How to handle missing W2 from failed direct deposit only company?
Yes, there's a way. I actually wrote a blog post about it. Its a new service from the IRS which allows you pulling your account online. IRS also has an instruction page just for this case here.
As others have said, make sure you can and do file your taxes on a cash basis (not accrual). It sounds like it's very unlikely the company is going to issue you a 1099 for invoices they never paid you. So you just file last year's taxes based on your income, which is the money you actually received. If they do pay you later, in the new year, you'll include that income on next year's tax return, and you would expect a 1099 at that time. Side note: not getting paid is unfortunately common for consultants and contractors. Take the first unpaid invoice and sue them in small claims court. After you win (and collect!), tell them you'll sue them for each unpaid invoice in turn until they pay you in full. (You might need to break up the lawsuits like that to remain under the small claims limit.) What? My last room mate was a teller, and I can tell you this isn't the case. If you're given a bad payroll cheque or a bounced cheque the bank will know before its transferred. If payroll bounces find a new job because you're fucked.   If you're working for a company that makes over 1 million a year, they can issue paper cheques but choose not too for whatever reason. "As far as the banker himself goes, it's a customer service issue.  WF is not going to tell you about their internal discipline (or oughtn't, anyway), other than potentially to confirm that the banker does or does not still work there; that's the closest they should get to telling you about it.  I'm a (very) former retail manager, and that's absolutely the most I'd ever do in a case like this; and trust me, even with good customer service reps, you get requests to fire someone a lot, sometimes valid, sometimes not. You did the correct thing from your end: you brought the issue to their attention.  Despite the quota, it's (hopefully) not permitted to sign people up without their permission (since that's illegal!), and I can say that in my retail experience, with these promotions with great incentive to cheat in this manner, one of the main things our loss prevention department did was to monitor data to see if people were illicitly signing people up for cards or otherwise cheating the system.  That could be a very bad thing from a customer service point of view and from a legal point of view. What you should have done (or possibly did, but it's not clear in your post) is, after you reported the issue, asked for a re-contact on a particular date in the future - not ""after you've looked into it"", but ""Next friday I would like to get a call from you to discuss the resolution.""  Again, they're not going to tell you the discipline, but they should tell you at least that they've investigated it and will make sure it doesn't happen again, or similar.  It's possible they will want more information from you at this point, and this is a useful way to make sure that request doesn't fall off of their plate.  They should be able to, at least, tell you if there was a perceived issue on their end - it might be something meaningless to you, like ""He thought you said to sign up"", or something more descriptive, like ""He pushed the button to send you a notice, but our computer system screwed that up and made it an application"".  You never know these days how easy it is to screw these things up. Now, they certainly should have fixed the issues on your end.  Hopefully they did whatever you needed them to do banking-wise, or else you withdrew your money and went somewhere else.  If not, follow up with that supervisor's supervisor, or go up a level or two to a regional director or equivalent.  They may not be able to cancel the card for you, but the other banking-related things they certainly should fix.  The card you probably just have to cancel and be done with. As far as the misuse of personal information, one thing I'd consider doing is placing a freeze on your credit report.  Then this could never have happened - you would have to lift it to have your report pulled to be given the card.  This is not free, though, so consider this before doing this." They might be concerned with having to charge sales tax in California if they have a single employee in California, creating a nexus situation with CA. If that's the case, or even if there is some other issue, you might be able to switch from being a W2 employee to being a 1099 independent contractor. There's a host of additional issues this could cause, but it alleviate the nexus problem (if THAT is the problem). Here's a terrible solution you can bring up, but shouldn't do under any circumstances: offer to set up a mailing address in an allowed State, and give your company plausible deniability with regards to your legal residence. Obviously, this is a terrible idea, but exploring that option with your employer would help you suss out what the actual objection is. Ultimately, anything said here about the reason is just conjecture. You need to talk to the decision maker(s) about the real reason behind the denial. Then you can talk through solutions. Also - don't forget that you can get another job. If you are serious about a future with your girlfriend, you should put that relationship