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Compensation & Benefits

W-2 or 1099 for former employee still receiving pay?

06/13/2014
Q: We have an agreement with a former employee to continue to pay him quarterly bonuses for clients he referred to us. Can we issue him a Form 1099-MISC or are the payments considered wages, which must be reported on a Form W-2?

Pay tops job security as #1 reason for job satisfaction

06/13/2014
For the first time since the pre-recession year of 2007, U.S. employees say compensation is now their No. 1 contributor to their job satisfaction, according to an annual Society for Human Resource Management survey.

State laws on same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships

06/12/2014
State bans on same-sex marriage continue to be challenged in court. Here’s a chart to help you make sense of where states currently stand in this fast-changing area of the law.

MTA rank and file sign contract

06/09/2014
A new contract grants unionized em­­ployees of New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority retroactive 1% raises for each of the past two years, which means most will receive one-time payments between $3,000 and $5,000.

What’s a valid W-4 form?

06/06/2014
Q: A recently divorced employee refiled her Form W-4 to claim fewer withholding allowances. She included her name and address, but only the last four digits of her Social Security number (SSN). Payroll requested that she complete another form with her full SSN, but she balked, saying that wasn’t necessary, since the W-4 is an internal form only. Is this a valid form?

Are Millennials gun-shy or savvy retirement planners?

06/06/2014
A recent Gallup poll drew lots of media attention with the news that younger workers were so battle-scarred by the Great Recession that they no longer trust stocks as a safe place to park their retirement investments. Wait a minute, said Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest 401(k) provider.

Bitcoins’ teething pains are your toothache, too

06/03/2014
The IRS has concluded that for tax purposes, Bitcoins and other virtual currencies are property, not currency or legal tender. Upshot: You may choose to pay employees in Bitcoins, but you must peg your Bitcoins to U.S. dollars. And all the usual withholding, depositing (in U.S. dollars) and reporting rules apply, as well.

State exchange premiums compete with employer-provided plans

06/03/2014
Premiums for health plans offered on state exchanges under the ACA this year are comparable to those of employer-provided plans offering similar coverage—and in some cases they’re much lower.

SUV cost rises for standard mileage valuation method

06/03/2014
Employers that use the standard mileage rate (56 cents a mile in 2014) to value employees’ personal use of company vehicles are restricted to supplying vehicles of modest value. For company cars first made available to employees in 2014 and that qualify for the standard mileage rate valuation method, the fair-market value remains $16,000.

IRS juggling many payroll projects

06/03/2014
The IRS has been busy since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this year in United States v. Quality Stores that severance pay is FICA taxable. In May, IRS Acting Chief of Employment Tax Dan Lauer addressed the American Payroll Association’s 32nd Annual Congress in Minneapolis, bringing participants up to speed with the goings on at the IRS.