Payroll

IRS retires old-fashioned letter-forwarding program

12/06/2012

If you’ve ever been unable to locate former employees who were owed 401(k) plan assets or final paychecks, you’ve probably used the IRS’ letter-forwarding program to try to contact them. No longer.

Higher Medicare taxes in 2013 means payroll headaches now

12/03/2012

Single employees earning more than $200,000 and joint filers earning more than $250,000 will pay an additional 0.9% in Medicare taxes in 2013. To avoid the additional tax, employees may take some extraordinary steps regarding their noncash compensation before the end of this month. That means additional payroll headaches for you.

Is there a formula for grossing up benefits for same-sex partners?

12/02/2012

Q: The company grosses up the fair market value of health benefits provided to employees’ same-sex domestic partners. One employee already had family coverage for his children before he enrolled his partner. How is the gross up calculated, if the cost of coverage doesn’t increase because the plan charges employees a flat amount for family coverage, regardless of the number of individuals covered?

Clients out of luck to recover embezzled payroll deposits

11/30/2012

A court has ruled that the IRS doesn’t have to return to defrauded clients a bankrupt payroll service bureau’s tax deposits that were collected from them but were used to make deposits for other clients. The defrauded clients, therefore, have paid twice …

Hello, SSA? Can you help me? I need to delete a file

11/29/2012

If you need to delete a file that was sent by mistake, the Social Security Administration doesn’t want to hear from you anymore. Instead, you can delete any file prior to processing through the SSA’s Submission Status app.

New IRS ruling differentiates between tips, service charges

11/28/2012

Regardless of what you call it, tips are amounts customers willingly determine and leave of their own accord; service charges are added to the bill. According to a new IRS revenue ruling, service charges are immediately taxable as wages; tips are taxable when employees report them to you.

You can do it! How to build a better W-2

11/27/2012

This year, completing W-2 forms will be even more challenging for employers that must report employees’ health benefits. Here’s the scoop on what you need to know to get W-2s right the first time.

1 employee, 2 employers and health benefits: How many W-2s?

11/23/2012

Question: How do we report an employee’s health benefits if he transferred between two divisions of the same company, and each division has its own Employer Identification Number? Must each division report separately, or can we combine this information and report it on one W-2?

Holiday bonuses: When it’s OK to pass the buck

11/19/2012

Commercials for holiday gifts have been running on TV since at least Halloween. So naturally, employees are making their lists and checking them twice. Perhaps they’re counting on a holiday bonus to pay for it all. If holiday bonuses are in your future, be sure to cover these bases.

IRS faces tough choices for 2013 withholding tables

11/16/2012

Next year is shaping up to be complicated for the IRS. The question: Should the IRS issue the withholding tables based on what the law says is supposed to happen on Jan. 1—the expiration of most income tax rates—or keep the rates the same, and assume that Congress will come to some agreement about the rate structure?