ahead of your current employment comfort and security. If you are willing to walk away from your position, you are in a much better situation to negotiate. If you're under audit - you should get a proper representation. I.e.: EA or CPA licensed in California and experienced with the FTB audit representation. There's a penalty on failure to file form 1099, but it is with the IRS, not the FTB. If I remember correctly, it's something like $50 or $100 per instance. Technically they can disqualify deductions claiming you paid under the table and no taxes were paid on the other side, however I doubt they'd do it in a case of simple omission of filing 1099 forms. Check with your licensed tax adviser. Keep in mind that for the IRS 2011 is now closed, since the 3-year statute of limitations has passed. For California the statute is 4 years, and you're almost at the end of it. However since you're already under audit they may ask you to agree to extend it. You should be receiving monthly P&amp;L statements at the very least. Who did you have filing taxes, doing payroll, performing audits? It seems that many restaurants and bars have a slippery cash issue where profits seem to just slide out the doors. Everyone touching cash might be skimming and if the manager is doing all the totals and reconciling the tills and filing taxes then that single point of failure is going to KILL you. I actually think your boss is creating a problem for you. Of course it's taxable. The things IRS will look at (and they very well might, as it does stand out) what kind of payment is that. Why did it not go through payroll? The company may be at risk here for avoiding FICA/FUTA/workers' compensation insurance/State payroll taxes. Some are mandatory, and cannot be left to the employee to pay. On your side it raises your taxable income without the appropriate withholding, you may end up paying underpayment penalties for that (that is why you've been suggested to keep proofs of when you were paid). Also, it's employment income. If it is not wages - you're liable for self-employment taxes (basically the portion of FICA that the employer didn't pay, and your own FICA withholding). When you deposit the check is of no matter to the IRS, its when you got it that determines when you should declare the income. You don't have a choice there. I suggest asking the company payroll why it didn't go through them, as it may be a problem for you later on. Some lenders will work with you if you contact them early and openly discuss your situation.  They are not required to do so.  The larger and more corporate the lender, the less likely you'll find one that will work with you. My experience is that your success in working out repayment plan for missed payments depends on the duration of your reduced income.  If this is a period of unemployment and you will be able to pay again in a number of months, you may be able to work out a plan on some debts. If you're permanently unable to pay in full, or the duration is too long, you may have to file bankruptcy to save your domicile and transportation.  The ethics of this go beyond this forum, as do the specifics of when it is advisable to file bankruptcy. Research your area, find debt counselling.  They can really help with specifics.  Speak with your lenders, they may be able to refer you to local non-profit services.  Be sure that you find one of those, not one of the predatory lenders posing as credit counselling services.  There's even some that take the money you can afford to pay, divide it up over your creditors, allowing you to keep accruing late/partial payment fees, and charge you a fee on top of it.  To me this is fraudulent and should be cause for criminal charges. The key is open communication with your lenders with disclosure to the level that they need to know.  If you're disabled, long term, they need to know that.  They do not need to know the specific symptoms or causes or discomforts.  They need to know whether the Social Security Administration has declared you disabled and are paying you a disability check.  (If this is the case, you probably have a case worker who can find you resources to help negotiate with your creditors). If you leave without having met all the obligations in the contract they could sue you for the money. The size of the company may mean that they are experienced in collecting their debts. The insurance they made you pay for, may pay them back if they meet all the requirements in the policy. That means that you will have to read the terms of the policy to see if the insurance company will come after you for the losses. It is likely that your skipping out early while owing money will be attached to your credit history without your SSN. The IRS allows filers to attach a statement explaining the reason for late filing.  I have had clients do this in the past, and there has never been an issue (not that that guarantees anything, but is still good to know). Generally, the IRS is much more lenient when a taxpayer voluntarily complies with a filing requirement, even if it's late, than if they figure it out themselves and send a notice. The bottom line is something in your story is not adding up.   You had two checks one that is voided, and one that is not.  Lets say they are both written against your account for $100.  