Just got taxed at work

[jpmandan]

Sorry Y'all but I just had to RANT!
Well with all of the holiday time off I get my check and I'm $717.00 short.(We get paid every 2 weeks)
Now let me back up and tell you, I drive a County truck home,(this is what i'm being taxed on) I live 9 miles from my work, I'm on 24-7 call out. (I do not get paid for call outs i'm salary) I have worked at the county for 13 years now. I have only been driving the truck home for 3 years. I can not use the truck for personal use. I was told they were going to take out $59.00 by my boss, which he was hit to by the same $717.00 Now there is only a few of us that drive trucks home, so we are now all MAD. My wife is so mad she won't hardly talk to me. My boss tried to get something done today about it but they said they had done right. Now I have bills to pay!!! And will be straped for cash now. I'm going above my boss head in the morning to see what I can get done. My wife said to give the truck back but I did the math today and it is cheaper for me to pay the tax on the county truck, than for me to drive my jeep. If they had been taking the tax out all year it wouldn't be so bad but $717.00 after Christmas come on! Oh yeah they also taxed it GROSS first and than took the $717.00 so it got taxed twice! Maybe this is why we are hiring a new finance director!


UPDATE: PAGE 3, POST # 36

 

[prncess674]

Please explain why you think you were taxed twice?

Your company is allowing you to take a company vehicle home and you use this vehicle free of charge to drive back and forth to work without putting any wear and tear on your car, nor are you incurring any gas charges to fuel your personal car for trips back and forth to the office. You are getting a STEAL OF A DEAL to only have $59 per month in commuting charges. If you knew that they were going to charge this fee, why are you so shocked? Perhaps you should have asked about it earlier when you first realized that the monthly deductions did not occur. You just seem peeved that it happened all at once.

 

[PrincessBelle09]

I would like to note that tax dollars purchased your truck.

My DH and I spend over $400, almost all work and school driving related, a month for gas and regular maintenance on our paid for cars. Other maintenance in the past year has been over $3k. I just got hit with a $1k bill for a repair on my car that I had to have fixed immediately to get to work. I will agree with the PP that $60 a month for commuting expenses is a is great deal and you really ought not to be griping. Sorry it all came at once, but count your blessings!

 

[LuvOrlando]

It's not right that they gave none of you any warning about this. I understand the taxes but really, they should have worked out a payment plan instead of making a single giant deduction from your paycheck like that especially right after the holidays. It's just not right, even if it's legal that doesn't make it right. I hope your wife realizes this isn't your fault soon.

 

[jpmandan]

Please explain why you think you were taxed twice?

Your company is allowing you to take a company vehicle home and you use this vehicle free of charge to drive back and forth to work without putting any wear and tear on your car, nor are you incurring any gas charges to fuel your personal car for trips back and forth to the office. You are getting a STEAL OF A DEAL to only have $59 per month in commuting charges. If you knew that they were going to charge this fee, why are you so shocked? Perhaps you should have asked about it earlier when you first realized that the monthly deductions did not occur. You just seem peeved that it happened all at once.

I'm sorry it was taxed on my Gross pay. But it is a tax so I thought it was a double tax. Guess I'm wrong.

STEAL OF A DEAL, Yes I know, but they should have taken it out a little at a time not blind side us. With our last check of the year. I feel like they made the mistake not taxing us all year and corected it at their convience.

As for being SHOCKED I was just informed 2 weeks ago. I thought they were going to start taking out $59.00 not $717.00 back tax they knew about the tax in June did not tell us till 2 weeks ago.

 

[laurie31]

Wow, I'd be ticked too!

Yeah sure it's a great deal to get a vehicle for $59/month, but to blindisde you with the whole $717 not two weeks after Christmas is a HUGE bummer. I get why your wife is mad, but she shouldn't be mad at YOU, it wasn't your fault. Or is she one of those people that can't talk when they're mad?

Anyway, sorry this happened to you. They should have been taking it out all along, or at least warned you in advance, so you could prepare. It sounds like your boss didn't even know.

 

[jpmandan]

I get why your wife is mad, but she shouldn't be mad at YOU, it wasn't your fault. Or is she one of those people that can't talk when they're mad?

She and I don't like our money messed with, especially that much.
Like I said I don't mind paying what is right, not ranting on that, just the Blind Side.

 

[allison443]

Sorry Y'all but I just had to RANT!
Well with all of the holiday time off I get my check and I'm $717.00 short.(We get paid every 2 weeks)
Now let me back up and tell you, I drive a County truck home,(this is what i'm being taxed on) I live 9 miles from my work, I'm on 24-7 call out. (I do not get paid for call outs i'm salary) I have worked at the county for 13 years now. I have only been driving the truck home for 3 years. I can not use the truck for personal use. I was told they were going to take out $59.00 by my boss, which he was hit to by the same $717.00 Now there is only a few of us that drive trucks home, so we are now all MAD. My wife is so mad she won't hardly talk to me. My boss tried to get something done today about it but they said they had done right. Now I have bills to pay!!! And will be straped for cash now. I'm going above my boss head in the morning to see what I can get done. My wife said to give the truck back but I did the math today and it is cheaper for me to pay the tax on the county truck, than for me to drive my jeep. If they had been taking the tax out all year it wouldn't be so bad but $717.00 after Christmas come on! Oh yeah they also taxed it GROSS first and than took the $717.00 so it got taxed twice! Maybe this is why we are hiring a new finance director!

I agree you should have had better notice of this!

You say you've been taking the truck home for three years...how were you charged in the past two years? Did they used to take it out monthly, and now it's a lump sum deduction? They should have told you that.
Or did you not pay anything for it the past two years?

