u/jimmy_legacy88

First, thanks to all that commented on my last post with advice and guidance regarding my situation. I wanted to update and ask a few other questions. High level summary of original issue:

-Employer paid employees bonuses, stipends, commissions( anything out sided normal hours/OT worked) on a separate check that had absolutely no withholdings.

-Employer had us all in a meeting and advised their CPA found a 'loophole' on paying out the above items with no withholdings on their side or ours, said there is noting to worry about it is all good. This was end of 2022 began in 2023

- Employer has paid out roughly 1.3MM this way, under the table if you will over the course of the last 3 years

Okay so back to the update, my original reason for asking about all this is I left the company, they were not happy, clawed back wages from a training I attended, tried to interfere with my new employer by falsely reporting OSHA issues and claiming I entered the Union for the newer Job with false qualifications and so on. I had enough and filed a wage dispute on the clawedback wages which went from a $2600 mess up on their part to a roughly $54k potential suit via penetalies and all that fun mess. During this little legal dispute they have altered documents, and pulled outrageous claims out their behinds to try to squash the case and increase their leverage but my lawyer and myself have been successful in countering all their shenanigans. We finally got to settlement negotiations and I noticed in part of their settlement, they claimed there was damage to property that occured in '23 and thats why they took the wages. Well that was when I decided I wanted to hit them as hard as I possibly could not out of revenge but out of principle and the fact they have screwed over many employees past and present and continue to do so and just think they are untouchable. That is where I was reminded of the issue at hand : the potentially illegal payments of bonuses etc.

I cane here and the other subreddit to ask guidance just on the compensation part but as ive gathered information I have made a couple discoveries I'd love guidance on and someone tell me if I watched too many episodes of Lincoln Lawyer 🤣

1. I truly actually do want to get my situation fixed so I have gotten all documentation to submit to the IRS I could find to get started on paying in what I owe, but through this I've been advised it could trigger an investigation of the business. Is that true?

2. I often overlook the fact the part of the company i worked for is listed as a DBA of XYZ company and is the smaller side of the 2 companies (roughly 87 employees total where i was and about 280 at the larger side) and they are actually tied together via the accounting, insurance, etc with the much larger side and file all of that stuff as XYZ LLC. Would my potential issue of tax fraud affect the other entity as well? (They paid out significantly more than the smaller side i worked for in the under the table method)

3. Is there somewhere I can call or email with the information to see what options are as far as reporting then and if it is worthwhile to pursue. Though I've seen you can do a whistle blower type deal and potentially get 15-30% of the reclaimed amount, I dont care about a reward or compensation, I want to ensure they are reported and corrected if there is a legitimate claim here and I ultimately want to make sure they dont pull this mess in the future as it seems nice to have a nice amount of undocumented income but it hurts purchasing power, and opens the employees to risks of tax issues that the employer directed them to do.

Sorry for the super long post. I am just overly curious about this whole situation and I have no clue what I am doing, obviously 😁

Also to note, during the settlement phase, we requested documentation of all the 'under the table' payments, they then made assumptions i am going to file the issue and tried including language in the settle docs that 'employee acknowledges all compensation paid by XYZ to the employee was done legally and properly documented' and also a clause in the NDA that attempts to limit my ability to report, which further points to they know they messed up and want to keep it under wraps. But again I may be crazy.

Thanks for reading my book!

First, thanks to all that commented on my last post with advice and guidance regarding my situation. I wanted to update and ask a few other questions. High level summary of original issue:

-Employer paid employees bonuses, stipends, commissions( anything out sided normal hours/OT worked) on a separate check that had absolutely no withholdings.

-Employer had us all in a meeting and advised their CPA found a 'loophole' on paying out the above items with no withholdings on their side or ours, said there is noting to worry about it is all good. This was end of 2022 began in 2023

- Employer has paid out roughly 1.3MM this way, under the table if you will over the course of the last 3 years

Okay so back to the update, my original reason for asking about all this is I left the company, they were not happy, clawed back wages from a training I attended, tried to interfere with my new employer by falsely reporting OSHA issues and claiming I entered the Union for the newer Job with false qualifications and so on. I had enough and filed a wage dispute on the clawedback wages which went from a $2600 mess up on their part to a roughly $54k potential suit via penetalies and all that fun mess. During this little legal dispute they have altered documents, and pulled outrageous claims out their behinds to try to squash the case and increase their leverage but my lawyer and myself have been successful in countering all their shenanigans. We finally got to settlement negotiations and I noticed in part of their settlement, they claimed there was damage to property that occured in '23 and thats why they took the wages. Well that was when I decided I wanted to hit them as hard as I possibly could not out of revenge but out of principle and the fact they have screwed over many employees past and present and continue to do so and just think they are untouchable. That is where I was reminded of the issue at hand : the potentially illegal payments of bonuses etc.

