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Let the Podcasts Begin

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Recently I was asked to do my first podcast ever.  Outgrowth a Slice of Pro Beauty Podcast, a group that caters to beauty salon owners and workers, asked me to come on the podcast to discuss the payroll pitfalls when working in or running a salon.  The discuss is in two parts and covers misclassifying workers and the resulting legal ramifications in addition to a whole range of payroll areas that can cause compliance problems. Though generally geared to the beauty salon business, my discussion would be useful to anyone who needs to worry about compliance issues.

I hope you find it useful and informative.

 

 

Be sure to register for our first payroll lecture/webinar of the year.  The topic is the 2021 Form 941 and is being held on Wednesday, March 24th starting at 10:00 am Pacific.  Click here for more details and to register.  Use coupon code CJYFRQA6 at check out to receive a 10% discount as a Payroll 24/7 BLOG FOLLOWER.  The webinar is pending approval by the APA for 1.5 RCHs.

 

What the IRS Thinks You Need to Know About Repayment of Deferred Payroll Taxes

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The IRS published in its e-News for Tax Professionals on March 13th the following guidance on repaying of the employee 2020 deferred social security taxes in 2021.  This update includes the provisions of the American Rescue Plan Act signed by President Biden.

The Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act allowed employers to defer payment of the employer’s share of Social Security tax. IRS Notice 2020-65 allowed employers to defer withholding and payment of the employee’s Social Security taxes on certain wages paid in calendar year 2020. Employers must pay back these deferred taxes by their applicable dates.

The employee deferral applied to people with less than $4,000 in wages every two weeks, or an equivalent amount for other pay periods. It was optional for most employers, but it was mandatory for federal employees and military service members. Repayment of the employee’s portion of the deferral started Jan. 1, 2021, and will continue through Dec. 31, 2021. Payments made by Jan 3, 2022, will be timely because Dec. 31, 2021, is a holiday. The employer should send repayments to the IRS as they collect them. If the employer does not repay the deferred portion on time, penalties and interest will apply to any unpaid balance.

Employers can make the deferral payments through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) or by credit or debit card, money order or with a check. These payments must be separate from other tax payments to ensure they are applied to the deferred payroll tax balance. IRS systems won’t recognize the payment if it is with other tax payments or sent as a deposit. EFTPS will soon have a new option to select deferral payment. The employer selects deferral payment and then changes the date to the applicable tax period for the payment. Employers can visit  EFTPS.gov, or call 800-555-4477 or 800-733-4829 for details.

If the employee no longer works for the organization, the employer is responsible for repayment of the entire deferred amount. The employer must collect the employee’s portion using their own recovery methods.

Join us on March 24, 2021 at 10:00 am Pacific for this information-packed webinar

Be sure to register for our first payroll lecture/webinar of the year.  The topic is the 2021 Form 941 and is being held on Wednesday, March 24th starting at 10:00 am Pacific.  Click here for more details and to register.  Use coupon code CJYFRQA6 at check out to receive a 10% discount as a Payroll 24/7 BLOG FOLLOWER.  The webinar is pending approval by the APA for 1.5 RCHs.

 

2021 Payroll Lecture Series Has Begun

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I have schedule my first payroll lecture webinar to kick off the 2021 series.  My first topic is the 2021 Form 941.  The lecture will be held on Wednesday March 24, 2021 starting at 10:00 am Pacific time.  The lecture covers:

  • What’s New for 2021
  • Families First Act: Extension of existing credits into 2021 for Paid Sick Leave and Paid Family Leave
  • CARES Act: Status of  deferring employer’s and employee’s social Security
  • IRS Form 7200: Purpose for the form and how it applies to you in 2021
  • Line by line review of the latest Revised Form 941

Register on my website.  Use coupon code CJYFRQA6 at check out to receive a 10% as one of my blog followers.

The webinar has been submitted to the APA for approval for 1.5 RCHs.

Join us on March 24, 2021 at 10:00 am Pacific for this information-packed webinar

Fraud Alert!

