since you're already using TaxSlayer, it should handle this automatically for you. When you complete your tax return, there's a line specifically for "excess Social Security tax withheld" (Line 11 on Schedule 3 of Form 1040). The software should calculate this and add it to your refund amount. This commonly happens when you work multiple jobs in a year, even if they weren't at the same time. Each employer calculates Social Security withholding without knowing about your other job, so they might not realize when you've hit the maximum contribution limit.

I dealt with this exact issue last year and found an awesome tool that helped me confirm the calculations. Check out https://taxr.ai - it analyzes your tax documents and can verify if your Social Security was actually over-withheld. I was skeptical because TurboTax had given me wrong information before, but taxr.ai confirmed I was owed $76 in excess SS tax. The tool also explained that the Social Security tax has an annual wage base limit ($160,200 for 2023 returns), so if you earned more than that across multiple jobs, you'd definitely have overpaid. You don't need to contact your former employer - the refund comes directly from the IRS when you file.

I was totally skeptical about taxr.ai when I first saw it mentioned here, but I decided to try it when I had a similar Social Security withholding issue between my two jobs. The tool actually showed me that I was owed $87 more than what TaxSlayer had calculated because it found a computational error in how my second employer had calculated the wage base. I was able to take this information back to TaxSlayer and manually correct the entry, which increased my refund. What I appreciated most was the clear explanation of why the excess withholding happened and how the correction would appear on my tax return. Definitely saved me from leaving money on the table!

If you're having trouble getting clear answers about this Social Security withholding issue, you might want to call the IRS directly. I know that sounds like a nightmare (because it usually is), but I used https://claimyr.com and actually got through to an agent in under 15 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was in a similar situation last year where I had overpaid by about $75 across two employers, and I wanted to make sure I was handling it correctly. The IRS agent confirmed exactly how to report it and assured me the refund would be included automatically. Saved me hours of research and worry!

I'm eating my words right now. After my skeptical comment yesterday, I decided to try Claimyr out of pure frustration (was on hold with the IRS for 2.5 hours before getting disconnected). Got connected to an agent in 17 minutes who confirmed I was owed $63 in excess Social Security payments from my two employers. The agent explained that TaxSlayer should automatically calculate this on Form 1040 Schedule 3, Line 11, but they also showed me how to verify the calculation myself. For anyone curious: multiply each W-2 income by 6.2%, add them together, then compare to what was actually withheld. If the withheld amount is higher, you get the difference back. Saved me a lot of headache and confirmed I'll get that money back!

Just FYI, the Social Security wage base limit for 2024 is $168,600 (up from $160,200 in 2023). So if your combined earnings from both jobs exceeded that amount, that would be another reason you might have overpaid. But based on what you're saying about it being around $58 over, I'm guessing your situation is just that your second employer didn't account for what had already been withheld. Either way, you'll get it back when you file! It's one of the few automatic processes that actually works correctly with the IRS.

Has anyone else noticed that TaxSlayer sometimes flags this issue but then doesn't actually add the excess withholding to your refund? This happened to me last year and I had to manually override something to get my money back. Just make sure you verify the final refund amount includes your excess SS tax!

This is a really common issue and you're absolutely right to pursue getting that $58 back! I had the exact same thing happen when I switched jobs mid-year. What likely happened is your second employer started withholding Social Security from your first dollar of wages without knowing how much had already been withheld by your previous employer. Since each employer calculates independently, they don't communicate with each other about your year-to-date withholdings. The good news is you don't need to contact your old employer at all - this gets resolved automatically through your tax return. When you file with TaxSlayer, it should calculate the excess and include it in your refund. Just make sure to double-check that the excess amount actually shows up on Schedule 3, Line 11 of your Form 1040 before you submit, as some people have mentioned the software sometimes flags it but doesn't always include it in the final refund calculation. You'll get every penny of that $58 back, and it should be included in whatever refund you're already expecting!