Payroll News

Washington Post

As disposable incomes shrink and savings plummet, residents across the region say there are still some luxuries they won’t let go of, no matter how bad it gets. They might be clipping coupons, joining warehouse clubs and carpooling, but they’re still willing to spend their hard-earned cash on one non-negotiable something — be it gourmet hot chocolate, cigars, pricey bottled water or a ski trip out West — that soothes the spirit. In about 75 interviews, residents said the prospect of money spent on friends, family or for a small boost to their well-being is worth it.

Filed under: Restaurant News - - - Tags: Slow economy
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Subject: Discontinuance of repairs on “End of life” products
Due to the lack of availability on repair parts, effective immediately NO RMA’s will be issued on the following products. This includes blown security
TA520LB
TA520MB
All TA530 Models
All TA620 Version 5 Models

Filed under: Uncategorized - - - Tags: Time America, Time clock
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Social Security Critical Links

Update Your Payroll Records – Ask employees to verify their name and SSN before you close out your books and prepare Forms W-2. If a name has changed, continue to use the old name and tell the employee to contact Social Security to obtain an updated card. Using a new name before the employee updates Social Security’s records may prevent the posting of earnings. Change your payroll records only when the employee obtains an updated Social Security card with the new name.

Avoid These Common Errors – Incorrect name or SSN; misspelled names; using nicknames or shortened names, using titles before or after the name; and name changes not reported to Social Security.

Verify Names/SSNs with Social Security – Use Social Security’s free Internet service to match employees’ names and SSNs with Social Security’s records at the time of hire or before you prepare and submit Forms W-2. Use PayMaster’s built in SSNVS file creator and check new hires periodically.

Use the Correct Name Format
Enter the name on Form W-2 as shown on the employee’s Social Security card. Compound names no longer require a hyphen. Connect parts of a compound name with either a hyphen or a blank space. Do not join them into a single word. If an employee has a compound name, include all of the parts in the appropriate name field. For example, the name John R Smith-Jones: Enter Smith Jones in the last name field.

It’s especially important to know the exact last name. If an employee provides a name with apparent compound or multiple last names, carefully question them to determine which name is the beginning of the surname and which (if any) is the middle name.

Use the Correct SSN
Enter the SSN shown on the employee’s Social Security card. No SSN can begin with an 8 or a 9. The SSN cannot be all 1s or all 3s and cannot be in the sequential order of 123-45-6789. If you hire someone who does not have a Social Security card, you can use the free Social Security Number Verification Service (SSNVS) which allows you to quickly verify whether a person’s name and SSN matches Social Security’s records, or you can ask him/her to obtain.

Filed under: Federal News, PayMaster Software, Payroll News - - - Tags: SSA, SSN, SSNVS
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IRS Releases Advance Copies of 2009 Withholding Tables and EIC tables.

The tables are effective for wages paid in 2009. The withholding allowance amount has increased for 2009 up to $3650. The IRS has also issued the percentage method tables for determining advance earned income credit amounts. The wage-bracket tables for withheld federal income tax and the advance earned income credit will be included in IRS Publication 15, Circular E, Employer’s Tax Guide.

Filed under: Federal News - - - Tags: EIC, IRS, Withholding
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NEW YORK (Full article @ CNNMoney.com) — Remember all the talk during the presidential campaign about a middle-class tax cut? It could be showing up in your paycheck early next year.

…

“Under the Obama payroll tax credit, payroll and other accounting software would have to be recoded and implemented across many businesses,” said Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com.

“A payroll tax credit would provide more of a spending boost since it is a permanent change in the tax code,” Zandi said. “Households are more likely to spend a tax cut if it is the result of a permanent change rather than a temporary one.”

