Malloy blamed for over-taxed, under-paid

Hartford, Conn. (WTNH) - A payroll problem means a lot of people across Connecticut are getting less money in their paycheck than they expected.

News 8 has been digging into the over-taxed problem ever since hearing folks talk about it earlier this month.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Connecticut residents that got bonuses or worked overtime expecting to have extra cash for holiday shopping have been getting a very rude jolt when they open their paychecks.

Payroll divisions for private companies, and for state employees have been withholding too much money for the state income tax.

In a Report It  e-mail, Rich Savoie said; "I got my check, and I was shocked to see that I paid $960 in state income tax for a two week period. I normally would pay under $200. What gives?"

Ivette Toyen said "I worked ten hours over time last week and made $209 and 25 cents for my overtime, to my surprise Connecticut withholdings were $286 and 18 cents for this week alone."

Lawrence Ivy said "Taking the retro-active lump-sum tax payment from people's paychecks here at my job and taking their entire pay checks a week before Christmas, shame on the Governor."

"Everyone needs someone to blame, I'm more than happy to take the blame," said Governor Dannel P. Malloy.
       
The grinch that stole Christmas for many potential Christmas shoppers does not appear to be Malloy.  The Governor and the state Tax Commissioner are blaming the payroll companies that prepare paychecks, because they are treating overtime and bonuses as if you made that much money every week of the year.

"We've told these companies, the employers, the payroll companies since August, how to do it, and how not to do it," said Cmsr. Kevin Sullivan from the CT Dept. of Revenue Services .

"Most people's payrolls are now processed by about fifteen different companies, and about five companies do most of them, and a number of those companies did not make the adjustments, and so it's causing a lot of difficulty," said Malloy.

"Anything that uniquely and specially increases their pay, the payroll companies treat it, incorrectly, as if they had earned that much money every week of the year," said Sullivan      

Some employers including the State of Connecticut, have taken steps to fix this by issuing checks for the over-taxed amount back to the employee, but some people may not get their money back until next year in the form of a rebate when they file their taxes.