Hello,
I work for a large retail store and in 2016 i changed stores mid-year. The store I transferred to was a store my company acquired due to a merger. Because of this I was issued two separate w-2's and overpaid social security taxes. The two w-2's have the same EIN and both stores are under the same company name. My employer states that although the store acquired during the merger has been re-branded (happened several years ago), they consider it a different division or subsidy within the company and that is why I was issued two w-2's. The second w-2 does have on it both the current company name and also says "agent for (old name prior to merger)". They state they cannot refund the excess.
When I filed my 2016 taxes on TurboTax I researched this topic and understood that when TurboTax asked me about the excess SSI tax I should indicate that I worked for two different employers so it would return the excess on line 71 of the form. I did that and TurboTax correctly filled out the form with the correct excess tax paid.
However I have received notice from the IRS that they do not accept the claim that I worked for two different employers and are requesting I pay back the excess social security tax that was refunded. So i'm now in the middle with both sides saying they will not refund the money. What's the best way to proceed? Pay the IRS bill and then file form 843 to get the money back? All my original tax forms and w-2's submitted were correct so I don't have anything else I could submit to them to try and change their mind on the w-2's being from different companies.
Thanks
