investigativevoice.com

By Stephen Janis

The W-2 form — the annual statement of an employee’s wages sent to the Internal Revenue Service by an employer — was mailed to a Baltimore teen, indicating he had earned $350 while working last summer for the city’s Youth Works program.

But he never worked an hour for the federally funded program designed to give city teens gainful summer employment.

Instead, city officials now say the errant tax form was part of major glitch that sent hundreds of inaccurate federal tax statements to teens reporting overstated earnings, and in some cases, earnings for youths who never worked an hour.

Now city officials are scrambling to fix more than 500 inaccurate tax documents mailed last month.

“This was a glitch.”

The root of the problem, Freeman said, is the way the Youth Works program, which employees roughly 7,000 city youths in minimum wage jobs for six weeks in the summer, processes applicants.

All applicants are entered into the payroll system when they apply in the winter, a practice the city agency is reconsidering. The applicant stays in the system even if he or she does not procure a job.

“We populate the system with everyone who applies,” Freeman said.

Thus, Freeman added, some applicants who never worked received tax statements reporting wages they did not earn. To fix the problem, he said, the city is sending updated W-2’s known as C-3 forms.

Still, City Councilman Robert Curran (D-3rd), who learned of the problem tax forms from a constituent, said he was concerned that some statements reported earnings for teens who never worked for the program.

“I don’t know how you get wages on a W-2 with a debit of disbursement,” Curran said. “Who got the disbursement?”

Curran said one of his constituents, whose son received the W-2 reporting $350 in wages even though he did not work for the program, has spoken with the Inspector General’s office.

“I know the Inspector General’s office is investigating it,” Curran added.

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