Excess Social Security Tax - No Question to Claim as 2 Companies

[glo_in_WA]

I paid excess social security taxes in 2019 because I switched divisions within the same company last year.  The two W2s sent to me have the same EIN, but the parent company serves as an agent to the divisions, which are technically their own legal employers.  Because they have the same EIN, TurboTax is telling me to contact my employer for a refund, but my employer is telling me that I should claim the excess tax as a credit in my 1040.  There are guidelines in the 2019 General Instructions for W2 that say an agent is generally not responsible for paying excess SS and that an employee should claim the credit.

TurboTax software used to have a question that allowed me to make this claim (by answering YES to whether or not these were two companies), but after spending an hour on the yesterday, they told me they removed the question?   I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do next short of doing my taxes manually instead.  

[Anonymous]

has the company(ies)  adopted common paymaster status - (see link)   you are supposed to be treated as an employee of only one company so excesss social security is not withheld.

this is not required but generally companies do this when they can to avoid having to pay extra social security taxes 

so if this is not the case and you worked for 2 legal entities within the sme org each may withhold the max soc sec

https://www.irs.gov/government-entities/common-paymaster

you need to find out which is the case. if common paymaster, the business should refund the excess. 

[celdalby1]

I had the same problem.  Got with my company and they showed me that they did everything correctly and all the legal jargan fot them paying me using a "Common agent" for two different legal entities.  My company showed that they didn't owe me the FICA overpayment back but the IRS did.  There is a way to claim this as a credit on your tax return.  But you have to do it manually within the turbotax forms; turbotax won't do it for you.   TurboTax does recognize the overpayment of the FICA and suggests that you need to get the money back from your employer which is incorrect for me as I did work for two different legal entities.   

The fix within turbotax is to go into the Forms (top right) and go to the 1040/1040SR Wks (worksheets).  Near the bottom is "Part II Other Payments and Refundable Credits".  The first section there is for this exact issue titled "Excess Social Security and Tier I RRTA Tax Withheld Smart Worksheet".  Enter your overpayment amount in box "A" and it will reduce you tax payment; or increase your refund by this amount.

[KathrynG3]

This should have been automatically calculated by what was entered for any Forms W-2.

For more details, please see: Can I get a refund for excess Social Security tax withheld?