"Metspitzer" wrote
My niece worked for a company for 2 weeks and they paid her cash. At
> the end of the 2 weeks the company said she made a mistake that cost
> them money and tried to keep some of her money and fired/let her go. >
> I called the Ga Dept of labor. The woman there said she would talk to
> the boss and get her money.
>
> Here is what I think happened. When the labor dept got involved the
> boss sent my niece part of her money and kept what should have been
> tax withholdings. My niece and the dept rep agreed on how many hours
> she worked and how much she was supposed to get from the boss. When
> the money was short, the dept rep said that she would speak to the
> boss and get him to return all the money.
>
> After a few weeks, there was still no word from either the boss or the
> dept rep. Today after having to call the dept rep back, now the boss
> is saying that my niece will get the money she was short, but she will
> have to fill out a tax form.
>
> Since he has kept her money for close to a month now, how was he able
> to withhold the money with no tax forms ever filled out? How would
> he have reported the cash to the IRS if there were never any forms? >
> Does this sound like he was trying to steal the money from my niece?
Expect your niece to get a W-2 with reported taxes withheld. They may gross up the pay to cover the taxes, that or just not have enough federal or state withholding. If the amount retained by the employer wasn't enough to cover the taxes that should be withheld then they may gross up her pay to cover the taxes "withheld" or that should have been withheld.
A lesson here is to know exactly how an employer intends to treat the worker before hiring on.