Payroll

Information return penalties increase for 2024

01/24/2024

Failing to file your information returns this year, failing to file in the proper medium—which for most employers is e-filing—or failing to include correct information will now cost you more.

W-2 Wednesdays: What to tell employees about their W-2s

01/24/2024

This week we’re tackling your toughest job of all—trying to explain to bewildered employees what all those box entries mean and why they differ.

Takeaways from the DOL’s worker status rule

01/22/2024

The Department of Labor released its final rule on workers’ status as employees or independent contractors a couple of weeks ago. The rule, which becomes effective March 11 (pending litigation, of course), restores the DOL’s six-part economic realities test, with an eye toward the modern economy. This rule was never meant to upset the apple cart. But some apples will fall by the wayside. Here are some things to think about now.

More SECURE 2.0 guidance: Pension-linked emergency savings accounts

01/16/2024

SECURE 2.0 allows you to offer to enroll or to auto-enroll non-highly compensated employees into pension-linked emergency savings accounts, beginning with the 2024 plan year—Jan. 1, 2024—for calendar-year plans. Working relatively speedily, the IRS released initial guidance on PLESAs last Friday, before the long holiday weekend. More comprehensive guidance will follow.

Grab bag of SECURE 2.0 guidance

01/04/2024

Right before our Christmas break, the IRS issued guidance on SECURE 2.0’s provision allowing you to provide de minimis financial incentives to employees to induce them to participate in your 401(k) plan. Since this provision became effective with the 2023 plan year, and considering that financial incentives are fully taxable for payroll purposes, we rushed out our analysis so you’d have time to deal with it in December. But the guidance contains much more.

February 2024: Employer’s business tax calendar

12/31/2023

Here’s your monthly guide to critical payroll due dates.

Holiday cheer to everybody! Our final Friday wrap of 2023

12/22/2023

We checked out list twice, and here’s what you need to know before year-end.

Good tidings of (somewhat) great joy: The IRS abates $1 billion of penalties

12/21/2023

What a stocking stuffer! The IRS is abating approximately $1 billion in failure-to-pay penalties for individuals, businesses and tax-exempt organizations filing Form 990-T, whose 2020 and 2021 tax liabilities have lingered since 2022.

In the Payroll Mailbag: January ’24

12/20/2023

Your W-2s are due to employees and the Social Security Administration by Jan. 31, which means last-minute questions.

Paying a contractor $600? Remember to backup withhold