Legal Question in Tax Law in Illinois

Can you tell me if I need a lawyer.My wife has MS and worked for peoples gas in chicago. The company had a disability benefit and paid my wife benefits for 5 years. all that time the company wanted my wife to file for social security. We filed for benefits but were always turned down. The company hired a lawyer and after 5 years my wife was considered disabled by social security. Social security paid my wife benefits for the last 5 years and put a lump sum payment into my checking account without our knowledge.When we filed out taxes that money was listed as income and we had to pay the IRS 6,000.00 in taxes because we went in a high tax bracket. My wife already paid taxes on that money in the form of deductions that were taken out of her checks. Now the money is gone from our checking acct due to paying back the company but we were left with the damage it caused.Now the company is saying we are responsible for paying the lawyer and are holding back her checks due to some overpayment. The company says they are not responsible for paying back any taxes we paid on that money so to me that money was taxed 2 times. through deductions taken from her check and from us paying income tax on that money.It dont seem right we had to pay income tax on money that was not ours and had to be paid back to the company and the companys attitude of not giving us any documents or recipts they recieved the money.


Asked on 4/15/10, 5:22 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Cyndi Perez Trostin

You will definitely need the documents from the company to prove that the Social Security payment was something that would eventually be reimbursed to the company to offset diability payments that you received over the 5 years.

You have a right by law to receive a copy of the companys "Plan Document" for its disability policy.

Let me know if I can assist you.

Read more
Answered on 4/20/10, 11:35 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Tax and Taxation Law questions and answers in Illinois