HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -- It's a quandary more complicated than the one facing other victims of unemployment fraud: What do you do if you got some but not all of the unemployment compensation you were supposed to get -- but received a 1099-G tax form showing you received all your money?
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That's the latest challenge facing unemployment recipients whose money stopped showing up in their bank accounts because hackers siphoned it into fraudulent accounts by changing the direct-deposit banking information within the recipients' unemployment accounts.
The short answer about what to do: Report the fraud if you haven't yet done so. Then file your taxes based on what you actually received, not what the erroneous 1099-G says, according to Jim DeGaetano, a certified public accountant and president of Carlisle-based Diamond Wealth Advisors.
"If the IRS were to come back, you would already have gone through the appropriate channels," DeGaetano said.
A viewer contacted abc27 News after receiving an erroneous 1099-G, which meant potential double trouble: still missing the stolen funds but (if she filed a tax return based on what the 1099-G said) being forced to pay taxes on money she never received, meaning a smaller refund or owing money.
The Department of Labor and Industry (L&I) had previously told victims of fraud earlier in 2021 -- those whose identities fraudsters used to file unemployment claims -- to contact L&I and file their taxes based on what they actually received, which in those earlier cases was typically nothing. L&I confirmed to abc27 Thursday the same advice applies to people who filed legitimate claims and received only some of the money they were due: Report what you actually received.
That doesn't mean claimants will never pay taxes based on what they should have gotten. They will, if they get the money later. But they'll take care of that when they file this year's tax return next year. DeGaetano says you pay taxes based on when you actually received money, not when you expected it.
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