Payroll

Payroll’s high stakes: What margin for error?

09/03/2012

Payroll has no margin for error. Get employees’ pay wrong and you’ll hear from them. Get your tax deposits wrong and you’ll hear from the IRS. Get it right and what do you hear? Silence. But don’t think you toil in anonymity.

Two 401(k) plans, two Section 415 limitations?

09/01/2012

Question: Several employees want to participate in two multi-employer 401(k) plans, but their combined contributions would exceed the Section 415 limitations on overall contributions. Can the employees legally participate in both plans during the same year?

Payback’s a b&+%#! How to handle 401(k) plan loans

08/31/2012

401(k) plans don’t have to allow employees to borrow from their vested account balances. But if they do, the news is grim. According to a recent survey, about 10% of employees who borrow from their 401(k) plans default. The default percentage skyrockets to 80% if employees terminate with outstanding loans.

Are payments excludable from our nurses’ incomes?

08/30/2012

Question: We run a rural health clinic. We know that payments made under certain programs that encourage health care professionals to work in underserved areas are tax-free. Do these payments fall into that category?

When must I-9 forms be updated?

08/30/2012

Question: What should an employer do if a client requires the employer to obtain new I-9 forms from all employees who will be working on the client’s premises?

Honest! You don’t have to sweat a tax audit anymore

08/29/2012

Ignoring the IRS won’t make a tax audit go away, advises a senior policy analyst at the IRS. In fact, the opposite is true—ignoring a notification of a payroll audit means that you give up your chance to tell your side of the story and set the record straight.

Payroll records: Know exempt, nonexempt timekeeping requirements

08/28/2012

Employers subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act must keep records for both nonexempt and exempt employees. The regulations don’t say which types of record-keeping or timekeeping methods you should use, but they do specify the necessary data you need to maintain on all employees. Here’s the guidance you need to stay in compliance.

Balance due on your 2011 Form 940? Maybe not

08/27/2012

Credit-reduction states are listed on Schedule A of the 2011 Form 940. If you do business in one of those 20 states, and you receive a balance-due notice from the IRS, don’t despair.

Prepare now for the ‘fiscal cliff’ that looms Jan. 1

08/27/2012

Unless Congress acts soon, the end of this year will see the expiration of an unprecedented number of tax provisions. That could cause havoc with your Payroll operations, as the IRS will be forced to delay issuing the 2013 tax tables and, critically, the 2013 withholding tables.

Reminder: Give employees summary of benefits/coverage

08/21/2012

Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the legality of the Affordable Care Act, your first responsibility under the law is to ensure that for open enrollment periods beginning Sept. 23 employees receive a summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) and a glossary that defines basic health benefit terms.