Hi! I was hired 5 years ago and on my hiring papers I switched two numbers of the first numbers on my social security number, it was by total accident.
My personal taxes have been filed under the correct number every year (my uncle who is a CPA does them). So I think from my perspective I’m good despite the W-2 showing the wrong number…
How much trouble is my company in? I plan to tell HR today, I just would like to know the likelihood of me losing my job for a stupid error 5 years ago.
UPDATE:
Thank you everyone who responded, it was very helpful! I have checked everything from my end (previous tax filings, SSN website, etc) and everything appears to be correct. HR was super understanding and we are working to get things corrected in their system.
I definitely didn’t need to worry about getting fired, I just went down the rabbit hole that is the internet and saw things that were concerning, but it has all worked out.
The company is not in trouble at all. This happens all the time. Are you suuuuuuure the SSN is wrong? Five years is a long time for the IRS to not catch this.
Gale said:
The company is not in trouble at all. This happens all the time. Are you suuuuuuure the SSN is wrong? Five years is a long time for the IRS to not catch this.
Yea that part is crazy to me. But I caught it because I couldn’t get signed into my new health insurance because they had the wrong SSN. I have checked my old W-2s as well as the company’s online database that has our information and it is wrong in both places.
Gale said:
The company is not in trouble at all. This happens all the time. Are you suuuuuuure the SSN is wrong? Five years is a long time for the IRS to not catch this.
I agree. The company would have caught this long before 5 years had passed.
E-Verify would have caught this immediately.
My daughter transposed two digits of her ssn. The employer noticed immediately. It was a pain to get it fixed, but the W2 was issued with the correct SSN that first year.
Gale said: @Darby
E-verify won’t catch it if it’s a valid number.
We use a third party payroll company and at least once a year they typo a SSN and it’s not caught until the employee filed their taxes.
E-Verify compares name and SSN. When we first started using it, we verified existing employees and found lots of problems.
We had lots of employees whose names did not match. Some were still using their maiden names for work while their legal name was their married name.
Some went by their nickname, like Ann, instead of Annemarie.
Those all failed and had to be corrected.
@Darby
Again, e-verify won’t catch this. It’s two separate systems. Fine, you pass e-verify with the USCIS. But when you typo on the taxes with the IRS, USCIS doesn’t know…
Maybe YOUR payroll system is integrated and does everything based on one data set, not everyone does. More often than not, companies run e-verify separately from the tax side.
@Gale
I think that I understand. However, in OP’s case, it was not a mistake by the payroll company. It was OP’s mistake.
OP provided the wrong info on the I9. The I9 is used for E-Verify and for the IRS/SSA submission info.
Of course, we do not know if OP’s employer uses E-Verify. If they did not catch this error for 5 years, it seems likely that they do not use it.
@Darby
The I-9 is not seen by the IRS ever. That is used by Homeland security. The w4 is used by the IRS. It is very probable that OP put the wrong number on their W-4.
Gale said: @Darby
The I-9 is not seen by the IRS ever. That is used by Homeland security. The w4 is used by the IRS. It is very probable that OP put the wrong number on their W-4.
You are correct. I did not remember the process.
Thank you.
It happens. But it’s an error you want to correct ASAP. Not only due to getting your taxes done right, but you want credit for Social Security. The payments you’ll receive at retirement are based on how much you made throughout your working lifetime, and you do not want to realize at retirement that you have 5+ years where the government says you made $0. You also need at least 10 years of work to qualify for payments at all (I’m simplifying a bit), and those years don’t count if they’re not attached to your SSN.
You’re not likely to lose your job, but bring proof of SSN to HR and let them get the ball rolling.
Did your CPA uncle suggest you create an online account with the IRS to check the transcripts to see if the W-2 information shows up on your file? Also create an account with Social Security to look at their records to see if you have been credited with the SS tax that was withheld. If it’s missing it was credited to another person’s SS#. You’ll need the company to correct the W-2s and send them to IRS and states. Wait a couple months and recheck IRS and SS sites to make sure the changes have been processed.
@Clovis
I just logged in and everything is appearing correct on the IRS website so I’m not really sure what is happening, but I’m not arguing! Hopefully at this point it’s just a matter of correcting it for future W-2s.
@Ellis
Check your social security account to view your earnings record to make sure everything is there. I had to correct my record when three years of good pay didn’t show up.
Losing your job? What does your company have to gain from terminating you? How does that solve the problem? If you work for managers who are that shortsighted and stupid that they’d fire you for making a mistake that does not affect them in the least, you probably should quit and work elsewhere.
The only person negatively affected by this is you. When you collect social security eventually when you retire, the amount that you collect is determined by how much you paid in. For the past 5 years, you have likely been paying into someone else’s social security account. Unless you contact the social security administration and retroactively correct it, that other person will be collecting your benefits and you won’t. Their payout will be higher, yours will be lower. You gave your employer the incorrect information, it was your screw up, not theirs. It does not affect them at all. There is no reason that they’d fire you.