I work in EMS and I have have been working for the same company since I got my license. I've been able to do a ton of amazing things and its the first time I've had a job where I can genuinely say I love what I do, however I very suddenly got the shaft from my company.
One of the things EMS folks sometimes do is go on deployments in times of need. This can include natural disasters, staffing shortages, or locations of disease outbreaks.
These deployments are funded by FEMA. FEMA pays the company, and the company pays the EMTs and Paramedics that are shipped out. They pay good money and are tax free income. You pack a bag, and at any time in the coming week or two, you get a call and you have an hour to get to station to ship out. This is how I was sold on it initially, at least. I spent a month working in Florida during the Delta outbreak down there when hospitals and EMS couldn't keep up.
Fast forward to 2022. I got my W2 and shortly after I got a call from HR that basically said this:
“Hey, we got a new CFO at the main office and they realized that the law about taxing deployment income changed, so taxes are going to need to be paid on your deployment”
I was not happy. I spent a month on deployment. I had coworkers that had spent 3 months on deployment for natural disaster relief. Apparently someone at a different branch spent a total of 50 weeks in 2021 on deployments. We weren't happy.
About a month later I got another call from HR:
“Hey! Good news! The company is going to make this right and are footing the bill. We're issuing a corrected w2 for you that will solve the tax issues”
I was thrilled. My company has been good to me in the past and I really appreciated them coming through for me. I got my corrected W2 and hopped online to get it things done for the year. While doing this I realized while typing in my info that the corrected W2 that was supposed to solve the issue had just moved $12,000 of “non-taxable reimbursement” into standard “income” which meant that I now owed an ADDITIONAL $2500 on my taxes.
Everyone who went on deployment in 2021 was told explicitly that it was non-taxable income and everyone got royally screwed. Many coworkers have already given the company the middle finger and gone elsewhere. Long time veterans who have been a paramedic for decades at this company.
I just got a job offer secured at a new company in a different state and I'm just waiting to get through the wait list on an apartment in the area. Once that gets cleared I'm going to go talk with the head supervisor at my branch and get his input because he's been very quiet on the subject. The company is struggling and I know he'll want me to stay. I fully intend to ask for a check for the $2500 and when he says “no”, tell him I'm leaving.
I just can't decide if tossing my company badge and keys on his desk and walking out in true 80s cop movie fashion is the way to go or if I should bother with giving them a proper 2 week notice. There's still plenty of coworkers and supervisors who I'm friends with and can use as references so I wouldn't be burning all of my bridges. I haven't landed on a decision yet though.
TLDR: Company sent me on deployment for covid relief for a month and told me it was tax free income due to it being government funded. They then told me I owed thousands of dollars once tax season rolled around. Later, they lied and told me they were covering it while correcting my tax forms. The corrected form added $12,000 of untaxed income that I now owe $2500 on. What's the best way to separate myself from this company?