I cane here and the other subreddit to ask guidance just on the compensation part but as ive gathered information I have made a couple discoveries I'd love guidance on and someone tell me if I watched too many episodes of Lincoln Lawyer 🤣

1. I truly actually do want to get my situation fixed so I have gotten all documentation to submit to the IRS I could find to get started on paying in what I owe, but through this I've been advised it could trigger an investigation of the business. Is that true?

2. I often overlook the fact the part of the company i worked for is listed as a DBA of XYZ company and is the smaller side of the 2 companies (roughly 87 employees total where i was and about 280 at the larger side) and they are actually tied together via the accounting, insurance, etc with the much larger side and file all of that stuff as XYZ LLC. Would my potential issue of tax fraud affect the other entity as well? (They paid out significantly more than the smaller side i worked for in the under the table method)

3. Is there somewhere I can call or email with the information to see what options are as far as reporting then and if it is worthwhile to pursue. Though I've seen you can do a whistle blower type deal and potentially get 15-30% of the reclaimed amount, I dont care about a reward or compensation, I want to ensure they are reported and corrected if there is a legitimate claim here and I ultimately want to make sure they dont pull this mess in the future as it seems nice to have a nice amount of undocumented income but it hurts purchasing power, and opens the employees to risks of tax issues that the employer directed them to do.

Sorry for the super long post. I am just overly curious about this whole situation and I have no clue what I am doing, obviously 😁

Also to note, during the settlement phase, we requested documentation of all the 'under the table' payments, they then made assumptions i am going to file the issue and tried including language in the settle docs that 'employee acknowledges all compensation paid by XYZ to the employee was done legally and properly documented' and also a clause in the NDA that attempts to limit my ability to report, which further points to they know they messed up and want to keep it under wraps. But again I may be crazy.

Thanks for reading my book!

First, thanks to all that commented on my last post with advice and guidance regarding my situation. I wanted to update and ask a few other questions. High level summary of original issue:

-Employer paid employees bonuses, stipends, commissions( anything out sided normal hours/OT worked) on a separate check that had absolutely no withholdings.

-Employer had us all in a meeting and advised their CPA found a 'loophole' on paying out the above items with no withholdings on their side or ours, said there is noting to worry about it is all good. This was end of 2022 began in 2023

- Employer has paid out roughly 1.3MM this way, under the table if you will over the course of the last 3 years

Okay so back to the update, my original reason for asking about all this is I left the company, they were not happy, clawed back wages from a training I attended, tried to interfere with my new employer by falsely reporting OSHA issues and claiming I entered the Union for the newer Job with false qualifications and so on. I had enough and filed a wage dispute on the clawedback wages which went from a $2600 mess up on their part to a roughly $54k potential suit via penetalies and all that fun mess. During this little legal dispute they have altered documents, and pulled outrageous claims out their behinds to try to squash the case and increase their leverage but my lawyer and myself have been successful in countering all their shenanigans. We finally got to settlement negotiations and I noticed in part of their settlement, they claimed there was damage to property that occured in '23 and thats why they took the wages. Well that was when I decided I wanted to hit them as hard as I possibly could not out of revenge but out of principle and the fact they have screwed over many employees past and present and continue to do so and just think they are untouchable. That is where I was reminded of the issue at hand : the potentially illegal payments of bonuses etc.

I cane here and the other subreddit to ask guidance just on the compensation part but as ive gathered information I have made a couple discoveries I'd love guidance on and someone tell me if I watched too many episodes of Lincoln Lawyer 🤣

1. I truly actually do want to get my situation fixed so I have gotten all documentation to submit to the IRS I could find to get started on paying in what I owe, but through this I've been advised it could trigger an investigation of the business. Is that true?

2. I often overlook the fact the part of the company i worked for is listed as a DBA of XYZ company and is the smaller side of the 2 companies (roughly 87 employees total where i was and about 280 at the larger side) and they are actually tied together via the accounting, insurance, etc with the much larger side and file all of that stuff as XYZ LLC. Would my potential issue of tax fraud affect the other entity as well? (They paid out significantly more than the smaller side i worked for in the under the table method)

3. Is there somewhere I can call or email with the information to see what options are as far as reporting then and if it is worthwhile to pursue. Though I've seen you can do a whistle blower type deal and potentially get 15-30% of the reclaimed amount, I dont care about a reward or compensation, I want to ensure they are reported and corrected if there is a legitimate claim here and I ultimately want to make sure they dont pull this mess in the future as it seems nice to have a nice amount of undocumented income but it hurts purchasing power, and opens the employees to risks of tax issues that the employer directed them to do.

