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Payroll

Plan for the inevitable: How to handle lost W-2s

03/06/2012

Employees call Payroll every year saying they’ve lost their W-2s. Dealing with such requests can become a time-consuming headache, especially for larger organizations. Here are some tips for managing the reissued W-2 process.

Form W-2c: the agony of errors

03/02/2012
The earlier employers fix errors on 2011 W-2s, the less likely it is they’ll be penalized by the IRS. E-filers have until the April 2 to file original W-2s, but even those few extra weeks may not be enough to get off the W-2c hook for mistakes that come to your attention after e-filing.

Spring forward! Daylight saving time begins March 11

03/01/2012
Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m., March 11. Graveyard-shift workers, therefore, will work only seven hours that day. If you pay those employees for a standard eight-hour shift, don’t include the extra hour’s pay when calculating their regular rates to determine overtime.

New state wage theft act requires pay notices

02/22/2012

California’s Wage Theft Prevention Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, criminalizes willful violations for nonpayment of wages and sets civil penalties for failure to pay minimum wages. It also requires employers to provide employees with wage notices …

FTC clamps down on alleged payday lenders

02/22/2012
You may have seen the TV ads: An announcer says that if you need money and you have a job, up to $5,000 can be transferred into your bank account. The lender isn’t a payday lender, the ad continues. The FTC begs to differ. It has sued these lenders, claiming that they are, indeed, payday lenders, who didn’t go to court before they began issuing garnishment orders to borrowers’ employers.

IRS issues more guidance on health benefit W-2 reporting

02/22/2012
Beginning with 2012 W-2 forms, you must report the value of employees’ health benefits (Box 12, with Code DD). Reporting on Form W-3 isn’t ­necessary. Good news: Under new IRS guidance, W-2 reporting is excused in more instances.

Cruising: 2012 maximum car and SUV valuations set

02/20/2012
Employers that use the standard mileage rate to value employees’ personal use of company vehicles are restricted to supplying them with vehicles of modest value. For 2012, the value of company cars that qualify for the standard mileage valuation method is $15,900.

We didn’t withhold! How do we fix it?

02/19/2012
Q. A new employee was mistakenly paid through Accounts Payable for January, so no federal or state taxes were withheld from his pay. It’s still early in the year, so we’d like to take out the taxes that should have been withheld from later wage payments. But we don’t want to leave him with no net pay. According to our calculations, it should take us two months to withhold the additional taxes. Is this OK?

Can Native Americans refuse to provide an SSN?

02/09/2012
Q. A new hire is refusing to provide his Social Secur­­ity number because he does not want taxes withheld from his paycheck. He argues that since he is Native American, the U.S. government is not entitled to tax him. Is he required to provide this information? Can we withdraw our employment offer if he continues to refuse?

SSN verification service responses now gender-free

02/07/2012
This isn’t good news for employees named Chris, Pat or Robin. The Social Security Administration has announced that it has removed the verification of gender from its Social Security Number Verification Services (SSNVS).