What do you do if you're employer changes your withholding status without permission or IRS direction.

[xmasbaby0]

Please explain.  What do you mean by "withholding status?" Did the employer change you from single to married or something of that nature?  Or do you mean the number of allowances on your W-4 was changed?  When the new tax law passed for 2018 employers were instructed to use a different chart for  withholding and withheld less from your pay.

[huglasdon]

At the first of the year Walmart changed my wife's withholdings from 8/married to 1. She just found this out. They did this the 1st of January. She's lost $100 a paycheck.

[xmasbaby0]

She can submit a W-4 to the employer to request the amount of tax withheld.
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/individuals/irs-withholding-calculator">https://www.irs.gov/individuals/irs-with...>

[huglasdon]

I'm not sure I understand. She did a new W-4 but is out the money they withheld since January.

[macuser_22]

She is not out any money.  W-2 withholding is simply added to the 1040 line 16 that offsets any tax liability.    If more withholding that tax liability then you get it refunded - if more tax liability than withholding then you owe more.

[huglasdon]

Bottom line is that they didn't have the right to change her payroll deductions.

[SweetieJean]

Is it possible that a payroll clerk just keyed in her W-4 wrong?

[macuser_22]

Isn't that Hanlon's razor -  "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

Pick your battles wisely.

First, change it back.  You haven't lost any money, you will get it back as part of your tax refund when you file your return.  If you want to fix your withholding so you get more back now and a smaller refund at the end of the year, use the IRS withholding calculator. You will need to enter information about all your jobs and some other financial and dependent information, and it will give you a very accurate recommendation on your expected refund and how to change your withholding.  Just be sure to run the calculator again in January 2020 to re-set for the new year.  

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/irs-withholding-calculator

Now, what exactly do you want to happen to Walmart?  It might be technically against regulations for them to change it, but at most it would get them a $50 or $100 penalty.  And you probably should have noticed right away, why did it take you 5 months to figure it out?  No matter if it was an accident or on purpose, they can't pay your wife more money (unless they give her a raise) and they can't give her back the tax money that was already withheld and sent to the IRS--that's what your tax return is for, to settle accounts at the end of the year.

The most you can do by making a big fuss about this is to make the HR manager angry at you, and you may not want to do that if the store is looking to cut hours over the summer.

Google "Pyrrhic victory".