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Compensation & Benefits

Are cash bonuses to employees and survivors taxable? Reportable?

10/04/2012

Question: We are a public employer. Since employees haven’t had pay raises in more than four years, we will soon be making cash distributions to them. Employees’ survivors will get separate distributions. Are these distributions taxable and how do we report payments made to survivors?

Employee loans: Are they reportable or not?

10/04/2012

Question: Our company makes interest-free loans to employees so they can buy home computers. The purpose of the loan program is to allow employees to hone their computer skills. Employees can take up to four years to repay their loans. Must we report the loans on their W-2 forms?

Health premiums up 4% this year; forecast to rise 7% in 2013

10/04/2012
Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health insurance are averaging $15,745 this year (up 4% from 2011), while worker-only coverage is averaging $5,615 (up 3% from last year), according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation report.

Reporting agents: IRS offers new guidance on your responsibilities, rights

10/03/2012
Payroll reporting agents are service bureaus and other businesses that can handle all of your payroll duties, including depositing taxes and filing forms. New guidance from the IRS is designed to help you keep tabs on your reporting agent.

Health care firm faces possible FLSA class action

10/02/2012
A lawsuit against home health care and hospice provider Amedisys seeks national class action status and challenges the way the company pays its visiting nurses and home health care aides. The company operates in 41 states, including North Carolina.

Special analysis: Lifestyle benefits = payroll taxes

09/28/2012
Corporate HR departments love nontraditional benefits—perks other than leave, health insurance and retirement benefits—because they’re generally cheap and build loads of employee good will. But many so-called lifestyle benefits are taxable, much to HR’s chagrin.

Is there an hourly threshold employees must pass to earn paid holidays?

09/26/2012

Q. Is there a law that states the number of hours necessary to be considered full time for being eligible for paid holidays? Our handbook says an employee who works fewer than 40 hours a week is considered part time. An employee who works 34 hours a week wonders if he should be eligible for paid holidays. Our handbook says he’s not. Is that OK?

New law allows for 8/80 health care workweek

09/26/2012
A new law amends the Pennsylvania Minimum Wage Law to bring it into line with the FLSA, which requires health care employers to pay overtime only if employees work more than eight hours in a day or 80 hours in a 14-day period.

Employee ‘GEMs’ honored in front of bosses and peers

09/25/2012
Executives at Compass Group believe their front-line employees make magic. In fact, the brass calls the housekeeping and facilities management firm’s hourly employees “GEMs,” which stands for “Great Employees Make Magic.”

23-cent bonus adds up to one big payroll headache

09/24/2012
If an employer retains complete control over whether to pay a bonus and the amount of the bonus, then it can be excluded from an employee’s regular rate as a discretionary bonus. But both parts of this test count equally. Recently, a federal trial court ruled that bonuses that always equaled $50 failed the second part of the test.