Payroll

The rise of e-pay: Know your options & the law

06/21/2011

By now, you probably give workers the option of direct deposit in addition to paper checks. But more employers are beginning to offer a third option—payroll debit cards, or “pay cards.” But before you call your payroll provider or bank to set up a pay card option, understand the legal and practical risks.

2nd job: commuting or reimbursable expense?

06/20/2011

Q: An employee has taken a second job with our company on a part-time basis. Would our reimbursement of his travel expenses from his first job to our workplace be a tax-free reimbursement, or a taxable commuting expense?

Employee fired for filing Form SS-8 may sue

06/20/2011

A worker who was fired after admitting to his employer that he filed Form SS-8 with the IRS to determine his status as an independent contractor or employee can continue his lawsuit for unpaid overtime, a federal trial court has ruled.

8 tips for handling summer military-leave payroll issues

06/14/2011

Summer is usually when employees who belong to the National Guard and military Reserves give their two weeks of duty to Uncle Sam. Now is the time to prepare for their absence, by following these eight tips.

A perfect summer day? Doing payroll maintenance

06/10/2011

Round out your summer schedule by making time to perform these general payroll maintenance chores and early year-end tasks:

Don’t court lawsuit by allowing early clock-ins

06/10/2011

Beware if you allow employees to clock in early, but tell them not to start work before their scheduled start times. If early clock-ins are routinely unpaid, there may be a class-action lawsuit brewing.

Feds issue new tip-credit pooling rules

06/08/2011

Employers are now free under federal law to set the percentage of employee tips that can be placed in a tip pool. But Minnesota employers need to be aware of a crucial difference between federal and state laws.

Backup withholding required even after W-9s are tossed

06/03/2011

You must backup withhold on payments made to independent contractors if they don’t certify their Taxpayer Identification Numbers to you prior to payment. Contractors may make those certifications by providing you with Form W-9, which you must keep for three years. Caution: You may want to retain these forms for longer than three years. Here’s why:

Timely mailing rule applies to package damaged in transit

06/03/2011

If you mail a tax-related document on the date it’s due, you’ll be considered to have timely filed it, according to the tax code’s timely-mailing-is-timely-filing rule. The same is true if the document isn’t delivered because the post office mangled it during processing.

Another Bride, Another Groom: An SSN Problem About to Loom?

06/02/2011

June is wedding month, which means name changes for brides who take their husbands’ names and couples who hyphenate their names. Reminder: Newlyweds must get replacement Social Security cards showing their new names.