Issues getting FICA Form 843 Refund

[cottagecharm11]

I am exempt from paying FICA due to Notice 2014-7 Difficulty of Care. Oregon still withholds FICA out of my paychecks anyway. Every year I have to file Form 843 to get a refund from the IRS. The first time I mailed Form 843 was in 2021. I received 5 letters from the IRS informing me they were behind and to keep waiting.  Eleven months later an IRS employee, Debbie, called me.  She told me to never mail Form 843, always fax it to the number on the form. She asked me to fax her the updated amount that had been withheld. 30 days later I had the 2 years worth of FICA and interest refunded. In 2022 I faxed Form 843, I received the refund within 2 months. This year I faxed Form 843 for 2023 on February 1. The form states it takes up to 3 months to receive a refund. When I never received my refund after 4 months I called several times and left Debbie voice mails about the missing refund and did got no response. The greeting states "You will get a call back within 7 days. I faxed the same Form a 2nd time in July, no refund. I called Debbie's number in July and a new persons name was on the greeting, they never responded to my message. I called again 3 weeks later and learned the number is now disconnected. The IRS owes me about $1500 and I am at a loss on how to proceed, other than faxing. I have tried the main IRS phone number with no luck getting through the confusing maze of prompts to talk to a human, no matter what options I choose. Are there any other options available to me to get the money I am owed?

[Bsch4477]

Duplicate 

[9100]

You may be eligible for Taxpayer Advocate Service assistance if:

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[cottagecharm11]

Here it is May 19th 2025 and still no refund. The person at the IRS that processes Form 843 refunds has now told me that I am not supposed to be filling out Form 843 and that I need to file an amended tax return for the 2023 tax year to get my refund. She wasted 2 months with phone calls back and forth and having me fax this and fax that, only to figure that out..Her excuse is the other person that was processing them retired and she did not know how to do them, and that she only processes the form for corporations, not individuals like me.  Now she is telling me that the previous person who was processing my refund for the prior 4 years was doing it wrong. 

[AmeliesUncle]

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@cottagecharm11 wrote:

I am exempt from paying FICA due to Notice 2014-7

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No, IRS Notice 2014-7 does NOT exempt anyone from FICA.  It only excludes income tax, not FICA.

Why do you think you are exempt from FICA?

[cottagecharm11]

I know I am exempt from paying Social Security (FICA) because I have never paid any since I became a care- giver for DSHS in Washington State in 2017, and in Oregon for DHS when I moved there in August of 2020. As a caregiver whose client lived with me while I was living in Washington the state, they had me sign a form that I was exempt  from paying any all taxes, federal and FICA. NO taxes were ever withheld from my paychecks due to Difficulty of Care Notice 2014-7. When I moved to Oregon they withheld FICA from my paychecks even though they should not have, and then I would file Form 843 every year and get them refunded with interest. This continued for 4 years. Then I faxed the Form to the number I was give and did not receive the refund as I had in the past. I finally found out why I was no longer getting the refund in 2024 for the 2023 tax year. It turned out that the person at the IRS who had been processing the refunds for me had retired and no one working there knew to process them. A few months ago I was finally able to talk to the person who took over that position, she took several months trying to figure out how to process my refund. She told me she worked in the corporate division of the department that processes Form 843 and she just needed time to figure out how to do it. There were about 5 phone calls between us and several faxes. She finally called me back last month and said she was told by her boss that I needed to amend my taxes instead of filing Form 843 to get the refund. She told me to file Form 1040X as a $1300 overpayment of FICA on line 12 and enter the explanation as: "Due to Difficulty of Care Notice 2014-7". The IRS told me that Oregon is not supposed to be withholding any FICA out of my paychecks and that they are the only state that refuses to cooperate with that law. Anyone that has been paying FICA and is not supposed to can fill out Form 1040X and get a refund for up to 3 years of their FICA payments, plus interest. Why do you think I am supposed to pay FICA and the IRS tells me I do not need to pay it and refunds it every year?

[AmeliesUncle]

As I said before, IRS Notice 2014-7 does NOT exempt a person from FICA.  It only applies to income tax.  You are welcome to look at the actual Notice 2014-7 and the IRS FAQs (particularly #12) to confirm that.

There ARE some reasons that a person may not be subject to FICA, such as if the person you are taking care of is considered your employer and that person is your child.  But that has to do the Household Employee laws, not anything to do with Notice 2014-7.  If the person is your child, it is quite possible that Washington and Oregon are treating it differently, which is perfectly legal.  It is very common (even within the same state) for some programs to treat you as an employee of of the disabled person (which would make you a Household Employee), and other programs treat you as an employee under a third-party (which falls under different rules, making you subject to FICA even if the disabled person is your child).

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-14-07.pdf

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/certain-medicaid-waiver-payments-may-be-excludable-from-income