What recourse do I have if my employer enters my dependants as 9 instead of 2 on my W-4?

First of all, the number on the w-4 Form is NOT dependents; this number is called a "withholding allowance" and can be any number you want. The higher the number, the less will be withheld from you income for taxes and such. A withholding allowance of "0" will have the most withheld; 99 will have the least. The idea is to adjust that number so that by the end of the year you will have had more or less the correct amount withheld to cover your income tax liability. If you find you had too much withheld, then file a new W-4 with your employer and increase the number; conversely, if you did not have enough withheld then lower the number. Interestingly, if you had no Federal tax libility for the prior year and reasonably expect to have none in the current year, you can claim "exempt" and have NOTHING withheld.

You probably have no recourse at all with your employer, they simply screwed up. You are still liable for tax in the end, so make sure they get it right.

Your employer isn't required to pay YOUR taxes. All that happened was that less tax was WITHHELD, meaning YOU owe money since YOU didn't pay in enough. Of course the IRS is going to want the money, it's YOUR taxes that weren't paid not the employers taxes. If YOU filed YOUR 2004 taxes knowing that YOU owed money and didn't pay then YOU are responsible for the penalties. If YOU had contacted them when YOU filed they could have setup a payment plan, since YOU didn't do that YOU will now have to pay penalties since YOU did NOT pay YOUR taxes.

If YOU filed YOUR return claiming 9 instead of 2 then YOU're probably looking at criminal charges for filing a false return.

I think anyone will see the common point to my answer. In case YOU don't I'll state it. YOU didn't pay YOUR taxes, that's no ones fault except YOURs.

The IRS never even sees the W-4. It's a form between you and your employer. Your employer NEVER stated to the IRS you had 9 dependents. The only thing that gets reported is your W-2. If you knew they were withholding less then what was needed YOU were responsible to file a quaterly tax payment. Again in the end it was YOU who screwed up by not paying the IRS all your employer did was incorrectly not withhold enough, but they are NOT responsible for ensuring you have paid the IRS.

More than likely what will happen is that they will the government will send you some paperwork asking for all of your childrens names and social security numbers. When that comes or before you need to talk to somebody in accounting at your job and let them know that they screwed up on your W-4 form and need to correct it ASAP.