I have recently heard from a friend that Toyota plans to cut its pay (either through benefits, raises, or cold hard cash) by about $4 per hour to employees at the Georgetown plant. I always knew this would happen eventually. Toyota, keeping an eye on what Detroit pays its employees, and knowing what typical wages in Kentucky are, decided that it was paying its employees too much darn money. Of course, they won't just take $4 per hour straight out of the employees checks, but it still is going to hurt them plenty.
Toyota has reached a point where they are more interested in the BILLION$ they are making each quarter than the well-being of its employees. Endearing television commercials and sappy magazine advertisements can't convince anyone any more that Toyota cares about its employees.
I was one who wanted the UAW to come to Toyota while I was employed there. Unfortunately there were too many others who opposed it, because Toyota was their Savior and would never let them down. It's too bad the employees don't have an avenue for bargaining with management at the Georgetown plant. If so, they might have possibly been able to stave off some of the planned cuts.
P.S.
Gary Convis came from the NUMMI plant in California. This is a joint venture between Toyota and GM. It is also a UAW plant. They employees and NUMMI have a unique contract. There is a clause in it that states NUMMI will never lay off an employee, and in return the employees will never strike. I always thought it was funny when I would see videos of Gary Convis while still at NUMMI talking about how great the UAW is and what a great NUMMI had with the UAW. Then, like Jeckyll into Hyde, when he came to the Georgetown Toyota plant, suddenly he hated the UAW, and there could never be ANY good relationship between Toyota and the UAW. Suddenly the UAW only brought bad things to any table people gathered around to discuss things.
Yeah, pretty funny.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, December 4, 2006
The Beginning...
I've created this blog with my fellow man in mind. I worked for Toyota Motor Mfg., Inc. in Georgetown, KY (from this point on referred to as only Toyota), for over 11 years. I worked day-in and day-out until I simply couldn't stand the pain in my wrists, particularly my left. I consider the day that I left the line in V6 Powertrain to go see the on-site doctor about the pain in my left wrist as the very beginning of my new better life. To make a long story short, I ended up having damaged carpals in my wrist, and had a proximal-row carpectomy. That was long after leaving Toyota though, and that's not what this blog is for.
This blog is for everyone who has left, or is about to leave, Toyota through their "buyout" procedure. This includes me. The issue that is in the cross-hairs here is the tax on the amount (whatever that is, it varies from employee to employee) that the employee receives in his buyout offer. Consider this a public service announcement, just not necessarily for the entire public.
When Toyota offers an employee a buyout, the employee will meet with a Toyota official, sign a release form, and will typically receive a lump-sum payment a couple of weeks later. It is this payment (and the reason for the buyout offer) that is in question here. I received my buyout offer because of my injury to my wrist. The form I signed was titled "Settlement and Release". The word "Settlement" is of the utmost importance here.
When I signed my buyout form, I was told in no uncertain terms that this money I receive will be a lump-sum amount, and that I would be liable for the taxes on the amount. In other words, Toyota was going to give me money to leave the company, but they weren't taking out any taxes from the check that was being cut for me. At this time, I did not question this.
A few months after leaving, I met up with an acquaintance from my early days at Toyota. She told me that she too had received a buyout offer from Toyota, and that she was no longer an employee there. We shared stories and some laughs about working there, but what she told me next really intrigued me. She told me that she had paid taxes on her buyout amount, and the next year she had gotten the entire tax amount BACK. Her tax preparer told her that since the reason Toyota had offered her the buyout because of an injury, then that was considered a SETTLEMENT for an injury. That is why it is NON-TAXABLE.
So, at the end of the year, I did not pay taxes on my settlement amount. Toyota had sent me and the IRS a tax statement detailing the amount I was paid for my settlement, and it listed the tax I supposedly owed. This tax amount totaled several thousand dollars. Approximately a year and a half later I was audited by the IRS for the taxes I did not pay. I promptly sent a letter to the IRS explicitly stating my circumstance. Guess what happened...
Five weeks later I received a letter from the IRS stating that I had been CLEARED of the taxes I owed, and that no further action was necessary on my part. That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?
