Attention California Comcast Employees

 

Same-sex couples who are married under the law and are both covered by insurance through Comcast were heavily taxed on their May 22 paychecks. According to Comcast, the company had not been properly taxing same-sex couples in 2009, and made an adjustment to comply with their legal obligations. Without warning they withheld nearly five months of back taxes - about $800 - from a single paycheck. It may not have been evident to the employee that a problem existed with the taxes, since deductions appeared to already be coming out for the spouse's benefits, and tax withholdings didn't change from the previous year.

We believe Comcast should have been more respectful of its employees by contacting them to make arrangements for payment of the taxes, instead of focusing only on its own obligations. The sudden taxes have caused hardship for some, and the surprise was an unnecessary and avoidable action by the company. Comcast's reaction to complaints has been cold and uncharacteristically uncaring, and its insensitive actions have brought its motives for the lump-sum taxation into question.

Because this only happened to Comcast's gay and lesbian employees, we believe it would be prudent to take the matter to the ACLU for investigation. We are looking for other employees who were taxed in this way to estimate the extent of the complaint to be brought against the company. If you were affected or know someone who might have been affected, please contact us at the email address below. You do not have to be mentioned in the complaint, but we would appreciate hearing from you.

Thanks.

Please contact us at: darrell [at] sevenbirches [dot] org

UPDATE: Comcast withheld another $800+ in taxes from its married gay and lesbian employees on their June 19 paychecks. Please help us come together to get to the bottom of this problem that Comcast seems unwilling to solve.