Payroll

Are retirement incentives in lieu of health benefits reportable?

12/16/2013

Question: Employees have three retirement incentives from which to choose: The company picks up their health benefit contributions for three years, they can take a lump-sum payment that equals our single premium rate for up to three years or they can keep their current health benefits and get a prorated cash payout. What’s reportable on their W-2s?

Is there anything special about issuing early W-2s?

12/11/2013

Question: An employee who was let go last month requested an early 2013 W-2. I know we have 30 days to comply with his request. What notation should we put on the form to show that it’s not an “official form”?

Memo to the Payroll Santa: Please make W-2s easy this year

12/09/2013

Holiday catalogs have been piling up on your entry hall table for quite some time now. So it must be getting down to W-2 crunch time for Payroll. Here’s the scoop on what you need to know to ensure a smooth W-2 process.

You: Payroll’s elf on a shelf

12/04/2013

Since you don’t have an elf to take care of all the December year-end payroll details, you have to do it yourself. Here’s help getting started.

Streamlined refunds allowed for post-DOMA payroll taxes

12/03/2013

The demise of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) means that employers and same-sex married employees are in line for payroll tax refunds. To expedite the process, the IRS is providing three optional streamlined refund procedures.

Stormy weather: How to pay when Old Man Winter causes absences

12/02/2013

When harsh winter weather bumps up against the FLSA, the result can be a blizzard of pay problems for you. Employees often come in late, leave early or miss work altogether. How should you count their hours—and their pay? Here’s a flowchart that breaks down your options.

December 2013: Employer’s business tax calendar

11/29/2013

NOTE: Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays as observed in the District of Columbia are taken into account to determine due dates. Under the federal deposit rules, you’re allowed a deposit shortfall of the greater of $100 or 2% of your tax liability.

How should we handle time tracking for nonexempt telecommuters?

11/27/2013

Q. We try to be a flexible workplace and sometimes get requests from employees to work from home for a day or two during school breaks and so on. I don’t have a problem with this for exempt employees, but what about hourly ones? How do we track that time?

Don’t let year-end duties ruin your Thanksgiving dinner

11/25/2013

Take a few minutes now to run down this Payroll checklist and your Thanksgiving feast will be unperturbed.

Payroll 2014: You’ll withhold something, but what, exactly, we don’t know

11/22/2013

The shutdown of the federal government earlier this autumn meant that the IRS was very late in releasing the 2014 personal exemption amount, which doubles as the annual withholding allowance amount. Also late, but now in the bag: the 2014 amounts for qualified transportation fringes.