Extortion - how to deal with?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well...it's not extortion when you had an employee that you didn't pay as such or pay taxes on. Find out the penalty for wage misclassification and see if the money requested is less than your illegal activities.

Next time, payroll.

I don’t think any of the money was claimed on taxes for either person. I’ll check on that though

It's the employer's responsibility

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also even if I paid whatever sum is being asked couldn’t that still be a wage misclassification? In other words could I just be charged twice? How about them if they didn’t claim income? It was care for children which is typically actually a deduction on your taxes which wasn’t claimed.

Ok, this is a mess. You need to talk to a lawyer, full stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also even if I paid whatever sum is being asked couldn’t that still be a wage misclassification? In other words could I just be charged twice? How about them if they didn’t claim income? It was care for children which is typically actually a deduction on your taxes which wasn’t claimed.

You don't understand the law, you can go to jail for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you made a dumb decision to pay someone under the table and now you are suffering consequences. It does sound kind of like extortion, actually. Do you know who you are dealing with? Are they scary people?

They seem like they have the ability to be scary because they don’t have a lot of standards to live by but they are also in the neighborhood and people around know them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also even if I paid whatever sum is being asked couldn’t that still be a wage misclassification? In other words could I just be charged twice? How about them if they didn’t claim income? It was care for children which is typically actually a deduction on your taxes which wasn’t claimed.

You don't understand the law, you can go to jail for this.

No I don’t. Please explain. How is paying someone for a babysitting service jail worthy? And even if it were why would paying them more help the situation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well...it's not extortion when you had an employee that you didn't pay as such or pay taxes on. Find out the penalty for wage misclassification and see if the money requested is less than your illegal activities.

Next time, payroll.

I don’t think any of the money was claimed on taxes for either person. I’ll check on that though

It's the employer's responsibility

The claim the worker? For what? Please explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also even if I paid whatever sum is being asked couldn’t that still be a wage misclassification? In other words could I just be charged twice? How about them if they didn’t claim income? It was care for children which is typically actually a deduction on your taxes which wasn’t claimed.

You don't understand the law, you can go to jail for this.

No I don’t. Please explain. How is paying someone for a babysitting service jail worthy? And even if it were why would paying them more help the situation?

How many hours per week were they babysitting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well...it's not extortion when you had an employee that you didn't pay as such or pay taxes on. Find out the penalty for wage misclassification and see if the money requested is less than your illegal activities.

Next time, payroll.

I don’t think any of the money was claimed on taxes for either person. I’ll check on that though

It's the employer's responsibility

The claim the worker? For what? Please explain.

Yes, it's called payroll you pay taxes on their behalf and on your behalf. Their personal taxes have nothing to do with this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well...it's not extortion when you had an employee that you didn't pay as such or pay taxes on. Find out the penalty for wage misclassification and see if the money requested is less than your illegal activities.

Next time, payroll.

I don’t think any of the money was claimed on taxes for either person. I’ll check on that though

It's the employer's responsibility

The claim the worker? For what? Please explain.

Yes, it's called payroll you pay taxes on their behalf and on your behalf. Their personal taxes have nothing to do with this.

Ok. So if the IRS wants taxes on this work what benefit is there to paying this person more money for something that isn’t real? The IRS isn’t going to put someone in jail for not paying babysitter taxes. They are going to just ask for those taxes and demand they be paid. It was about 2 hours a day.

[Anonymous]

If I'm understanding correctly, you hired a babysitter. You paid that person under the table. Employers are responsible for paying taxes. A household employee cannot be an independent contractor. But you won't go to jail. You will have to pay what you owe to the government, and there will probably be penalties.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p926#en_US_2023_publink100086725

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also even if I paid whatever sum is being asked couldn’t that still be a wage misclassification? In other words could I just be charged twice? How about them if they didn’t claim income? It was care for children which is typically actually a deduction on your taxes which wasn’t claimed.

You don't understand the law, you can go to jail for this.

I'm no expert but she's not going to jail over this. Don't scare her even more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked with someone off Facebook for a nanny service and am being told that this person wants back payments over the past twelve months out of the blue for work claimed was done beyond scope, but payment was already paid in full with no issue until now. There is no record of these bills or requests prior. Can I take them to court for extortion? How can I protect myself if I'm taken to court over these fraudulent charges?

lol what kind of documentation does she have about out of scope services? Ask for documentation but don't admit anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I'm understanding correctly, you hired a babysitter. You paid that person under the table. Employers are responsible for paying taxes. A household employee cannot be an independent contractor. But you won't go to jail. You will have to pay what you owe to the government, and there will probably be penalties.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p926#en_US_2023_publink100086725

Yes. Household employee 1-2 hours a day during the week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked with someone off Facebook for a nanny service and am being told that this person wants back payments over the past twelve months out of the blue for work claimed was done beyond scope, but payment was already paid in full with no issue until now. There is no record of these bills or requests prior. Can I take them to court for extortion? How can I protect myself if I'm taken to court over these fraudulent charges?

lol what kind of documentation does she have about out of scope services? Ask for documentation but don't admit anything.

None. It’s just words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I'm understanding correctly, you hired a babysitter. You paid that person under the table. Employers are responsible for paying taxes. A household employee cannot be an independent contractor. But you won't go to jail. You will have to pay what you owe to the government, and there will probably be penalties.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p926#en_US_2023_publink100086725

How would OP pay the payroll taxes now if she doesn’t have the person’s SSN? Does the IRS just apply the funds based on the name OP supplies?