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It is becoming big business to take a purchased recording of a previously offered webinar and then pass it off as a live event and accept registrations. The more popular and accomplished the speaker the more often this occurs.  I have now been elected to this club of speakers whose webinars are being fraudulently presented.  To combat this I have set up a fraud alert page on my website listing those companies who are offering a webinar by me that I recorded for another company and passing it off as their own.  As I find these webinars I will blast out the names as well as add them on my website.  This, I hope, will prevent any of my social media followers from being ripped off.

So far the following companies have been listed as fraudulent:

  • Compliance World (website spelled ccomplainceworld.com)
  • Seminargrasp
  • Yatharthguru
  • Webaudiotrainers

Today I am adding 24x7conference.com.  They are advertising a year end webinar presented by me on November 17, 2020.  I have no such webinar scheduled on that date for any of my vendors.

If you are unsure of a webinar please email me to confirm before registering.

 

Department of Labor Roadshow Webinars Are Coming Your Way

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The U.S. Department of Labor will host four webinars in June and July to discuss how the Department is helping workers and employers by reducing regulatory burdens and making it easier to understand and comply with the law. The webinars will also provide an opportunity for workers, employers, and state and local governments to ask questions and discuss how the Department can expand and improve access to its compliance assistance materials.

All events will include U.S. Department of Labor Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Jonathan Wolfson.

The webinars will be hosted by the Department’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy and its Office of Compliance Initiatives. Attendance is free, but attendees must pre-register online. If you have questions, please contact Marisela Douglass at douglass.marisela@dol.gov.

The four webinars are:

Agriculture

Guest Speaker: Wage and Hour Division Administrator Cheryl Stanton

Tuesday, June 23, 2020, 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. EDT

Register at: Compliance Assistance Webinar 1

 

Manufacturing and Construction

Guest Speaker: Occupational Safety and Health Administration Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Loren Sweatt

Thursday, June 25, 2020, 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. EDT

Register at: Compliance Assistance Webinar 2

 

Food Service, Hospitality, and Retail

Guest Speaker: Employment and Training Administration Deputy Assistant Secretary Amy Simon

Tuesday, June 30, 2020, 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. EDT

Register at: Compliance Assistance Webinar 3

 

Health Care and Emergency Responders

Guest Speaker: Employee Benefits Security Administration Acting Assistant Secretary Jeanne Klinefelter Wilson

Wednesday, July 1, 2020, 1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. EDT

Register at: Compliance Assistance Webinar 4

Corona Virus Update

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States are working fast and furious to get out their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Since my last update blog, Connecticut, Hawaii and Indiana are among the states that have either released or updated the FAQs on their websites with new information on the latest COVID-19 measures.

Some states are offering tax relief in terms of delaying either unemployment insurance payments or withholding tax deposits.  These include: Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota and Texas.  However, Arkansas and Colorado, at this time, are not offering extensions for payments or deposits of withholding taxes.

When it comes to unemployment claims, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Vermont are not charging an employer’s account for SUI benefits claims related to the COVID-19 emergency.

Need more info on the latest for the Corona Virus pandemic and payroll related items?  Today is the last day to register for my webinar tomorrow on all things payroll related to COVID-19 including the Families First Act, the CARES Act (and tax credits), state updates on filing and tax relief and garnishment updates including IRS tax levies and student loans.  Use coupon code BBTK7FCJ at checkout to receive a 10% discount off the $149 registration price.

More DOL Opinion Letters Issued

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The U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD) announced that it issued two new opinion letters that address compliance issues related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  As a review, an opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the Department’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by the person or entity that requested the letter. The opinion letters issued are:

  • FLSA2020-1: Addressing calculating overtime pay for a non-discretionary lump sum bonus paid at the end of a multi-week training period.
    • The background: the employer informs its employees in advance that they will be eligible to receive a lump sum bonus of $3,000 if they successfully complete ten weeks of training and agree to continue training for an additional eight weeks. You acknowledge that the bonus is nondiscretionary. The employee does not have to complete the additional eight weeks of training, however, to retain the lump sum bonus.
    • The opinion: As an initial matter, the lump sum bonus paid to your client’s employees must be included in the regular rate of pay as it is an inducement for employees to complete the ten-week training period. Because the employer pays the lump sum bonus to employees for completing the ten-week training and agreeing to additional training without having to finish the additional training, the lump sum bonus amount must be allocated to the initial ten-week training period. Based on the facts provided, it is appropriate for the employer to allocate the lump sum bonus of $3,000 equally to each week of the ten-week training period. Each week of the ten weeks counts equally in fulfilling the criteria for receiving the lump sum bonus, as missing any week (regardless of whether the employee worked overtime in that week) disqualifies the employee from receiving the lump sum bonus.
  • FLSA2020-2: Addressing whether per-project payments satisfy the salary basis test for exemption.
    • The background: the company employs educational consultants to provide services to schools and school districts throughout the country. These educational consultants are assigned to projects lasting various periods of time. The Department of Labor assumed that educational consultants meet the duties tests of the administrative or professional exemptions. The company will determine educational consultants’ compensation on a per-project basis regardless of the amount of time required to complete the project. The company will make payments for the project in “equal pre-determined installments” biweekly or monthly. The company provided two examples with the opinion request.
      • Example 1: for developing a new literacy curriculum, the educational consultant will receive a predetermined amount in 20 biweekly installments paid throughout the district’s academic year. That the amounts of these payments will not vary from week to week or month to month based on the number of hours worked by the consultant on the project and, for purposes here, the DOL presumed they will not vary based on the quality of the work performed. As a result, this payment structure satisfies the requirement that employees be paid a predetermined amount constituting all or part of the employee’s compensation” paid weekly or less frequently, provided the payments are not subject to reduction because of variations in the quality or quantity of work performed.
      • Example 2: the same educational consultant in example 1, is assigned to a second eight-week assignment (Project Two) while continuing to work on the original assignment. For completing the second project, in addition to payments received for work on the first project, the consultant will be paid $6,000 in four $1,500 biweekly installments, for a total of $5,500 per pay period during the eight weeks in which the projects overlap. The employer’s payments for the second project also satisfy the requirements as “extra” compensation under the regulations.
    • The Opinion: Both examples met the requirements for payments under the salary basis rule.

Wage and Hour Laws–They are Here, There and Everywhere Part 4

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In my first blog in this series, October 23, 2019, I started discussing the complexities of compliance with wage and hour laws.  Which apply…federal or state?  What areas are covered?  When these questions do arise, where do you find the answers? Can a payroll professional simply check the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to find the answer with a quick verification of any state requirement? Or is the state the main source to go to first with the FLSA as the fall back? The answer is not simple.  In this blog series I will be discussing 23 areas where payroll professionals need to ensure compliance by researching wage and hour laws. In Part 2, I covered the first six areas. In Part 3 I discussed the next four areas.  This time I am reviewing the next set of four areas that may require research to ensure compliance: which includes posting requirements, frequency of payments, methods of payments, and termination requirements.

11. Posting Requirements
Many states have posting requirements in addition to the ones required by the FLSA.  The state may have its own minimum wage poster.  It may require a payday notice or copies of the wage and hour laws be posted or given directly to the employee. State with payday notice regulations include California, Montana, Minnesota, Texas, Tennessee and New York For those states who have them, including California, Connecticut, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, wage orders are usually required to be posted as well.

 

 

12. Frequency of Payments
Federal laws do not specify when an employee must be paid, only that they must. However, most states have a requirement that not only must employees be paid but that they must be within a certain frequency, such as semi-monthly or weekly.  Arizona requires that the employer designate two or more days in each month to pay employees and the days cannot be more than 16 days apart.  New York bases its requirements on whether the employee is a manual worker, a clerical worker or other type of worker. Most states require either biweekly or semimonthly paydays.  These include California, Illinois and New Mexico. Other states permit monthly payrolls including Alaska, Delaware and Washington. Be sure when researching to also check into the amount of time permitted between closing the payroll (collecting the timesheets) and paying the employees.  States do have requirements on what can be called “payroll processing time” or “lag time”.

