My former boss is evading taxes Forum

[Anonymous User]

Help.

After my 1L year I worked for a sole practitioner. He hires 3-5 law clerks year round and 1 paralegal. He classifies law clerks as independent contractors and ultimately saves thousands of dollars a year for doing so. After working only the summer the tax burden was shifted to me and I paid $800 in taxes when I would have received a refund of $500 if I’d been properly classified. Not to mention, he completely abused the power differential all summer (no breaks, yelling, etc.).

I have consulted with several attorneys and done my own research as well. The law is on my side. He would be facing serious penalties and possible disbarment.
The question is: Do I worry about my reputation and what he might do to tarnish it? And obviously just suck up the injustice? He is very adversarial. (Unsure how well connected he is—he’s 65 years old FYI) OR proceed with a demand letter?

The compromise I’ve reached is waiting until I secure a job for after graduation and then proceed. It’s less amount the money and more so about his abuse of power that pisses me off. Or is this even silly to do? Thoughts?

[sparkytrainer]

Honestly, what good is going to come out of this? A few hundred bucks to potentially ruin your reputation? Not worth

[2013]

One question on bar applications is whether you’re involved in litigation. So you’d have to probably update your bar application if you sued.

[jhett]

There's no point in suing him. Why place the burden of proving he's scummy on yourself? It would be less complicated to report him to the state bar for investigation. But probably the best option is to make like Elsa and let it go.

[RaceJudicata]

You could have reduced your tax burden by taking deductions as IC. Stop being petty - and definitely don’t send this guy a demand letter/try and sue him.

[woopig2017]

You could have reduced your tax burden by taking deductions as IC. Stop being petty - and definitely don’t send this guy a demand letter/try and sue him.

This is right. Coming in as an IC, did you not ask yourself if something was wrong when you noticed that your paychecks didn't have any withholding? Your employer is likely benefitting from not paying payroll tax but ultimately your tax burden is your own fault.

[sallysitwell]

No offense, but the law is not on your side on the tax classification issue. I was also a law clerk at a small firm that classified summer law clerks as independent contractors. Thankfully, the office manager told us incoming law clerks about the tax implications of the IC classification and suggested that we save about 20% from each paycheck, as we would need to pay taxes on it when we filed our taxes. It sucks that maybe this attorney did not tell you that you would owe uncle Sam money at the end of the year on what you made over the summer, but honestly that is not his responsibility...No matter what you were classified as, you have to pay taxes.