Payroll

Young workers: DOL stresses homework, not real work

05/23/2014

The DOL’s website, youthrules.dol.gov, is designed to educate employers about the rules for employing teens (sorry, there’s no help with how to actually manage them).

Can we mandate direct deposit?

05/22/2014

Q. We require all employees to provide us with bank account information so we can direct-deposit their pay. One of our employees has refused and has told us that she is not required accept electronic deposits of her pay. Is the employee correct?

Final ACA info reporting regs: Godzilla meets Frankenstein

05/20/2014

Under final ACA regulations, insured employers with at least 50 full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees, must file information returns with the IRS to report offers of health insurance made to full-time employees and provide statements to those employees. Key: Small self-insured employers must also report, even though they’re excluded from the play-or-pay provisions.

Health care reform: The latest news you can use

05/19/2014

It’s time to take a breather from the voluminous sets of regulations related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) health care reform law. Here’s news that’s easier to digest.

Is it time to reevaluate your intern program?

05/13/2014

In the wake of some high-profile lawsuits, here’s a rundown of the problems that can arise when interns work for free.

State document requirements for employing teens

05/12/2014

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. Here’s a chart that lists requirements.

The boss’s son: Employee or independent contractor?

05/09/2014

Q: Our company president’s teenage son has been hired to do what the president calls incidental work around our office this summer. He’s signed a “Professional Services Agreement,” which specifies that he will be paid $10 an hour. Payroll has been told not to put him on the payroll because he’s an independent contractor. We think he should be put on the payroll. Who’s correct?

Leasing organizations may be liable for clients’ payroll taxes

05/08/2014

The IRS can only collect payroll taxes once—either from you or your designated third party. Final regulations, which became effective March 31, 2014, clarify when employee leasing organizations are liable for their clients’ payroll taxes. Warning: Even though the regs heap liability on leasing organizations, they stress that you remain on the hook for your payroll taxes.

Regs clarify ‘risk’ for taxing noncash compensation

05/05/2014

Under tax code Section 83, you don’t tax employees who receive company stock, stock options or other property that is subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture until the risk lapses and the property vests. Final regulations issued in February, which closely follow proposed regs, clarify what counts as a substantial risk of forfeiture.

Supreme Court rules severance payments taxable

05/01/2014

The U.S. Supreme Court has resolved a split among circuit courts with a late-March ruling that employer severance payments to employees are FICA-taxable as wages. Employers must, therefore, remit their portion of Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) withholding taxes for those payments.