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Payroll

Employee health benefits notification begins March 1

01/23/2013
The Affordable Care Act health care reform law requires you to provide current employees and new hires with a notice regarding health insurance coverage, beginning March 1.

For pay statements, does ‘total hours worked’ include vacation and PTO?

01/22/2013
Q. We realize that California requires pay statements to show “total hours worked,” but we’re confused about what exactly this means. Does this include vacation or paid time off that employees have earned?

Employers have leeway in docking exempts’ pay

01/18/2013
Employees must receive a guaranteed salary of $455 a week and perform exempt duties to be exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions. But that doesn’t mean you can never dock their pay.

Proposed regs clarify the new 0.9% additional Medicare tax

01/15/2013
Under the IRS’ recently issued proposed regulations, beginning this year, many employees will pay an additional 0.9% in Medicare taxes, for a total tax rate of 2.35%. Reminder: Employers don’t match this additional tax.

Should we allow employees to use DOL’s timekeeping app for smartphones?

01/09/2013

Q. We have heard that the U.S. Department of Labor has issued a timekeeping app that allows employees to track their time on smartphones. Should we permit employees to use this in our workplace?

Self-insured plans, HSAs, HRAs must pay research fees

01/09/2013

To determine what works in providing medical care, the Affordable Care Act health care reform law created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). For seven plan years, PCORI will be funded with fees on plan sponsors of self-insured plans, including retiree-only and COBRA plans. Now comes news that sponsors of insured plans that offer employees health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) and certain health flexible spending accounts (FSAs) must also pay fees.

How to control expense account fraud

01/09/2013
When Dave or Julie comes back to the office from a weekend business trip, do you or other supervisors just sign off on their expense reports? What you may not know is that those mileage forms, taxi cab receipts and restaurant checks could be doctored or even phony. And are all those company credit card purchases business-related?

Self-insured plans, HSAs, HRAs must pay research fees

01/08/2013
To determine what works in providing medical care, the Affordable Care Act health care reform law created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research In­­sti­­tute. For seven plan years, it will be funded with fees on plan sponsors of self-insured plans, including retiree-only and COBRA plans.

Punch in, punch out: State appeals court allows time clock rounding

01/03/2013
If you use a time clock, you probably also use a rounding method so employees who clock in a little early or clock out slightly late are only paid for their scheduled time. The presumption is that over time, employees will clock in both early and late. Fortunately, a recent California appeals court decision sanctions this common-sense practice.

Fiscal cliff averted: New law sets 2013 withholding rates; ‘payroll tax holiday’ expires

01/02/2013
In the waning hours of New Year’s Day, Congress passed legislation averting a plunge off the “fiscal cliff” and making permanent Bush-era tax rates for all but the highest earners. Now employers can finally make concrete plans for their 2013 payroll operations.