• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Payroll

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).

Forget a late or early spring–February is W-2 time

02/02/2012
Darn that groundhog! If it knew what payroll administrators know about looming W-2 deadlines, it would never come out of its den. Paper W-2s are due to the Social Security Administration by the end of the month; e-filed forms are due by April 2.

Heads up! Employment law in the news means employee chatter

01/31/2012
There’s plenty of employment law news making its way into the mainstream media. That means the workplace will be buzzing with em­­ployee chatter about working conditions, pay and unions. Prepare now for how to react.

Social Security rate stays at 4.2%–likely through ’12

01/31/2012
In December, a last-minute congressional vote allowed the year-long 4.2% employee Social Security tax rate to remain at least through Feb. 29. But if congressional negotiations break down, be aware that the rate could jump back to 6.2%.