Filed under: Federal News, Payroll News - - - Tags: IRS, Obama, Tax Cuts
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The IRS has announced that the standard business mileage rate for transportation expenses paid or incurred beginning January 1, 2009, will be 55 cents per mile, down from the 58.5 cents per mile rate for 2008

Source :  www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=200505,00.html.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2009 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2009, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups, or panel trucks) will be:

* 55 cents per mile for business miles driven
* 24 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
* 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations

The new rates for business, medical and moving purposes are slightly lower than rates for the second half of 2008 that were raised by a special adjustment mid-year in response to a spike in gasoline prices. The rate for charitable purposes is set by law and is unchanged from 2008.

The mileage rates for 2009 reflect generally higher transportation costs compared to a year ago, but the rates also factor in the recent reversal of rising gasoline prices. While gasoline is a significant factor in the mileage rate, other fixed and variable costs, such as depreciation, enter the calculation.

Filed under: Federal News, Payroll News - - - Tags: Gas Prices, IRS, mileage rate
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OpenCongress Summary:
This bill would provide for seven more weeks of unemployment insurance benefits for those whose benefits have run out, but still have not found work. In states with an unemployment rate above six percent – like Rhode Island, Michigan and California – the bill would provide for an additional 13 weeks of extended benefits.

The full text of the Bill can be found here.

Filed under: Federal News, Payroll News - - - Tags: Slow economy, unemployment
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Michigan’s tax rate remains the same at 4.35% but the Personal Exemption Amount has increased to $3,600.

From the michigan.gov web site.

The 2009 exemption amount is $3,600 per year times the number of personal and dependency exemptions allowed under the IRC. An employee may not claim more exemptions on the MI-W4 than can be claimed on the employee’s federal income tax return.

Filed under: Payroll News, State News - - - Tags: 2009, Michigan, Withholding
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The IRS Chief Council has ruled in a case involving the FICA Tip Credit involving tips undeclared in a previous tax year.

From the ruling:

“In a prior tax year an employee receives cash tips which constitute wages but the employee fails to report the tip amounts to his or her employer in the year the tips were received. Thereafter, the employee’s employer receives in the current tax year a notice and demand for the employer share of FICA taxes with respect to the tip amounts the employee received in the prior year. The employee’s employer seeks a current year credit under section 45B for the amount of FICA tax.”

The common sense ruling asserts that the employer can’t pay the taxes or take the FICA Credit until they are made aware of the undeclared tips.

They conclude that they “find no basis for concluding that the excess social security tax amounts arise in the year in which the tips are actually received by the employee. Thus, the Code section 45B credit is available to the employer in the year of notice and demand not the year in which the unreported tips were received by the employee. ”

NOTE : Even though the employer’s liability and credit is given in the current year, the wage base and tip credit still needs to be computed based on the year that the tips were actually earned.

Filed under: Federal News, Payroll News - - - Tags: FICA, IRS, Tip Credit
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For 2009, personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise and tax brackets will widen because of inflation adjustments announced today by the Internal Revenue Service.

By law, the dollar amounts for a variety of tax provisions must be revised each year to keep pace with inflation. As a result, more than three dozen tax benefits, affecting virtually every taxpayer, are being adjusted for 2009. Key changes affecting 2009 returns include the following:

* The value of each personal and dependency exemption, available to most taxpayers, is $3,650, up $150 from 2008.
* The new standard deduction is $11,400 for married couples filing a joint return (up $500), $5,700 for singles and married individuals filing separately (up $250) and $8,350 for heads of household (up $350). Nearly two out of three taxpayers take the standard deduction, rather than itemizing deductions, such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
* Tax-bracket thresholds increase for each filing status. For a married couple filing a joint return, for example, the taxable-income threshold separating the 15-percent bracket from the 25-percent bracket is $67,900, up from $65,100 in 2008.
* The maximum earned income tax credit for low and moderate income workers and working families with two or more children is $5,028, up from $4,824. The income limit for the credit for joint return filers with two or more children is $43,415, up from $41,646.

Information about the pension and retirement plan-related changes can be found in
IR-2008-118. Other inflation adjustments are described in Revenue Procedure 2008-66.

Filed under: Federal News, Payroll News - - - Tags: 2009, IRS, Withholding
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