# Legal responsibility for unpaid taxes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 21, 2014, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-responsibility-for-unpaid-taxes/686620 "2014-04-21T18:10:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-responsibility-for-unpaid-taxes/686620/21 "2014-04-22T01:56:34Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > This happened to a distant cousin of mine - his employer kept all the withholdings, and left the country shortly before the fraud would have been discovered. While he did not have to pay taxes again (and I think he got his refund eventually), he was also not eligible for unemployment insurance because the premiums had not been paid, even though they were taken out of his paycheck. That turned out to be a major hardship, and as far as I know he never recovered anything for it. One can’t get blood from stone… So they decided not to tax him twice, as its difficult to get tax from them, but they didn’t have to give him the unemployment benefit, as it wasn’t valid There are benefits to working for larger businesses… ironically you get paid more. The warning is to never enter into a deal that you agree the employer may avoid paying tax and insurance… If they can show you in on that deal, you may then be liable for the tax. (can you pay the insurance and then claim the benefit ? 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_Hey_Paula)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-responsibility-for-unpaid-taxes/686620/22 "2014-04-22T02:34:32Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > This happened to a distant cousin of mine - his employer kept all the withholdings, and left the country shortly before the fraud would have been discovered. While he did not have to pay taxes again (and I think he got his refund eventually), he was also not eligible for unemployment insurance because the premiums had not been paid, even though they were taken out of his paycheck. That turned out to be a major hardship, and as far as I know he never recovered anything for it. Yes, this happened at my husband’s last employer before he became disabled. Not only were they withholding taxes and not forwarding the money to the IRS and the state, but they were also withholding child support for my husband and another employee, and not forwarding to the proper party (husband’s ex-wife in our case, District Attorney’s office in the other employee’s case). They were also not paying for work-comp insurance, paychecks were bouncing, and they eventually got their business license pulled by the state for non-payment of taxes. Luckily he had worked there less than a year after getting laid off from a previous job, so when he suddenly became disabled, he had enough credits from his prior well-paying job to qualify for California State Disability Insurance for a year, then for Social Security Disability after that. He was also owed for two bounced paychecks - we went to the Labor Board and got a judgement but were never able to collect. Yes I’m still bitter 16 years later - that money would have helped a lot at the time. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-responsibility-for-unpaid-taxes/686620/23 "2014-04-22T12:56:15Z")
> [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](#): > > Yes, this happened at my husband’s last employer before he became disabled. Not only were they withholding taxes and not forwarding the money to the IRS and the state, but they were also withholding child support for my husband and another employee, and not forwarding to the proper party (husband’s ex-wife in our case, District Attorney’s office in the other employee’s case). They were also not paying for work-comp insurance, paychecks were bouncing, and they eventually got their business license pulled by the state for non-payment of taxes. So did he have to pay the child support all over again? The flip side of this is a case like Willie Nelson. In his case, it was his own business manager that neglected to pay taxes, essentially his employee or his agent. Willie still owed the taxes, even though the guy also left him with no money. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_Hey_Paula)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-responsibility-for-unpaid-taxes/686620/24 "2014-04-22T16:39:44Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > So did he have to pay the child support all over again? Eventually yes, kind of. It turned into a huge mess and we had to go to court a couple of times to get it straightened out. The Judge gave him credit for one month and not for another, but then his support obligation was lowered due to his much lower income on State Disability. Finally when he was approved for Social Security Disability, the dependents payment was assigned to the kids’ mother, and that counted for his child support obligation, and we never had to worry about it again. But I would not recommend “becoming disabled and chronically ill” as a way to get out of dealing with your child support. ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legal-responsibility-for-unpaid-taxes/686620.md?page=1)