Kiryas Joel, NY – Anthony Martin of Highland Mills says he lost his job because he blew the whistle on tax cheats in the government of New York’s fastest-growing village.
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In a suit filed May 22 in U.S. District Court, Martin says the village’s public works boss fired him last year because he notified the state Department of Labor and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that Kiryas Joel failed to deduct taxes from his paycheck.
Martin started as a full-time street sweeper in Kiryas Joel on May 26.
On Aug. 13, he reported the lack of payroll deductions to the state and feds, and on Aug. 22, the village fired him, according to his lawsuit.
“His speech addressed a matter of concern, i.e., municipal corruption, and is protected by the First Amendment,” wrote Stephen Bergstein, the lawyer representing Martin.
Neither DPW Director Zalman Stern nor Donald Nichol, the village’s lawyer, could be reached to discuss the suit Monday.
Authorities did not respond to a request for comment about what, if anything, they were doing about Martin’s report.
Martin wants damages and compensation for lost wages. The suit doesn’t name an amount.
He also wants to go back to work.
“Working for the government has its benefits,” Bergstein explained. “The government doesn’t go out of business.”
If these allegations are true, the government almost always imposes a hefty fine and requires the offending agency to restore the job of the individual. There are whistle protection rules both at the NYS and Federal levels which would protect him from retaliation for reporting a violation of law. Hopefully, the city fathers in KJ, will not view themselves as above the law as they so often do.
sounds like a Jewish lawyer. would you believe this world !?!?!?!?1
In this day and age, for a municipality to act so stupidly is simply embarrassing. Even if they had a legitimate reason to fire him they should have avoided the appearance of a revenge firing. Now the good tax-payers of KJ will have the honor of paying out another hefty settlement on account of their “leader’s” antics.
i don’t understand how you can sue an employer for not withholding enough taxes. An employer gains no benefit of withholding less taxes since those taxes are taken off the paycheck. the emplyee most probably didn’t fill out his w-4 properly. my guess is the court will throw out this case.
i don’t get this. the village has no benefit from not withholding taxes from an employee’s wages; it is only the employee who went home with a bigger paycheck so why did he complain?
The employer DO save himself from taxes, the law is that when you take down from the Employees paycheck his SS and Medicare taxes you have to give the same amount from your own pocket, so let’s say this mans SS and Medicare tax was $50 the village had to pay an ADDITIONAL $50 so with 500 on payroll you save $25,000 a week.
He is no whistle blower. He is a dumb bell.
Why doesn’t he simply ask the HR or Payroll dept. About it.
Its most probably a simple misstake and it might even be on his side while filling out the forms.
I would fire someone if they run to the state before asking the office. Nothing to worry in my opinion.
I am a “real” CPA – I can spell (except I might make a few typos). The issue is whether the guy is treated as an employee or an “independent contractor” (an “ic”). It is a very hot IRS issue. If he is an employee, the employer has to pay its share of the FICA and Medicare PLUS employee benefits PLUS some state Unemployment Tax PLUS Workers’ Comp, PLUS, PLUS, etc etc. It is MORE than just not withholding. If you are the employee and the employee treats you as an “ic”, you are screwed out of your benefits AND you then have to pay BOTH halves of the Social Security taxes. So it ends up costing the individual a lot more than if he was an employee.