Lets also assume that have exactly $100 in your account. You give the Liquor Store the voided one, they give you $100, but when they attempt to cash the check at their bank they are denied and assessed a $20 fee.  You spend the $100 they gave you; however, you still should have $100 in your account as the check was not cashed. You want to make things right with the liquor store.  You should be able to withdraw the $100 you still have in the bank and give them that much.  While they will still be out the $20 fee, that should make them feel much better about you as a customer.  Tell them when you will be paid and that you will give them the $20 on that date.  Then do so. The only way this problem is not solvable is that you spent the $100 that was left in the bank.  In that case, the Liquor store is correct you stole the money.  More accurately you spent money that wasn't yours. "Your question does not say this explicitly, but I assume that you were once a W-2 employee.  Each paycheck a certain amount was withheld from your check to pay income, social security, and medicare taxes.  Just because you did not receive that amount of money earned does not mean it was immediately sent to the IRS.  While I am not all that savvy on payroll procedures, I recall an article that indicated some companies only send in withheld taxes every quarter, much like you are doing now.  They get a short term interest free loan.  For example taxes withheld by a w-2 employee in the later months of the year may not be provided to the IRS until 15 January of the next year.   You are correct in assuming that if you make 100K as a W-2 you will probably pay less in taxes than someone who is 100K self employed with 5K in expenses.  However there are many factors.  Provided you properly fill out a 1040ES, and pay the correct amount of quarterly payments, you will almost never owe taxes.  In fact my experience has been the forms will probably allow you to receive a refund.  Tax laws can change and one thing the form did not include last year was the .9% Medicare surcharge for high income earners catching some by surprise.    As far as what you pay into is indicative of the games the politicians play.  It all just goes into a big old bucket of money, and more is spent by congress than what is in the bucket.  The notion of a ""social security lockbox"" is pure politics/fantasy as well as the notion of medicare and social security taxes.  The latter were created to make the actual income tax rate more palatable.     I'd recommend getting your taxes done as early as possible come 1 January 2017.  While you may not have all the needed info, you could firm up an estimate by 15 Jan and modify the amount for your last estimated payment.  Complete the taxes when all stuff comes in and even if you owe an amount you have time to save for anything additional.  Keep in mind, between 1 Jan 17 and 15 Apr 17 you will earn and presumably save money to use towards taxes.  You can always ""rob"" from that money to pay any owed tax for 2016 and make it up later. All that is to say you will be golden because you are showing concern and planning.  When you hear horror stories of IRS dealings it is most often that people spent the money that should have been sent to the IRS." File a 2nd amended return that corrects the mistake I made on the 1st amended return This. Pay the $500 before April 27th and try to get it back later This. She filed for 0 withholdings in her W4, so my (unprofessional) guess   was that she'd be owed money, and therefore the IRS wouldn't care much   if she didn't file her taxes.† Maybe, but doesn't she want that money back? Is she at as much risk as any other individual of being audited and   penalized to the same degree if she skips filing her taxes? Audited and penalized are not the same. She's at the same risk of being audited, and even slightly higher since the IRS got reports of her wages, but didn't get the matching report from her. They may want to ask why. But it doesn't mean she's going to be penalized for anything. Being audited doesn't mean you did something wrong. Or does the IRS tend to overlook such individuals. The IRS might want to overlook because they're the ones owning money. She cannot get a refund without filing a tax return. She'd file her taxes today if she could, but the worry is that time's   running out Filing an extension is free and it postpones the deadline to file till OCTOBER! Should I have a W-2 re-issued? A W-2 can be corrected and a new copy will be filed with the IRS if your employer incorrectly reported your income and withholding on a W-2 that they issued. In this case, though the employer didn't withhold those taxes, they should not reissue the W-2 unless they plan to pay your portion of the payroll taxes that were not withheld. (If they paid your share of the taxes, that would increase your gross income.) Who pays for the FICA I should have paid last year? Both you and your employer owe 7.65% each for FICA taxes. By law your employer is required to pay their half and you are required to pay your half. Both you and your employer owe additional taxes because of this mistake. Your other questions assume that your employer will pay your portion of the taxes withheld. You employer could decide to do that, but this also assumes that it was your employer's fault that the mistakes were made. If you transitioned to resident alien but did not inform your employer, how is that your employer's fault?