You will need to follow the instructions for the one employer situation. If you can't get the company to refund it, you can manually change the amounts on your W-2 and fill out Form 843 and request a refund from the IRS. See the instructions below under What if my employer can't cooperate. Your employer is supposed to withhold 6.2% of your Social Security Wages (the Box 3 amount on your W-2), up to a maximum of $8,239.80 per taxpayer for the tax year 2019. If one employer withheld too much Social Security tax, you won't be able to take a credit for the excess on your tax return. So, if your employer withheld too much, contact them and ask for: A refund for the excess amount, and A corrected W-2 (also called a W-2c) which shows the correct Box 3 and Box 4 amounts.Do not file with excess withholdings on your return, as you may be subjected to penalties and interest. What if my employer can't—or won't—cooperate? You can correct the Box 4 amount yourself before filing. Simply multiply the amount in Box 3 by a factor of 0.062 and enter that amount or 8,239.80 (whichever is less) in Box 4. To get a refund for the excess withholding, fill out IRS Form 843: Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement according to the Form 843 Instructions and mail it in separately. Make a copy to keep with your tax return paperwork.

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Kawh

Question

Had two jobs but one W2 since employers used a PEO. Had too much social security withheld. TT won't let me amend Line 11/Sched3 since it thinks it's one job. How to fix?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
March 7, 2020
4 replies
0 views

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TurboTax Premier Online

DawnC

Employee

You will need to follow the instructions for the one employer situation. If you can't get the company to refund it, you can manually change the amounts on your W-2 and fill out Form 843 and request a refund from the IRS. See the instructions below under What if my employer can't cooperate.

Your employer is supposed to withhold 6.2% of your Social Security Wages (the Box 3 amount on your W-2), up to a maximum of $8,239.80 per taxpayer for the tax year 2019. If one employer withheld too much Social Security tax, you won't be able to take a credit for the excess on your tax return.

So, if your employer withheld too much, contact them and ask for:

A refund for the excess amount, and
A corrected W-2 (also called a W-2c) which shows the correct Box 3 and Box 4 amounts.

Do not file with excess withholdings on your return, as you may be subjected to penalties and interest.

What if my employer can't—or won't—cooperate?

You can correct the Box 4 amount yourself before filing. Simply multiply the amount in Box 3 by a factor of 0.062 and enter that amount or 8,239.80 (whichever is less) in Box 4.

To get a refund for the excess withholding, fill out IRS Form 843: Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement according to the Form 843 Instructions and mail it in separately. Make a copy to keep with your tax return paperwork.

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KawhAuthor

Hi.

Thank you for your response. Let me clarify. There are two employers despite only having one W-2. This is because they both used the same PEO - Justworks. It seems that neither employer can cooperate because they both did the right thing, with neither withholding more than the maximum. However, Turbotax insists that I follow the instructions for a single employer presumably because it only sees one W-2. Is there a way to override Turbotax so that we follow the instructions for two employers?

Thank you

BillM223

Whose EIN is on your W-2? Justworks'?

Normally, a PEO (Professional Employer Organization) handle the personnel as their own employees. Since that is the case, the IRS (correctly) considers that you have only one employer - Justworks.

In this case, the IRS will not accept the request to refund the request to refund the excess SS tax through your tax return, and neither will TurboTax. In the past, the IRS has sent letters to taxpayers who claimed the refund of excess Social Security taxes on their return when the "two" employers had the same EIN; these letters told the taxpayers to go back to their employer(s) and get the refund from them.

TurboTax used to have a mechanism to allow an employee with two employers under one EIN to get the refund in the tax return, but since the IRS cracked down on the practice, TurboTax has removed that feature.

This is a Justworks' problem, and you need to explain to them that if you are considered an employee of Justworks (that is why I asked about whose EIN is on the W-2), then it is Justworks' problem to fix.

Otherwise, your only alternative to do as Dawn says and file a form 843 with the IRS.

You might note to the Justworks HR people, that the instructions for line 7 of form 843 say "Explain in detail your reasons for filing this claim and show your computation for the credit, refund, or abatement. If you attach an additional sheet(s), include your name and SSN or employer identification number (EIN) on it. Also attach appropriate supporting evidence." (see Form 843 Instructions).

In other words, if Justworks is your employer of record and they will not fix the problem, then you will, in the course of filing form 843 as is your right, be forced to explain to the IRS just why you are in this situation, thus bringing Justworks' behavior to the eyes of the IRS.

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HubbaHubba

@Kawh sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but could you clarify which one you did?

1. Manually change Schedule 3 Line 11 - added the excess social security amount and file via paper (NOT e-file)

... OR...

2. Change your W2 (I am not sure how and what you did here since W2 form cannot be changed), manually change Schedule 3 Line 11 and then file via paper (NOT e-file)

JohnB5677

@HubbaHubba

Neither of those two ideas is very good.

If for whatever reason a single employer has over-withheld FICA tax, you can request that the employer applies for a refund, or if you want to request a refund, you will need to file Form 843, Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement, with the IRS.

Form 843 Instructions for Form 843

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Joopkins

I was forced to file 843 by Justworks who cited some tax law to say that they correctly overwithheld because of the nuance of being a single PEO representing two employers. I think your options are paper file to bypass the software preventing you from doing a 1040 schedule 3 line 11, or just file as normal and submit an 843.

roymeo

Same issue here with TriNet as the PEO. They sent a letter explaining that (though I'm only going to get the single W-2 with one FEIN) they consider my 'real' companies the employers so they followed the advice to ignore overpaying the SocSec and that I have to file form 843 to get the money from the gov't not from them. They also sent along a letter to the gov't to put in with the form explaining why it's not on TriNet to give the money back.

Justjulia44

TurboTax please fix your incorrect answer here. A PEO must issue 1 W2 to the employee. Your solution is incorrect. Please fix your software

danC4

@Justjulia44 agreed the software is broken and does not handle the case where PEOs do only give 1 W2. I believe the linked articles provided also are inaccurate because they would have you file claim 843 which, from earlier comments in the thread, would get rejected and take years.

Even if you download the desktop software (which I did) so that I can go into "manual form entry" mode and override / manually enter the excess amount in schedule 3 line 11, turbotax will not let you e-file! You'd have to print and mail out your return. It's ridiculous.

This is _not_ any sort of advice on what to do, but this is how I got around it so I could efile. I saw someone mention this on a different forum. My return was accepted but still waiting to see if I get the refund or a complaint. I entered 2 W2s. The first W2 had all the exact info _except_ for box 1 I entered $1 less for my wage. Everything else was the same. I then entered a 2nd W2 with the same employee info except this time for Box 2 for wages I entered $1. Everything else was $0. I was then able to efile and there were no warnings about Schedule 3 line 11 because the software now thinks I have 2 employers. Again, I'm not personally recommending you do this and no clue what the consequences are, just that I was able to efile with this.

And the return amounts for federal and my state were the same before and after with 1 W2 (and forcing S3 line 11) vs 2 W2s with the $1 wage difference (and the excess amount still properly showing on S3.11).