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Daily News Updates for March

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Here are our news updates for March.  I post one news item per update to our subscribers here on the blog. To receive all of the day’s payroll news updates, subscribe to Payroll 24/7 for only $149 per year.

 

 

 

March 29: Utah has passed a law (SB 39) that amends how nonresidents working in Utah are taxed. The “mobile workforce” income tax bill addresses the tax liability and withholding requirements for a nonresident individual earning wages in the state. This bill creates an exemption from income tax if a nonresident individual works in the state for 20 or fewer days during a taxable year and provides the circumstances that the individual’s resident state provides a substantially similar exclusion or does not impose a state individual income tax.

March 25:  Two California cities have minimum wage increases coming in July:

  • Emeryville, California: The city’s minimum wage rate will increase to $17.68 per hour effective July 1, 2022.
  • Pasadena, California: The minimum wage rate for Pasadena will increase to $16.11 per hour on July 1, 2022.

March 9:  The Department of Transportation has released the applicable terminal charge and the Standard Industry Fare Level (SIFL) mileage rates for determining the value of noncommercial flights on employer-provided aircraft in effect for the first half of 2022 for purposes of the taxation of fringe benefits. The unadjusted rates for flights taken during the period from January 1, 2022, through June 30, 2022are as follows:

  • $.2460 per mile for the first 500 miles
  • $.1876 per mile 501 through 1,500 miles
  • $.1803 per mile over 1,500 miles
  • terminal charge is $44.98

IRS Releases 2022 Retirement Plan Limits

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Section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) provides for dollar limitations on benefits and contributions under qualified retirement plans. Section 415(d) requires that the Secretary of the Treasury annually adjust these limits for cost-of-living increases. The IRS released Notice 2021-61 (PDF) to provide for cost-of-living adjustments to dollar limitations for retirement plan benefits and contributions. This includes the following:

  • Annual benefit under a defined benefit plan under section 415(b)(1)(A) of the Code is increased from $230,000 to $245,000
  • The limitation for defined contribution plans under section 415(c)(1)(A) is increased in 2022 from $58,000 to $61,000.
  • The limitation under section 402(g)(1) on the exclusion for elective deferrals described in section 402(g)(3) is increased from $19,500 to $20,500.
  • The annual compensation limit under sections 401(a)(17), 404(l), 408(k)(3)(C), and 408(k)(6)(D)(ii) is increased from $290,000 to $305,000.
  • The dollar limitation under section 416(i)(1)(A)(i) concerning the definition of “key employee” in a top-heavy plan is increased from $185,000 to $200,000.
  • The limitation used in the definition of “highly compensated employee” under section 414(q)(1)(B) is increased from $130,000 to $135,000.

 

Tax Tuesday: IRS Updates Dependent Care Rules for 2021 and 2022

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The Internal Revenue Service today issued guidance on the taxability of dependent care assistance programs for 2021 and 2022, clarifying that amounts attributable to carryovers or an extended period for incurring claims generally are not taxable. The guidance also illustrates the interaction of this standard with the one-year increase in the exclusion for employer-provided dependent care benefits from $5,000 to $10,500 for the 2021 taxable year under the American Rescue Plan Act.

Because of the pandemic, many people were unable to use the money they set aside in their dependent care assistance programs in 2020 and 2021. Generally, under these plans, an employer allows its employees to set aside a certain amount of pre-tax wages to pay for dependent care expenses. The employee’s expenses are then reimbursed from the dependent care assistance program.

Carryovers of unused dependent care assistance program amounts generally are not permitted (although a 2½ month grace period is allowed). However, recent coronavirus-related legislation (the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020) allowed employers to amend their plans to permit the carryover of unused dependent care assistance program amounts to plan years ending in 2021 and 2022, or to extend the permissible period for incurring claims to plan years over the same period.

Today’s Notice 2021-26 clarifies for taxpayers that if these dependent care benefits would have been excluded from income if used during taxable year 2020 (or 2021, if applicable), these benefits will remain excludible from gross income and are not considered wages of the employee for 2021 and 2022.

Notice 2021-15, issued in February 2021, states that if an employer adopted a carryover or extended period for incurring claims, the annual limits for dependent care assistance program amounts apply to amounts contributed, not to amounts reimbursed or available for reimbursement in a particular plan or calendar year. Therefore, participants in dependent care assistance programs may continue to contribute the maximum amount to their plans for 2021 and 2022.

ALEC Wins Another State Over!

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The American Legislative Exchange Council, or as it is commonly known ALEC, according to their website, is “America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislatures dedicated to the principles of limited government”.  It’s current legislative agenda is to try to stop increases in the minimum wage and the mandatory sick leave movement as it sees it as having a negative effect on workers.  But in order to keep the minimum wage low or as ALEC describes it; “Maximizing the freedom of businesses and employees to negotiate their own wages” they not only have to convince state legislatures not to raise the minimum wage or provide mandated sick leave, but have to convince all local governments as well.  This is a tough job as there are thousands of local entities such as cities and counties that could decide to raise the minimum wage or enforce mandatory sick leave.  So ALEC takes the approach to tackle this from the head down by convincing state legislatures that they need to pass laws that prohibit any local entity from passing any type of minimum wage or benefit increase that does not equal the state level.  At this task they are making headway.  The latest state to buy into ALEC and bar local governments from passing a minimum wage or benefits ordinance is Wisconsin.

New legislation, A748,  prohibits counties, cities, and towns from enacting ordinances that: (1) establish or mandate local hour and overtime requirements, including scheduling employee work hours or shifts; and (2) require employers to provide employment benefits, including a retirement, pension, profit sharing, insurance, or leave benefit. The legislation does allow prospective employers to solicit salary information from previous employers and preempts counties, cities, and towns from prohibiting such solicitation.  The bill is effective as of March 30, 2018.

