[LYarbrough]

I have worked as a tutor/nanny for the last 9 months for a family. It has all been tax free, and I'm paid with personal checks. Recently, my employer became angry when I had to leave the position and threatened to file taxes for all of my past wages. Can she do this? Would I have needed to have given a SSN or filled anything out? I am worried that tax season will come, and I won't file anything, she will, and I'll get in trouble!

[ebaines]

First by law your employer should have been paying FICA taxes on your behalf. And she should have had you fill out an I9 form to document your eligibility to work and a W4 so you could elect income tax withholding (if any). In many cases (probably most) involving nannies it is usual for the employer to pay both the employer's portion as well as the employee's portion of employment taxes (social security and medicare), and hence the employer ends up paying the full 14.3% to cover the FICA taxes. This is common because it keeps the paperwork for the employer to a minimum. And typically nannies opt to have no income tax withheld - if this is a part time job chances are you don't make enough to reqiure any withholding. Since she did not do this, your employer has been breaking the law. Which makes me think that she is just bluffing now.

If she does file a W2 with the IRS it isn't necessarily bad news for you - if this is your only job you probably won't owe any income taxes anyway unless you have other sources of income. By law she is required to give you a copy of the W2, so will definitely be aware of it by the end of January. And your employer will have to pay the back FICA taxes. So her bluff is sort of like her saying "I'm so mad I'm going to hold my breath until I turn blue - so there!" To go one step further - because she has broken the law you are the one in control here - you could report her to the IRS, and then she'd be required to pay all those back taxes, plus interest and possibly a fine. In fact I would go so far as to recommend that you do precisely that, because her not paying your FICA taxes means you are not getting credit with the Social Security Administration for your wages.

[Fr_Chuck]

Actually he can't legally not report your wages and pay the proper taxes for the wages given.