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Payroll

Tick tock, watch work off the clock

11/21/2023
Would you know compensable working time if you saw it? If you pay for noncompensable working time anyway, you can put conditions on your payment. Two cases illustrate.

Two-minute payroll reads: December ’23

11/21/2023
Payroll is complicated and your time is limited. Spend two minutes reading these digests and you’ll be up-to-date on key payroll developments.

Please explain: What does it mean to gross up?

11/21/2023
If you pay an employee’s taxes on, say, a $500 bonus or the value of a gift card, those taxes become income to the employee. That means more withholding. And if the employer keeps picking up the taxes, what results is a never-ending upward spiral of taxation. The only way to escape is to gross up the payment. But what does this really mean?

All tax Friday wrap: The last of the 2024 inflation adjustments and a little bit more

11/10/2023
2024 inflation adjustments and volunteer opportunities ahead of the holiday weekend.

December 2023: Employer’s business tax calendar

10/31/2023
Here’s your monthly guide to critical payroll due dates.

IRS spills the beans on its ERC tribulations, IRIS and more

10/26/2023
As of Sept 30, so-called ERC mills filed 3.6 million Forms 941-X claiming the employee retention credit. As of Sept. 14, the day the IRS imposed its moratorium, the IRS had 600,000 ERC claims in open inventory. Those eye-popping stats were provided by Crystal Stinson, employment tax policy analyst at the IRS, the keynote speaker on day 1 of our Payroll Compliance Workshop.

401(k) plans will open to more long-term part-timers

10/25/2023
Both SECURE 1.0 and SECURE 2.0 revise the conditions under which long-term part-time employees must be allowed to participate in your 401(k) plan. SECURE 1.0’s amendments are effective with the 2024 plan year, which means these employees will soon be eligible to participate in your plan. You need to count these employees’ service hours and reach out to them now.

In the Payroll Mailbag: November ’23

10/25/2023
Same employee, new SSN: Is this OK? … Are gift baskets taxable?

Negligent employer liable for 2 years of back pay, not 3

10/25/2023
The Fair Labor Standards Act has two measures of liability: Pay two years of back pay if your failure to pay minimum wages or overtime wasn’t willful, or three years if it was. A mistaken failure to pay overtime due to negligence isn’t the same thing as willfully failing to pay employees, so an employer’s liability for back pay was limited to two years, a federal appeals court explained.

ERC fraud pushes IRS to halt Form 941-X processing

10/25/2023
The IRS has a moratorium through at least the end of the year on processing all 941-X forms on which the ERC is claimed, and a processing delay of 180 days for forms already in the pipeline as of Sept. 14, the day the moratorium began. The IRS has also taken other steps to stanch ERC fraud.