Show Down in Texas Over Sick Leave Looming

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After Midnight, On February 16th, the Austin, TX city Council approved an ordinance establishing a paid sick leave requirement.  This requirement applies to all private employers located within the City of Austin.  The Mayor is expected to sign the ordinance.  This will have Austin joining the growing lists of cities and states requiring mandatory sick leave.  But before the City Clerk has even had the chance to verify the approved language and post the finalized ordinance, the state legislature began rumblings that they will take steps to curtail the Austin ordinance in its next session.

The Texas Tribune is reporting that just hours after the bill was passed state Rep. Paul Workman, R-Austin sounded off against the bill, saying the ordinance is “declaring war” on small private businesses.  According to Workman, “It’s not the role of the government to mandate for employers to do this”.   This again is going to come to a show-down between local control of the cities versus control in the state capital.  Something that organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have made good use out of to curtail the sick leave movement. We can only stay tuned to see how the show-down plays out in the state legislature.

Tips vs Service Charges: An IRS Reminder

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The IRS wants to make sure that employers understand tax ramifications of the various payments that they make to employees or that their employees might receive.  So the IRS has posted a reminder for employers when it comes to tips verses service charges.  The key difference between the two categories affect the taxation for employees as well as the reporting. So-called “automatic gratuities” and any amount imposed on the customer by the employer are service charges, not tips.  Service charges are generally wages, and they are reported to the employee and the IRS in a manner similar to other wages. On the other hand, special rules apply to both employers and employees for reporting tips. Employers should make sure they know the difference and how they report each to the IRS.

What are tips? Tips are discretionary (optional or extra) payments determined by a customer that employees receive from customers. They include:

  • Cash tips received directly from customers.
  • Tips from customers who leave a tip through electronic settlement or payment. This includes a credit card, debit card, gift card, or any other electronic payment method.
  • The value of any noncash tips, such as tickets, or other items of value.
  • Tip amounts received from other employees paid out through tip pools or tip splitting, or other formal or informal tip sharing arrangements.

Four factors are used to determine whether a payment qualifies as a tip. Normally, all four must apply. To be a tip:

  • The payment must be made free from compulsion;
  • The customer must have the unrestricted right to determine the amount;
  • The payment should not be the subject of negotiations or dictated by employer policy; and
  • Generally, the customer has the right to determine who receives the payment.

If any one of these doesn’t apply, the payment is likely a service charge.

What are service charges? Amounts an employer requires a customer to pay are service charges. This is true even if the employer or employee calls the payment a tip or gratuity. Examples of service charges commonly added to a customer’s check include:

  • Large dining party automatic gratuity
  • Banquet event fee
  • Cruise trip package fee
  • Hotel room service charge
  • Bottle service charge (nightclubs, restaurants)

Generally, service charges are reported as non-tip wages paid to the employee. Some employers keep a portion of the service charges. Only the amounts distributed to employees are non-tip wages to those employees.

All cash tips and noncash tips should be included in an employee’s gross income and subject to federal income taxes.ployers are required to retain employee tip reports, withhold income taxes and the employee share of Social Security and Medicare taxes from the wages paid, and withhold income taxes and the employee share of Social Security and Medicare taxes on reported tips from wages (other than tips) or from other funds provided by the employee. In addition, employers are required to pay the employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes based on the total wages paid to tipped employees as well as the reported tip income.  Employers must report income tax and Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld from their employees’ wages, along with the employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, on Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, and deposit these taxes in accordance with federal tax deposit requirements.Tips reported to the employer by the employee must be included in Box 1 (Wages, tips, other compensation), Box 5 (Medicare wages and tips), and Box 7 (Social Security tips) of the employee’s Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Enter the amount of any uncollected social security tax and Medicare tax in Box 12 of Form W-2. See the General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3.

Reporting Service Charges: Employers who distribute service charges to employees should treat them the same as regular wages for tax withholding and filing requirements, as provided in Publication 15, Employer’s Tax Guide. Distributed service charges must be included in Box 1 (Wages, tips, other compensation), Box 3 (Social Security wages), and Box 5 (Medicare wages and tips) of the employee’s Form W-2.

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White Paper: Disaster Payments and the IRS

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We are always hearing in the news about the latest disaster in the nation. Whether it be wild fires in California or flooding in Texas. Natural disasters do happen and can be annual occurrences in some parts of the nation.  When this happens, it is natural to want to help those individuals who are personally affected especially if it strikes close to home like in the case of a co-worker.  When a co-worker loses a home to a wild fire or must move out due to flood damage even employers want to help out.  But when an employer wants to help, does that change the nature of the disaster grantassistance. In other words,  if co-workers take up a collection it is one thing, but what if the employer gives the employee a grant to help cover the costs not reimbursed by insurance? Is it then taxable income and taxes must be deducted? Actually, it may not have to be. Our white paper this time is on Handling Disaster Relief Payments in Payroll.  It explains how and when these types of payments can be made and the taxation requirements.  We hope you find it useful.

white paper disaster payments 2016

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Company Cars Part 2

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Our free white paper this week is the second of our two-parter on the personal use of a company car.  This time we are doing the math.  Yes unfortunately, math is involved when having to determine the taxable wages.  But it is not the only thing needed to do the computations. Vehicle values and vehicle logs are also needed, depending on the method chosen.  You also need to determine the proper method based on the value of the car and the status of the employee.  We hope you find the white paper useful. It can be requested on our website.

 

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