Payroll

Can an employee opt out of withholding on a bonus?

05/23/2015

Q: It’s likely that later this year, one employee will receive a bonus that will boost his supplemental pay to more than $1 million. In anticipation of that, his accountant has informed us that we don’t need to withhold federal income taxes at the 39.6% rate; the employee will pay the tax on his 2015 Form 1040, instead. Is that right—it sounds fishy to us?

What do we do when an employee pays back a signing bonus?

05/22/2015

Q: A new employee received a signing bonus last November, which he had to repay if he left the company within two years. He did leave, and now we don’t know what to do. Do we need to amend his 2014 W-2 form? What documentation must we collect from him?

State document requirements for employing teens

05/20/2015

Federal law sets the ground rules for employing teens, but state law controls the age at which they must obtain age certificates, working papers or parental consent letters and how long you must retain those documents. This information is summarized in this chart.

How does the Paid Sick Leave Law affect the information that must appear on paystubs?

05/20/2015

Q. We are trying to comply with California’s new paid sick leave law, but we are not sure what exactly needs to be included on the paystub.

Final regs clarify criteria for wraparound plans

05/18/2015

Final regulations include as an excepted benefit limited wraparound coverage—coverage that supplements, or wraps around, individual nongrandfathered health policies by providing additional benefits to part-time employees and retirees and doesn’t consist solely of cost-sharing subsidies.

How long do you retain W-2 information?

05/14/2015

Q: A former employee has requested a copy of his 2003 W-2 form. We backed up the data, sent it to a remote storage facility and purged it years ago. It would be extremely burdensome to pull it out now, especially for a former employee. What is the legal requirement for providing employees with copies of old W-2s?

Take two: Some EPPs get transition relief

05/08/2015

The IRS meant it when it said that all employers, regardless of size, will be liable for a $100 per day, per employee, excise tax if they pay for or reimburse employees who buy individual health insurance either on or off the individual exchange. Sort of. It’s now providing transition relief to certain employers and to certain reimbursement arrangements.

What HR needs to know about tracking employee time

05/06/2015

Supervisors and HR pros need to understand what they can and cannot do with time records. Problems can lead to legal disputes under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Direct deposit is so 20th Century! Many millennials favor paycards

05/06/2015

Direct deposit was once new and novel. Now, most employees do have their pay deposited directly into their bank accounts, but for others, plastic paycards may be an answer.

Tax Court: Payments to kids are allowance, not wages

05/04/2015

Summer means kids working in the family business. But beware. The Tax Court tossed a sole proprietor’s effort to deduct as wages payments made to her children. According to the court, there wasn’t any consistent correlation between the hours worked and the amounts recorded as wage payments.