Taken Advantage

[Gary]

I have an Hispanic client that was a personal assistant to a very wealthy employer. He took care of the house while they were gone, cleaned the home, took care of the laundry, etc. He received a W-2 with federal wages, SS and medicare, but absolutely nothing for the state (AZ). He received all his pay in the form of checks from the employer, but there were never any pay stubs showing what was withheld. He contacted the employer to get a corrected W-2 and was told that he did not withhold state taxes, didn't have to, and would do nothing about it.

Does he have any recourse to get the employer to pay any state taxes? I believe he was taken advantage of because he is Hispanic?

Gary

[Black Bart]

Not from Arizona, but

why not just call (or have him call) the Arizona Department of Revenue: 800-352-4090 or 602-255-3381 and report it just like you would for any other state. I know IRS will contact the employer if you do this and I imagine the state tax authorities would too--maybe even more so since they're usually more desperate for money than the feds.

[veritas]

Isn't witholding for federal and state tax on a domestic employee optional?

[jainen]

What difference does it make?

What difference does it make? He got bigger paychecks and now he has to pay the same amount of tax that he would have had to anyway.

[Snaggletooth]

Of course there's no difference

That's the problem with you Jainen. Always there with the most profound efficacies of logic, and no perspective at all from this poor sucker who spent all year cleaning out the toilet for some rich yayhoo who doesn't want to be bothered.

Who among us would argue that his tax liability to AZ is not the same whether he has tax withheld or not? It might dawn on some of us, however, that he may not be as equipped to pay this tax.

What a dork.

[JG EA]

Not required for Federal

As was said it is not required for the Federal. The employee can request withholding. Maybe the state you live in has another requirement?