‘Don’t bother coming in to work tomorrow': Employee asks manager for missing tax documents from her paycheck, manager responds by firing employee

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Feb 27, 2024 7:00 AM EST

As a child, thinking about becoming an adult and having to deal with things like taxes is genuinely terrifying. As an adult, well, it's actually still pretty terrifying. It will forever be a mystery why we don't have classes at school that teach us how to deal with these sorts of things. But somehow, we learn the ropes, and with each year we grow up we get to learn more and more about adult life.

The manager in this Reddit post still has some lessons to learn. The person who wrote the post (OP) told Reddit about a problem he was having with his wife's boss, named Sarah. For several months, Sarah has been paying the wife through Venmo, which is obviously not good for tax documentation. When OP reached out to Sarah to ask her for some documents that he needed, Sarah straight up admitted that she didn't want to deal with paying taxes on her employees. If admitting to tax fraud is not enough, she then proceeded to fire OP's wife.

Scroll down to read the rest of the story. If you are in a mood for more workplace-related tales, click here for a story of a worker who came back from sick leave to discover that her promotion was given to another employee.

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    Cheezburger Image 9884900096
    via Canva
  • 02
    Fired for Asking for W-2s
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 03
    Reddit, This is a sticky one. My wife works for a business owner who owns a playschool. We will call her Sarah for the purposes of this story. Throughout 2023, Sarah paid my wife her hourly wages
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 04
    through five different payroll sources. They started the year with Square, switched to Gusto after a few months, then switched back to Square (on a diff account) for the last part of
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 05
    the year. During such time, Sarah also occasionally paid my wife her wages via Venmo from both the business account and from her (Sarah's) personal account. We are fixing to do our
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 06
    taxes for this year and we only have two W-2s for her. One for Gusto and one for the most recent round of Square. We are missing tax documents from the first round of Square and
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 07
    for all of the Venmo payments. I (husband) politely and professionally and with my wife by my side, requested further tax documentation from Sarah.
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 08
    Sarah got upset. Sarah admitted via email that if she was forced to provide such documentation, then she would have to "eat a lot of money in taxes." Which translates to: "I didn't withhold employee taxes,
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 09
    nor pay employer taxes for the Venmo payments, and I don't want to". I'm no expert, but to me, that sounds like tax evasion. Anywho, after reading her angry emails and
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 10
    responding professionally, we have reached a point where Sarah is no longer returning emails. And........here is the kicker, we are 99% sure she has fired my wife. Sarah texted
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 11
    another employee that my wife works with, that she has replaced my wife on the schedule. And that employee contacted my wife. My wife has NEVER had any adverse action taken against her for ANY job.
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 12
    She is a model employee. In fact, Sarah has repeatedly mentioned how this business is basically still alive because of the work my wife puts into it. Do we have any kind of recourse on this?
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 13
    TLDR: My wife and I requested missing tax documentation from her employer, who got upset and very likely fired her for asking.
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 14
    Turinggirl 7 hr. ago The IRS would be VERY interested in hearing from you a d your wife
    via u/Turinggirl
  • 15
    Born-Horror-5049 - 9 hr. ago Many "playschools" are not legitimate businesses. More common when they're run out of someone's home. Yes, this is tax fraud.
    via u/Born-Horror-5049
  • 16
    xEbolavirus 7 hr. ago SocDem Contact the IRS as a whistleblower. Your wife will get a percentage of anything the IRS collects from the employer for defrauding the government of their money.
    via u/xEbolavirus
  • 17
    cipher1331 8 hr. ago You might want to contact an employment lawyer on this one.
    via u/cipher1331
  • 18
    Noidstradamus OP. 7 hr. ago I thought about that too. The only thing I'm unsure of is if the juice is worth the squeeze. She only made like $11,000 there last year. She's a SAHM mostly and was working there part time for extra $.
    via u/Noidstradamus
  • 19
    cipher1331 · 7 hr. ago I'm working through an employment issue with one now. Consultations are usually free and most employment lawyers take a percentage of whatever they win. It's worth a phone call or two to at least see if you have a case.
    via u/cipher1331
  • 20
    IamLuann 3 hr. ago Please stand your ground.
    via u/IamLuann
  • 21
    VRZieb 5 hr. ago Do you have recourse? Yes. You can contact the IRS for potential fraud. Problem is if she wasn't paying any taxes then odds are she wasn't withholding any either. How much did your wife
    via u/VRZieb
  • 22
    hypothetically make that wasn't taxed, if she wasn't unemployed during that time? IRS is gonna want that from you, assuming your wife wasn't unemployed during that time, when you bring it to their attention.
    via u/VRZieb
  • 23
    Material-Double3268 · 2 hr. ago Maybe you should hire a CPA this year to do your taxes. Give them all the Venmo, Square, etc. info and straight up tell them that you think the owner is committing tax fraud, but you are trying to be honest.
    via u/Material-Double3268
  • 24
    Really, you might need an attorney too. It's important though because you want those Social Security credits from the employer paying taxes.
    via u/Material-Double3268

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boss workplace-stories employee manager job tales-from-the-workplace taxes reddit story employer workplace paycheck bad bosses Reddit weird money
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