It doesn't end there. Another friend of mine received the Toyota buyout. I advised him to not pay the taxes on the amount he had received. About a year later he too was audited. I advised him to send a letter stating his circumstance and, lo and behold, he was released from the tax liability by the IRS.
Why did I create this blog? There are lots and lots of former Toyota employees out there who have received buyouts because they worked at that place until their bodies were broken. They gave all they could give, and when they couldn't give any more, Toyota had no more use for them. So Toyota offered them a buyout (which, granted, they don't have to offer) and instead of telling that broken down employee "Here, this entire sum of money is yours", they mistakenly tell him that he doesn't even get all of it, he has to pay taxes on it as well.
Or is it a mistake? Surely Toyota has enough high-paid lawyers who would know that this money isn't taxable, don't they?
Regardless, I wanted all the former Toyota employees who have taken the buyout, and all the current ones who are considering it, to know that if you receive that buyout due to an injury, and you sign a settlement and release form, that money is ALL YOURS!
Every little bit helps, right?
Regards,
Kevin Cornett
This blog is for everyone who has left, or is about to leave, Toyota through their "buyout" procedure. This includes me. The issue that is in the cross-hairs here is the tax on the amount (whatever that is, it varies from employee to employee) that the employee receives in his buyout offer. Consider this a public service announcement, just not necessarily for the entire public.
When Toyota offers an employee a buyout, the employee will meet with a Toyota official, sign a release form, and will typically receive a lump-sum payment a couple of weeks later. It is this payment (and the reason for the buyout offer) that is in question here. I received my buyout offer because of my injury to my wrist. The form I signed was titled "Settlement and Release". The word "Settlement" is of the utmost importance here.
When I signed my buyout form, I was told in no uncertain terms that this money I receive will be a lump-sum amount, and that I would be liable for the taxes on the amount. In other words, Toyota was going to give me money to leave the company, but they weren't taking out any taxes from the check that was being cut for me. At this time, I did not question this.
A few months after leaving, I met up with an acquaintance from my early days at Toyota. She told me that she too had received a buyout offer from Toyota, and that she was no longer an employee there. We shared stories and some laughs about working there, but what she told me next really intrigued me. She told me that she had paid taxes on her buyout amount, and the next year she had gotten the entire tax amount BACK. Her tax preparer told her that since the reason Toyota had offered her the buyout because of an injury, then that was considered a SETTLEMENT for an injury. That is why it is NON-TAXABLE.
So, at the end of the year, I did not pay taxes on my settlement amount. Toyota had sent me and the IRS a tax statement detailing the amount I was paid for my settlement, and it listed the tax I supposedly owed. This tax amount totaled several thousand dollars. Approximately a year and a half later I was audited by the IRS for the taxes I did not pay. I promptly sent a letter to the IRS explicitly stating my circumstance. Guess what happened...
Five weeks later I received a letter from the IRS stating that I had been CLEARED of the taxes I owed, and that no further action was necessary on my part. That pretty much says it all, doesn't it?
It doesn't end there. Another friend of mine received the Toyota buyout. I advised him to not pay the taxes on the amount he had received. About a year later he too was audited. I advised him to send a letter stating his circumstance and, lo and behold, he was released from the tax liability by the IRS.
Why did I create this blog? There are lots and lots of former Toyota employees out there who have received buyouts because they worked at that place until their bodies were broken. They gave all they could give, and when they couldn't give any more, Toyota had no more use for them. So Toyota offered them a buyout (which, granted, they don't have to offer) and instead of telling that broken down employee "Here, this entire sum of money is yours", they mistakenly tell him that he doesn't even get all of it, he has to pay taxes on it as well.
Or is it a mistake? Surely Toyota has enough high-paid lawyers who would know that this money isn't taxable, don't they?
Regardless, I wanted all the former Toyota employees who have taken the buyout, and all the current ones who are considering it, to know that if you receive that buyout due to an injury, and you sign a settlement and release form, that money is ALL YOURS!
Every little bit helps, right?
Regards,
Kevin Cornett
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