Hi there,
I’m a J-1 trainee whose internship will end in a month and a half. As I am exempt from paying FICA taxes, I asked in January my employer to refund me those taxes after realizing they had been wrongfully withheld from my paychecks. After 3 months, the company generated a new W2 form that I was able to use to file my taxes. However, it is now June and my employer still has not refunded me my FICA taxes. They claim that those taxes will come directly from the IRS and won’t refund me. To try to solve the situation, I had a lot of back-and-forth with the IRS + SSA + Sprintax, and also got in touch with ADP, the company that manages the payroll. After finally speaking with a person at ADP, she confirmed in a group email sent to me, the owner of the company, and the accountant, that those taxes would be refunded to the company only and that the owner had to refund me my share. However, the owner and the accountant still claim the IRS will refund me directly and won’t refund me. My employer even sent me an email a few days ago telling me that he had received his share of the refund for the FICA taxes and that I should check my mailbox for a check from the IRS.
What can I do to solve this situation? Is there any way I can report? My internship ends in a month and a half and I am scared my employer has or will misuse my tax refund which is not fair. On top of that, it is written everywhere the company has to first refund the employee before asking the IRS for a refund on their behalf so I'm very confused.
Thank you in advance for your help.