 

[disneyhand]

It really is a shame that your employer communicated so poorly with all of you about how, how much and when they were going to fix their mistake. And yes their timing and method stinks! I think you all have every right to complain to them about how this was handled.

I think that any employee that is on call 24/7 deserves some vehicle perks and to be treated better than this by their employer. Thank you OP for whatever it is that you do when you are called to work outside of normal business hours.

 

[deegack]

It stinks that they did it with no notice and in a lump sum
but you are making out on the deal. Dh pays taxes on his company truck but they just take it out every week.
I use to work for a university and we had to pay taxes on graduate courses we took that were not related to our job. They hit my asst up for two years of back taxes with no notice. They said it was in her hand book so she should have known. Sucks but they are required to collect the taxes. It the govt that decides on the tax

 

[Carly_Roach]

I agree you should have had better notice of this!

You say you've been taking the truck home for three years...how were you charged in the past two years? Did they used to take it out monthly, and now it's a lump sum deduction? They should have told you that.
Or did you not pay anything for it the past two years?

That's what I'm not getting, too. How was it handled in the past?

Sorry that your money's so tight. Been there, done that. I can understand how that feels.

 

[cm8]

I agree you should have had better notice of this!

You say you've been taking the truck home for three years...how were you charged in the past two years? Did they used to take it out monthly, and now it's a lump sum deduction? They should have told you that.
Or did you not pay anything for it the past two years?

THIS!

 

[Kathi OD]

Sounds like it wasn't handled in the past and that's what led to the poor decision to take it out all at once.

Historically, governmental agencies that allow personnel to take vehicles home have not "charged" the employees for that perk. Heck, a lot of privately held companies didn't "charge" for the perk (add the cost to the employee's total compensation). Now with everyone trying to hold down costs (and the IRS wanting their fair share), this is one area that has been changing.

 

[jel0511]

Anytime you receive something from your place of employment for "free", the place of employment MUST assign a value to such service (usually derived from some formula created by the IRS) and that amount must be first added to your gross pay to be taxed, then it's deducted after taxes are computed. IE your employer provides lunch for all employees, the assigned value is $25, your gross pay is 1000. You are taxed on 1025, which for this argument is 55, ignoring all other taxes and deductions your take home would be 1045. Now the usually taxes due on 1000 would be 50, so you're paying an additional 5 for the lunch benefit. It sounds like your job wasn't doing this all year and hit you up at the end of the year for something they should have been withholding all year. Unfortunately, I don't think you have any recourse at this time, this is the federal tax law and I'm surprised that they haven't been doing this for year as I know it's been in effect personally since 1990.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

A few years back my DH was hit with a tax something like this. His company was pretty honorable, so they worked out how much they needed to give in "bonuses" to everyone hit with this extra tax so that while they were, in point of fact, taxed for the amount, their pay checks didn't shrink unexpectedly. Each person's "bonus" was a little different after the company worked out how much extra to pay so that it would balance closely to the original pay check. (For example, if the tax was 700, they didn't give just the 700, it was 700 plus enough to pay the income tax on that 700. . .)

To just, with no warning, take $700 from your paycheck is just plain wrong - maybe not illegal, but certainly not honorable.

 

[Kathi OD]

Anytime you receive something from your place of employment for "free", the place of employment MUST assign a value to such service (usually derived from some formula created by the IRS) and that amount must be first added to your gross pay to be taxed, then it's deducted after taxes are computed. IE your employer provides lunch for all employees, the assigned value is $25, your gross pay is 1000. You are taxed on 1025, which for this argument is 55, ignoring all other taxes and deductions your take home would be 1045. Now the usually taxes due on 1000 would be 50, so you're paying an additional 5 for the lunch benefit. It sounds like your job wasn't doing this all year and hit you up at the end of the year for something they should have been withholding all year. Unfortunately, I don't think you have any recourse at this time, this is the federal tax law and I'm surprised that they haven't been doing this for year as I know it's been in effect personally since 1990.

this may have been part of the federal tax laws since 1990, but I can assure you that many, many governmental agencies (including the federal government themselves), along with private companies ignored this part of the law until recently.

 

[WDWorBUST]

My husband drives a company car and I just wish it was only $700 for the year. However, I can totally relate to your frustration. They do his quarterly and we never know exactly when it's coming out. And then at times they have done 1/2 one check and then 1/2 the next but we never know for sure. For example the year end one they did $300ish - well it's almost always about $700-$1000/ quarter so I was expecting the next check to be short too. Well the next check was normal so now I'm trying to figure out if we are done or if another $300 will randomly show up again later. It's extremely frustrating. But even with what it's costing us we have calculated it out using our own vehicle and we're still coming out ahead on gas alone - not even taking wear and tear into consideration.

I am sorry this hit you right now unexpectedly.

 

[Swank]

Yes. You are getting a killer deal, don't jeopardize it.

No, they should not have taxed you at the end of the year all at once, but it looks like they just discovered it and needed to add the benefit before the end of the year so it was on your w-2 for 2010. It stinks, but not too much you can do about it short of complaining to HR and/or Payroll on the timing. They may be able to give you a short term Advance so you can pay your bills on time. Otherwise you will have to suck it up and Put your bills on Credit Cards until you can pay it off.

Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

 

[livie1205]

i am sorry but if he is on call 24/7 he should not be paying anything..cops here have to take home their cars and they do not pay anything extra...he also does not get to use it when he is not working so he does not get much perk for over 700.00

 

[DrCavin]

When were you told they would take $59 & I assume that would be per month?

You even admit its better for you than driving your own vehicle.