I’d check to make sure there isn’t an updated W2, and That it actually was not paid. If it legit was not paid to the city you owe it, not the employer.

Unfortunately you're on the hook but maybe consult with an account if there's any deductions you're missing that would avoid the underpayment or late pay penalty

I'm a tax accountant. You're still responsible for the taxes since the tax pertains to individuals (not a business entity tax). However, your employer is responsible for complying with withholding requirements and it seems like they didn't fully comply here. This means they could be subject to penalty. Since the amount at issue is so small, I don't think anything will happen. If this is a prevalent issue, the state/city would penalize the employer and you could request a penalty abatement to the extent that you ended up being subjected to an underpayment penalty.

Taxes (except employer portion) is always on you. The only is difference is remittance. They don’t have an obligation to remit NYC portion on your behalf IIRC. But my only experience in that was with a non nyc company while living in nyc

Thanks a lot! I made an appointment for in-person tax prep, but while I have you here here is a follow up question: is it possible to only do my taxes with the first W2 and save the second one for next year? And still just tell my employer that they're supposed to be taking more out so I don't have to have the same issue on the next W2. Because I know my mom has skipped years of doing taxes when she owes but somehow saves the stuff to do it the next year. But also my mom does crazy things sometimes, idk. And I'd rather ask a crazy (illegal?) question online than in-person lol

This happened to me awhile ago. I owed quite a bit of tax that year ughh.

I'm not a tax accountant, but as a self employed person, I have to play tax accountant 4 to 6 times a year. You have to file and pay your taxes every year. Your mom will have to pay penalties on what she owes. If the amounts are small, it's likely that the IRS isn't bothering with coming for whats owed, but they can. Or in this case, NY State dept of taxation instead of the IRS.

Personal income tax is your personal income tax. Withholding is a form of prepayment. It doesn't change your total tax burden, and it isn't a tax on your employer, its on you. Your employer pays separate payroll taxes that you won't even see.

No, you should be reporting all income earned in 2022 on your 2022 tax return. This especially counts for W2s as they are filed with the government anyway. So Federal and NY will know how much wages you were paid from both jobs in 2022.

Me too. Took forever for my job to fix it.

This happened to my husband last year. He switched jobs at beginning of the year and filled out a new W-4 without really reading it. Job didn’t withhold NYC local tax and he owed 2k. Messed us up for 6months. You’re lucky it’s only $250. Most likely you filed out the W-4 at the new job incorrectly. Go to your HR and submit a new one. The sooner you correct it, the less money you will owe in the future.

I honestly don't know what I could've done differently between the two jobs, do you know what box is for local taxes?

I can’t remember without having it in front of me but I’m positive that’s your issue. Get a copy of the W-4 from your old job and fill out the same boxes on a new W-4 for your current employer and resubmit to your HR. That’s the only way to fix it going forward. It’s not something a tax preparer can fix for you.

Edit: does your employer have your current W4 online? Check to see what you put down. It could be they input the wrong withholding information but it’s usually an employee error.

Ugh, thanks so much! Both this job and the last are in the diamond district in NYC and they've both been pretty casual, small offices. There's not really a dedicated HR so I hope they can find my stuff in all their papers >.<

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No they don't have any online portal things at all. Tbh my transition from big retail to office working has been very mid imo, I definitely expected a lot more professionalism or at least way more things to be streamlined. Like being able to view my damn paystubs whenever I want

Update: I got my W4 back and it doesn't even have that box for claiming 1 or 0. There is no box for that since 2019 according to the IRS website. I can see the previous W4 revisions and I see that currently and since 2020 it's called the Employee's Withholding Certificate, whereas 2019 and early it was called the Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate. Without that box to specify the total number of allowances I'm claiming, how can I even change this for the future? Because I do not want to keep owing local tax and ofc they're acting as if they have no idea what I'm talking about.