When Your Employer Pays the Wrong School District

My husband and I recently sat down to fill out our taxes for 2007. After filing our federal and state income taxes, we moved on and focused our attention towards the school district taxes in our area. We quickly realized his employer paid his withheld amount to the wrong school district. Can you get that money back?

As always, tax laws are very complicated and they vary from area to area. Always check with a tax accountant for specific information in your state and county.

For us, we called our local H and R Block to get the answer. The H and R Block representative was extremely helpful. They did not try to get us to schedule an appointment or even come in for a consultation. I am used to filing my taxes without a professional and was relieved to know that I could manage this issue on my own, as well.

It turned out that we are able to get back the money that the employer paid to the school district that was in our state, but not the district where we reside. The employer was mistaken when they paid the witheld amount to the school district where the business was located. They should have paid this amount to the school district where we live.

To get our money back to us, we needed to do a little paperwork. We were required to file two forms for the school district tax this year. The first form we filed was to our local school district associated with our home address. Because the payments were misdirected by the employer, we owed a few hundred dollars to this district.

The second tax form we filed was for the school district that my husband's employer paid by mistake. We filed the form as a non-resident. This indicates that the money was paid into their district by mistake and that we were owed a refund.

It is possible to get the money back after it has been paid to the wrong school district in your state. We were warned that it will take awhile to receive our refund check in the mail.

Although we are currently out the money we owed our local school district in taxes and the money that was witheld from my husband's pay last year, we will soon be getting the witheld money back to us. It is possible to get your money back in some cases, so it is wise to do a little research to find out.