Repayment of sign-on bonus in the same tax year it was received - tax withholding amounts reduced

[thegoodreturn]

I received a sign-on bonus of $10,000 this year that I repaid this year (2024). I'm not sure why, but they only asked me to repay around $6,000 of it.

They received my sign-on bonus. I checked my paystub today, and there are negative amounts for this period's pay for the following items:

Federal Withholding Tax

Federal EE Social Security

Federal EE Medicare Tax

State Withholding Tax

Since I only returned a portion of the $10,000 to them, I assumed the portion I didn't return was paid to the IRS. Is this the normal thing to happen for sign-on-bonus repayments for the same tax year?

[Mike9241]

yes it's normal to repay only the net. your employer will recover the withholding amounts from the IRS and state 

the boxes on your w-2 for 2024 should be the amounts as if you never got the bonus

[thegoodreturn]

If the company will recover withholding amounts from the IRS and state, that means they were paid by me then. In that case, they shouldn't reduce my withheld amounts on my paystub.