SAN ANTONIO — Catherine Cervantes still needed her W-2 by the time April rolled around.
The mother worked at Tommy John’s Tailgate several months last year and just needed the company to send her the form, but there was a problem:
Tommy John’s Tailgate had permanently closed last year.
Cervantes said she had started reaching out to people after the W-2 wasn’t posted on a web portal by January 31. Months later she still couldn’t reach any manager who knew how to get the forms and she said other employees were in the same situation.
“I started reaching out to my coworkers and I was like, ‘Girl do you have your W-2?’ They were like,‘ nope!’ She reached out to another person and ‘nope!”” Cervantes said.
She also reached out on Nextdoor.com and found even more people with the same issue.
The IRS told Cervantes she could still fill out Form 4852 without her W-2 if she had enough information from previous paystubs. The IRS could also attempt to contact the previous employer if the taxpayer provided enough information.
Regardless, Cervantes still didn’t have the W-2 at the end of March and she was frustrated that she couldn’t contact the company to provide it.
“I’m in contact with other employees and I just feel for all of us that we are still stuck in this. I know some of them don’t have the paystubs (for IRS forms),” Cervantes said.
Finally, she called KENS 5.
“I do watch you guys on my tablet on time to time,” she said.
KENS 5 started tracking down information on Tommy John’s Tailgate and its parent company, Vision Management Texas LLC. KENS 5 then found out that company listed Attorney Thomas Kherkher as its registered agent.
KENS 5 started calling and emailing Kherkher’s law firm to get a response. After several calls and emails on Monday, Kherkher responded to KENS 5 and the company sent Cervantes her W-2 the same day.
Kherkher told KENS 5 via email, “Tommy John's Tailgate closed last year. Our third-party payroll company was responsible for issuing W-2s to former employees and did not do it. Once we became aware of the situation, we have been manually preparing and distributing W-2s for every former employee. We believe the majority of W-2s have already been received, and we expect 100% to be distributed by Wednesday. As of the time of this email, Ms. Cervantes W2 has been sent to the email we have on file for her.”
Cervantes told KENS 5 she got her W-2 extremely quickly after KENS 5 finished emailing the company.
“Twenty minutes later I got the W-2!” Cervantes said. “I was a bit frustrated because it seemed like such a simple easy thing for them to get it to me.”
Still, Cervantes said she feels a lot better finishing her taxes with the numbers on the W-2.
“Having that is the best-case scenario for me,” she said. “You got me mine so thank you so much!”
Thomas Kherkher followed up with KENS 5 on Tuesday morning and said he received word that all of the remaining W-2 forms should have been sent out by the end of Monday. He said anyone with additional concerns can reach out at visionmanagementtx@outlook.com
KENS 5 reached back out to other employees and they also confirmed their W-2 forms had been received.
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