Hi,
I work for an employer who has decided to give me an incentive of $ to stay with my company with the clause in it that if I leave anytime in 2 years I owe all the money back. My employer will take out taxes now when they give me the money and record the total income addition on this years W2. They likewise insist if I leave, I owe them a check for the entire amount.

My question is what happens if I decide to leave my employer under 2 years to my stated income and can I go back and restate my 2015 income to a lower number and thus recoup the taxes paid as well?

Any insight, I just don't know if I can make my income go down, and refile my taxes from a prior year or what.

Thanks .... Chris

they will ask that you pay it back upon termination while filling out all the termination paperwork, probably in a written letter. Generally, Taxes are withheld when the bonus is paid out and you need to repay the pretax amount to your current employer. If less than $3k, it is a miscellaneous deduction subject to 2% of agi limitationsl; if over $3k, then,you can take the repayment off on sch A line 28 ,no reduction of 2% of agi. Or, you can recalculate the year's return where you reported the income without the payment.