Company went bankrupt. Does a new owner have the rights to my private information?

State: New York

A company my husband and I worked for in 2008 went bankrupt in Feb 2008. We have since moved on to new positions and are dealing with the issue of taxes and how to file if we have no W-2 for that company.

We have our last pay-stub which has all the info we need and we will most likely have a service file for us this year as it is complicated.

1000 people lost their jobs along with us. We now hear that an employee at the NEW company (an auction was held and the previous company was sold lock stock and barrel to an investment company) but they are NOT doing business as the old company. They merely bought assets, intellectual knowledge and such and changed their name as well.

I feel that while it is a NICE gesture for them to try to create a W-2 for the employees, I personally think this seems illegal. Basically - it is as if the previous business left all the items behind (which they did) and the new tenant of the building (it was rented by the prior and current) simply decided to go through the personnel files and use the information for what ever reason.

I don't see how this can be allowed? Is it legal? They are NOT DOING BUSINESS as the previous business to make that clear. It was a full bankruptcy (not sure if a 7 or an 11) but it was closed down and sold off to pay creditors.

Any help is appreciated here as I will pass it along to our other fellow employees/co-workers who lost their jobs and are dealing with this.

If they buy the assets of the old company then they have ownership of the personnel records and therefore know what the employees were paid. They can use this information to generate a copy of what a W-2 for employee use.

Information assets like customer lists and employee records are in fact assets that can be bought and sold. In fact, customer lists can be the most valuable asset of failed businesses.

I would expect it to be illegal (or at least against IRS regulations) for the new company to file that W-2 with the IRS without an agreement from the original company that those W-2s would be filed on their behalf.

[sandra]

W-2

Form W-2, 2008

Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, is used in the United States income tax system as an information return to report wages paid to employees and the taxes withheld from them. The form is also used to report FICA taxes to the Social Security Administration. Relevant amounts on Form W-2 are reported by the Social Security Administration to the Internal Revenue Service.

Employers must complete a Form W-2 for each employee to whom they pay a salary, wage, or other compensation as part of the employment relationship. An employer must deliver the Form W-2 to employees on or before January 31st of the calendar year. The Form W-2 reports income on a calendar year (January 1 through December 31) basis, regardless of the fiscal year used by the employer or employee for other Federal tax purposes. However, this refers to the time period in which an employee has been compensated, not necessarily the actual dates of employment. After the final payroll in December, employment is normally compensated and subject to tax in the following year.

If an employee works in more than one state, most employers will print multiple, mostly redundant W-2 sheets to report the pay divided out to each state it was earned in. Some employers will print multiple rows of states on each and all of the W-2 copies. Other employers, when confronted with an employee that lives in one state and works in another, print a W-2 that attributes the whole gross wages twice, once for each state. This form of statement, entered as is, causes many tax programs to tax the income twice on a state return.

The form consists of six copies:

• Copy A - Submitted by the employer to the Social Security Administration. (In addition, the employer must also submit Form W-3, which is a summary of all Forms W-2 completed, along with all Copies A submitted. The Form W-3 must be signed by the employer.)
• Copy B - To be sent to the employee and filed by the employee with the employee's federal income tax returns.
• Copy C - To be sent to the employee, to be retained by the employee for the employee's records.
• Copy D - To be retained by the employer, for the employer's records.
  Copy 1 - To be filed with the employee's state or local income tax returns (if any).
• Copy 2 - To be filed with the employee's state or local income tax returns (if any).

Employers are instructed to send copies B, C, 1, and 2 to their employees generally by January 31 of the year immediately following the year of income to which the Form W-2 relates, which gives these taxpayers about 2 1/2 months before the April 15 income tax due date. The Form W-2, with Form W-3, generally must be filed by the employer with the Social Security Administration by the end of February.

More information available @ Tax forms in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does this company happen to be Silver State Helicopters? I am facing the same problems!