Good afternoon!
From 2023 to 2024, I have worked for an employer (X) under my OPT employment authorization as part of my F-1 student status. F-1 students are exempted from paying FICA taxes (social security and medicare taxes) for the first 5 years of their residence in the US, which would be 2019-2023 in my case.
In 2023, my employer informed me that I will be fully taxed (including FICA taxes), given my status and number of years resided in the US (which technically at that time, it was an incorrect statement, as 2023 was my 5th year in the US). In 2023, they did not end up withholding any FICA taxes (which is correct, as I was still exempt from them until the end of the year- please correct me if I am wrong). However, for my last months of employment with them in 2024, they continued to not withhold any FICA taxes still, despite me no longer being exempt from the FICA taxes starting with Jan 1st 2024.
For this tax season, I just realized this mistake, as in my W-2 form, the social security and medicare tax boxes are empty. I filed for an extension for both my federal and state taxes. I know that other F-1 employees are under a similar situation with their employers, hence I contacted my employer X to: 1. ask for a corrected W-2 C form which would present these taxes, and 2. ask how to proceed in this case on paying those FICA taxes that should have been withheld by them. The employer informed me that they cannot correct or re-issue the W-2 form they provided. They told me that I should pay the IRS directly my share of taxes (6.2% + 1.45% of AGI) and that once I paid that, they will wait for the notification from the IRS for them to pay their own share back of those FICA taxes.
I have three questions:
1. Is this the correct way to proceed, and should I then provide the old W-2 form when filing my taxes, and pay the FICA taxes as a miscellaneous tax/or another category? I have been filing my taxes online using one of the free softwares designed for filing them. Is there a section where I can add these taxes? Is there a separate form I need to fill out and attach, or perhaps mail directly to the IRS? How do I exactly pay these FICA taxes since they were not directly withheld by the employer, and how can I officially show that despite the fact that they don't show up on my W-2 form, I am in fact paying the FICA taxes for those months? I am worried that the IRS needs the W-2 form to provide the correct information, hence I would need a corrected form.
2. If I do need a corrected W-2 form to file, should I contact my employer back and mention that the W-2 C form is required, and once corrected, use that form to file my taxes? But then, it would appear as if I had already gotten withheld my share of FICA taxes based on the corrected W-2 form, so how would I counteract that in order to show that I do need to pay them still, and furthermore, I am paying them right now when filing?
3. Since this was an error from employer's side, would I receive any penalty because the taxes are paid after the tax season ended? (despite filing the extension)
Thank you very much!
