Signing Bonus Repayment Fiasco

Plz help a broke post-grad out who is just trying to recoup overpaid taxes from old IB job if you have any experience dealing with this :(

Background: I received a $20K signing bonus last year from an EB, which was about $11.5k after taxes. I decided to leave the firm after 6 months, and the EB prompted me to repay the gross amount of the signing bonus at the beginning of this year. I read a lot of threads on here that if you don't pay it back and on the off chance the firm decides to take it up to payments collection agencies, your credit score would get tanked. I didn't think the risk was worth it and repaid the full $20K amount in January.

Fast forward to today: I am now dealing with the issue of getting the $8.5K back from either the IRS or this EB. This EB already made me wait 6 months to get my amended tax return (W2C) citing a myriad of reasons why it was taking so long, so I had to delay the filing of my personal 2022 tax return. I finally got the W2C, and it basically just corrects my old tax return as if I was never paid $20K and reduces the income taxes withheld by the IRS on the form by the respective amount. When I spoke to my tax accountant, he said that this means I need to recuperate my taxes from the EB, not the IRS because the IRS is not withholding these extra taxes.

It has already been a big shit show working with this EB trying to get my W2C and I'm not sure they will be readily helping me get this $8.5K back. I reached out to them over email today but am starting to feel hopeless about my chances getting this $ back.

Has anyone had similar experiences they are willing to share? I'm really stuck and wondering if I need to hire an employment lawyer or something at this point. $8.5K is not a couple pennies to me that I'm willing to lose and I'm so sick and tired of the EB telling me "you need to figure it out with the IRS".

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Haven't been in this situation, but understand that you are supposed to get it back as a tax return from the IRS, not the EB. You paid the IRS taxes on $20k additional income that was not paid to you (since you returned it), so the IRS would owe you the amount back. Simple numbers, if you're getting taxed at 40% and earned $120k, your taxes paid would be $48k. If your updated W2 reflects $100k now, your taxes should be $40k or an $8k refund (assuming you paid the full $48k before). 

 

This is correct. Also, if you paid in January, believe this will be reflected on next year's tax return. You can't claim the repayment for 2022 if it happened in 2023. Unfortunate timing, as if you had repaid in December you could have just netted it out cleanly on your 2022 return.

You don't need an employment lawyer, you need a few hours from a competent tax professional. Find a local CPA with a lot of experience, not an H&R block guy.

 

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