Filling out tax forms is a pain, but for many of the poor souls who are employees of the LA Unified School District (LAUSD) it is a nightmare. As I noted a while ago, the LAUSD payroll fiasco is now (predictably) causing income tax filing problems.

The LA Daily News is reporting that at least 3,400 incorrect W-2 tax forms (i.e, tax forms that state the amount of income you earned, taxes paid, etc., for those of you who are not from the US) were mailed out to employees as a direct result of the payroll mess, despite the fact that the LAUSD management had promised last December that since the payroll system was now "fixed," information that its employees needed to file their taxes would be up-to-date and correct.

One of the problems surfacing is that for many employees their December 2007 pay-stub - which should show the total year-to-date income earned and taxes paid and which LAUSD had also assured would be correct - are not matching up with the W-2's they have received (normally they should be identical).

LAUSD management is now saying that the W-2's are correct, and that any mis-matching pay-stubs are wrong.

This is a neat way for management to "solve" the problem, don't you think, especially when (a) in December they said the end of year pay-stubs were correct (even though many teachers then were saying they weren't), and (b) they also admit some 3,400 other W-2s have been shown to be in fact wrong?

Needless to say, LAUSD teachers and other employees are a bit perplexed, miffed and worried over exactly what they owe the state and the federal government. As one teacher noted, " 'I am trying to work backwards now to see if this W2 is correct. If I can't understand my pay stub, how can I figure out if my W2 is right?' "

Good question. Glad I don't have to figure it out.