Nearly 60 workers of a Boston-area bakery and restaurant chain have quit their job after the IRS flagged their tax filings as possibly fraudulent.
The Tatte chain said that the employees left their jobs after the IRS contacted them about “discrepancies” in the employee paperwork that showed names, social security numbers, and home addresses not matching to the agency’s records. The discrepancies are often seen when migrants use fake social security numbers or steal the identities of Americans in order to get work in the U.S.
The Boston Globe followed up by interviewing some of those who quit the restaurant chain and found that many were illegal migrants.
Tatte told the employees flagged by the IRS that they would have several days to provide proper identification and tax information, and if they did not, Tatte “will consider you to have voluntarily resigned from your position.”
Company spokesperson Diana Pisciotta said Tatte “cares deeply about its team members and provides multiple opportunities for our team to correct data that the government has informed us is incorrect.”
“It is particularly disheartening to inform valued, hard-working members of our team that by law they cannot remain with Tatte if they cannot correct the issue,” Pisciotta added. “While supporting our employees is a priority, we must comply with the law.”
To avoid accusations of “racism,” Tatte even offered to pay for immigration lawyers for the employees who quit over the IRS fraud alert, and offered a fund of $4,000 to help them pay expenses.
Still, Tatte’s move to discharge employees who have received IRS “Social Security no-match” letters is unusual because until now, most employers simply ignore the no-match notices and continue employing the problematic employees. Tatte’s decision to heed the letters and dismiss the employees could signal that business are starting to take the IRS notices more seriously as Donald Trump prepares to take office in Washington.
Tatte is not the first company to dismiss employees over the IRS notices. According to The Gothamist, about 100 employees in New York City’s Tin Building by Jean-Georges lost their jobs over false IRS filings.
The company used the employee’s legal work status as its basis for the cuts, firing those whose information was not verified. Like Tatte, the Tin Building officials gave employees a period of time to prove their names, social security numbers, addresses, and work permits before being fired.
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