Heartwarming story of massive government worker honesty

City workers got $25M in duplicate tax refund checks

The city erroneously sent $25 million in checks to thousands of employees — but not one single recipient tried to cash in, the Post has learned.

The city mailed over 24,000 checks to employees and then cancelled them because they were duplicate payments of tax refunds for 2015, officials said. Not one cop, firefighter, sanitation worker, correction officer or other public servant tried to cash their check, the Department of Finance said.

“As of late yesterday, our bank vendor told us that none of the checks had yet to be cashed or deposited,” an email from the Department of Finance said.

Craig Cine, a Finance employee, said the checks totaled nearly $25 million. He said they went to employees of the NYPD, FDNY, Correction, Sanitation and Human Resources. The department cancelled the checks upon discovering its error.

“The Department of Finance issued the checks in error,” a statement from the Finance Department said. “The mistake was quickly corrected and we are in the process of notifying those affected. We will work with recipients to ensure they don’t incur any costs.”

The Post first reported on the computer glitch Wednesday.

City employees who live elsewhere must file IRS Form 1127, which indicates they’re paying city income tax, even though they’re not residents. They then get a refund.