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On September 15, 2008 Florida’ First District Court of Appeals decided the case of Fast Track Framing v Caraballo. In that case the court ruled that workers in Florida are not entitled to compensation benefits if their income is not reported to the IRS.
Although a worker is still entitled to medical care and treatment when injured on the job, the compensation or money benefits for lost wages and impairment are no longer available if the worker does not report his or her income to the IRS.
Ordinarily an injured worker may receive money when he or she is prevented from working due to a job related injury. The amount a worker gets depends upon the “wages” he or she earned during the 13 weeks before the accident. In the Fast Track Framing case, the court said that Florida law defines the term “wages” to mean only “wages earned and reported for federal income tax purposes on the job where the employee is injured”. Therefore if no earnings were reported by the injured worker during the 13 weeks before the accident then there are no “wages” to be used to calculate money benefits that would normally be due to the injured worker.
I some cases the benefits lost by these workers maybe a few hundred or few thousand dollars, but in others, where the injury may be catastrophic and lead to total disability or death, the benefits lost could be in the hundreds of thousands.
Attorneys who represent injured workers argue that such a harsh result unfairly penalizes the injured worker especially when there is ample proof of the amounts paid by the employer and received by the employee as compensation for work performed. Arguably, this law promotes employer misconduct as it provides a financial incentive for an employer to hire illegal workers or to pay workers “off of the books” so that they probably won’t report that income and be eligible for benefits when injured on the job.
I’ve been engaged in taxes for longer then I care to acknowledge, both on the private side (all my working life-time!!) and from a legal point of view since satisfying the bar and pursuing tax law. I’ve rendered a lot of advice and rectified a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you’ve put up makes perfect sense. Please carry on the good work – the more people know the better they’ll be armed to handle with the tax man, and that’s what it’s all about.
It takes TWO PEOPLE for under the table work – the employer, who makes the offer, and the employee who accepts it. Even if an employee accepts cash, they can STILL pay taxes and report the income.
If you’re breaking the law, you don’t get the benefits of the law abiding people. The wages of sin . .. literally.
No one is saying that coming into this country to work illegally is right. But why should an employer benefit at the expense of his workers for not complying with the law. Ultimately, we the people who pick up the tab for medical care and other benefits the poor and uninsured receive (including illegal workers) should seek to shift the burden onto the employer in this case.