13. Method of Payment
There is no requirement under the FLSA as to the method to pay an employee. Almost all the states do address this issue. The common requirement is the employee be paid by U.S. currency or check.  The federal government does regulate the paying of employees via direct deposit under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act. The Act was recently updated to include the newest method of payment of employees—payroll debit cards. The states are updating their regulations for payroll debit cards.  The payroll professional must determine if the state allows this form of payment if it intends to begin a pay card payment program and what restrictions may be in place.  These restrictions include limiting fees and voluntary participation.

14. Termination Requirements

Again the FLSA is silent when it comes to requirements on paying an employee who terminates.  States that address this issue vary greatly. For some states it can even depend on whether or not the employee quit or was discharged.  For example, if an employee is discharge Colorado requires that the employee be paid immediately.  But if the employee quits the check is due on the next regular payday. As to whether or not vacation pay must be included with the final paycheck will be discussed in the next segment of this blog.

 

In Part 5 I will be covering the next four areas that may require research including vacation pay requirements, compensatory time off, reporting time or show up pay and call back pay.

IRS Launches New Tool for Estimating Taxes

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The Internal Revenue Service has launched the new Tax Withholding Estimator, an expanded, mobile-friendly online tool designed to make it easier for everyone to have the right amount of tax withheld during the year. The Tax Withholding Estimator replaces the Withholding Calculator, which offered workers a convenient online method for checking their withholding. The new Tax Withholding Estimator offers workers, as well as retirees, self-employed individuals and other taxpayers, a more user-friendly step-by-step tool for effectively tailoring the amount of income tax they have withheld from wages and pension payments.

“The new estimator takes a new approach and makes it easier for taxpayers to review their withholding,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “This is part of an ongoing effort by the IRS to improve quality services as we continue to pursue modernization and enhancements of our taxpayer relationships.” The IRS took the feedback and concerns of taxpayers and tax professionals to develop the Tax Withholding Estimator, which offers a variety of new user-friendly features including:

  • Plain language throughout the tool to improve comprehension.
  • The ability to more effectively target at the time of filing either a tax due amount close to zero or a refund amount.
  • A new progress tracker to help users see how much more information they need to input.
  • The ability to move back and forth through the steps, correct previous entries and skip questions that don’t apply.
  • Enhanced tips and links to help the user quickly determine if they qualify for various tax credits and deductions.
  • Self-employment tax for a user who has self-employment income in addition to wages or pensions.
  • Automatic calculation of the taxable portion of any Social Security benefits.
  • A mobile-friendly design.

In addition, the new Tax Withholding Estimator makes it easier to enter wages and withholding for each job held by the taxpayer and their spouse, as well as separately entering pensions and other sources of income. At the end of the process, the tool makes specific withholding recommendations for each job and each spouse and clearly explains what the taxpayer should do next.

The new Tax Withholding Estimator will help anyone doing tax planning for the last few months of 2019. Like last year, the IRS urges everyone to do a Paycheck Checkup and review their withholding for 2019. This is especially important for anyone who faced an unexpected tax bill or a penalty when they filed this year. It’s also an important step for those who made withholding adjustments in 2018 or had a major life change.

Those most at risk of having too little tax withheld include those who itemized in the past but now take the increased standard deduction, as well as two-wage-earner households, employees with nonwage sources of income and those with complex tax situations.

 

Keep your knowledge current when it concerns payroll regulations with Payroll 24/7.  For only $149 per year, get all updates daily as they are issued right to your inbox.

EFT, ACH and EDI are Different and It Matters

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In payroll we tend to use the terms EFT, ACH and EDI interchangeably.  But in actual practice they are quite different.  To help explain these important differences the National Automated Clearing House Association or NACHA has provided some guidance on their April 29, 2019 blog, written by Rober Unger.   It is helpful to payroll professionals to understand these terms and use them correctly.  I found this blog extremely helpful and I hope you do to.