Sorry for the super long post. I am just overly curious about this whole situation and I have no clue what I am doing, obviously 😁

Also to note, during the settlement phase, we requested documentation of all the 'under the table' payments, they then made assumptions i am going to file the issue and tried including language in the settle docs that 'employee acknowledges all compensation paid by XYZ to the employee was done legally and properly documented' and also a clause in the NDA that attempts to limit my ability to report, which further points to they know they messed up and want to keep it under wraps. But again I may be crazy.

Thanks for reading my book! Any guidance is appreciated

So I love vests, I like the extra pockets and basically the look overall. I pretty much wear long-sleeved button up (or down idk the difference) year round in casual and business settings. Sometimes I wear jeans but I often wear khaki or grey pants, if in the field ( I work a very Greycollar Job) it is usually the wrangler khaki or Grey all terrain cargo pant with the zippers for the side pockets, at the office it will be a mix of casual or business casual.

Anyways I want a vest I can wear in a warmer time of year or climate. It has gotten warm in some places (i also travel for work) and i have to shed my light vest ( port authority or carhartt) due to getting Hella hot quickly. I do not want to look too goofy, I miss the extra pockets, and I just want a damn vest to wear when it is warm. Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks all you Gurus.

EDIT: the vest I wear at work is a Port Authority J325 soft shell that is in the Heather Grey or the other Grey listed.

Also y'all are fantastic for the help!

Okay, so to keep this fairly short, an employer I worked for (medium sized hvac/plumbing company) was paying out bonuses, stipends, spiffs, and commissions like usual up until 2023. They called a meeting with all the employees and announced their cpa found a loophole that allows them to cut us checks, non-taxed or any deductions taken, for the above mentioned earnings. They assured us it was perfectly fine and no issues would arise. This seemed suspicious as hell to me but I know nothing of tax law.

Fast forward to tax time, I received my 2023 W2 and noticed the sum id been paid over the year for bonus, commissions,etc, was not accounted for on the w2. Total gross was exactly $23,873.21 short which was my total earned extra via these checks. When I spoke to them about it they doubled down it was fine.

They have paid out approximately 363k yearly total with these bonuses this way since then. Is this legal and is there some loophole that magically allows them to do this? They cite it as a retention bonus but something just does not sit right with this to me, and I do not want to be on the hook for taxes on almost 80k over the time I was with them if they get caught.

Thanks in advance!

Okay, so to keep this fairly short, an employer I worked for (medium sized hvac/plumbing company) was paying out bonuses, stipends, spiffs, and commissions like usual up until 2023. They called a meeting with all the employees and announced their cpa found a loophole that allows them to cut us checks, non-taxed or any deductions taken, for the above mentioned earnings. They assured us it was perfectly fine and no issues would arise. This seemed suspicious as hell to me but I know nothing of tax law.

Fast forward to tax time, I received my 2023 W2 and noticed the sum id been paid over the year for bonus, commissions,etc, was not accounted for on the w2. Total gross was exactly $23,873.21 short which was my total earned extra via these checks. When I spoke to them about it they doubled down it was fine.

They have paid out approximately 363k yearly total with these bonuses this way since then. Is this legal and is there some loophole that magically allows them to do this? They cite it as a retention bonus but something just does not sit right with this to me, and I do not want to be on the hook for taxes on almost 80k over the time I was with them if they get caught.

Thanks in advance!

Okay, so to keep this fairly short, an employer I worked for (medium sized hvac/plumbing company) was paying out bonuses, stipends, spiffs, and commissions like usual up until 2023. They called a meeting with all the employees and announced their cpa found a loophole that allows them to cut us checks, non-taxed or any deductions taken, for the above mentioned earnings. They assured us it was perfectly fine and no issues would arise. This seemed suspicious as hell to me but I know nothing of tax law.

Fast forward to tax time, I received my 2023 W2 and noticed the sum id been paid over the year for bonus, commissions,etc, was not accounted for on the w2. Total gross was exactly $23,873.21 short which was my total earned extra via these checks. When I spoke to them about it they doubled down it was fine.

They have paid out approximately 363k yearly total with these bonuses this way since then. Is this legal and is there some loophole that magically allows them to do this? They cite it as a retention bonus but something just does not sit right with this to me, and I do not want to be on the hook for taxes on almost 80k over the time I was with them if they get caught.

Thanks in advance!