I worked for a company earlier this year which I received wages for. Since then, the company has gone out of business and has several tax lines against them.

I received a W2, but was a little leary and I contacted the former owner of the business and I was flat out told that they were not paying their quarterly taxes and that the taxes shown on my W2 were never paid. If I include this W2 as a part of my return, does the missing taxes that were not paid fall on me or on the former business?

As you can see, Both ER and EE hold the responsibility for collecting and remitting withholding taxes to the IRS. For the most part, theER withholds these taxes on behalf of their employees; EEs who do not have taxes withheld nor remit them personally, are still liable for these taxes and may not qualify for Social Security, Medicare, or unemployment benefits. if the ER refuses to withhold employment taxes from these wages and the IRS is unable to collect the employment taxes from the ER, yo, as an EE, still has the responsibility to pay income tax and is ultimately responsible for your share of the FICA tax. Your ER who did not comply with the employment tax laws may be subject to criminal and civil sanctions for willfully failing to pay employment taxes. ERs must report income and employment taxes withheld from their EEs on Form 941 and deposit these taxes in full to an authorized bank or financial institution pursuant to Federal Tax Deposit Requirements. ERs are also responsible for filing a FUTA return annually, and depositing those taxes.