HACKER Q&A
📣 amevo

Can a PEO rightfully expose your income to other employers?


In 2019 I worked for two companies that made use of the same professional employer organization (PEO). This PEO generated a single W-2 for 2019, combining my income from the two companies. Both companies can view this combined income W-2. Simple W-2 less payroll math would reveal to each company what the other paid.

This doesn't sit well with me for myriad reasons, and I can't imagine this is entirely legal. While the PEO reps are empathetic in correspondence on this issue, no resolution/progress on the matter has been made whatsoever over the last few weeks. Any advice/counsel is appreciated.

  👤 lotsofpulp Accepted Answer ✓
Many companies provide employee pay data to equifax, and equifax sells it to many people:

https://www.fastcompany.com/40508924/equifax-could-be-sellin...

👤 chrisgoman
No, this is not right. The PEO is paying you "on behalf of" a specific employer (even if your check is coming out of the PEO's account). So you should get 2 W2s with separate amounts from each employer.

TriNet (a large PEO) stores employees as SSN so if you have ever worked for a company that used TriNet as their PEO, you are in their system. As an employee, you should see a dropdown at the top and you can only see ONE employer at a time and you have to use the dropdown to switch around.

The only reason you can get ONE W-2 is if you work at a temp agency. The employer technically pays the temp agency and the temp agency pays you. So even if you got billed out to 10 different "employers", you are still an employee of the temp agency and you get ONE W-2 but technically, this is NOT a PEO situation

👤 toomuchtodo
Check with an attorney (a consult is usually no cost) if "26 U.S. Code § 7213.Unauthorized disclosure of information" [1] or "26 U.S. Code § 6103.Confidentiality and disclosure of returns and return information" [2] applies to this situation. If applicable, your attorney may consider contacting the PEO's legal department to inform them of their violation of federal statute.

[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7213

[2] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/6103

👤 JohnFen
Your PEO is making the W-2 available to the companies you did work for? That's weird. I can't think of a reason why that would be necessary at all... the W-2 is between you, company who is paying you (your PEO), and the IRS.

I would clarify their policy around this, and perhaps ask the IRS what the rules around W-2 disclosures are.

👤 icedchai
Your pay comes from the PEO, on "behalf" of the employer, right? Technically you "work for" the PEO, so this sounds fine to combine them. I bet they can't even do anything about it.
👤 TechBro8615
On the bright side, if both companies are large, it's unlikely your manager at either will ever notice.
👤 edcastano
Who is the PEO?