Legal Question in Employment Law in California

I am employed at University of California (UC) on a J1 visa since December 2019. The human resources department (HR) did a mistake on time of hire where they didn't set up a Glacier account for me. Glacier accounts are obligatory for all foreigners that are employed at UC to determine the correct amount of taxes to be withheld. As a result the taxes that were withheld were way more than what I should pay. I discovered myself that I needed a Glacier account two years later and they setup one for me and only then my tax withholdings were correct. Later this year, it came to my attention that I should have have been considered a non-resident alien in 2019 and 2020 for tax purposes and that I would not had to pay FICA taxes for these years. UC wrongfully withheld them for no reason other than the HR department made a mistake. More over they refuse to repay me all the money they withheld (around 5000$) because they say I was too late to ask (there is an IRS limit of 3 years), they offered to repay a couple of hundred dollars for months of October, November and December as the 3 years limit has not passed for these 3 months. Note that they withheld thousands of dollars that I was able to recover by tax refund but that put me in financial trouble every month until I file for tax return. Also they messed up my payment for the first year and they put me on a lower pay scale than what I should have been, they detected the error after a year and a half and corrected it and refunded me the difference. All of this put me in real troubling financial situation and a lot of stress during COVID-19 pandemic where I was also supporting my family in my home country. Can I sue UC for the taxes that should not have been withheld (around 5000$) ? Because of all the financial stress I suffered from 2 episodes of kidney stones pain (I payed hundreds of dollars in medical expenses), degenerative disk disease and amplified allergic reaction to an allergen that I still need to identify. Can I sue UC for all the stress related medical conditions and how much should I ask for?


Asked on 10/04/23, 3:53 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

You would be very unlikely to be successful in such a lawsuit.

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Answered on 10/05/23, 7:37 am


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