A question I am often asked is ‘How long must I maintain my payroll records?’, and the answer is; “it depends”. Reason being is that there are many different documents that are maintained within the payroll world by a myriad of federal, state, and local agencies, and a lots of overlap. Some people put a blanket retention policy of seven years across all documents, but in some cases as we will see, even that may not be long enough. Namely if the records are for an active employee. Let’s take a look at the more popular forms and documents, and bring some order to…
Posts published in “W-4”
If you are like me, you have been at the edge of your seat waiting for the IRS to release the 2018 Form W-4, Employee Withholding Allowance Certificate since January 1st. Well, on February 28th the wait ended, and here is the new form in all four pages of glory. Yes, four pages. Double the prior year’s 1 page front and back form. At the end of the day, the certificate itself is still just a 1/3 of the first page where the employee will basically indicate whether they are withholding at Single, Married, or Married, but withhold at the higher…
With the recent passing of the new tax law, we will find a significant delay in the IRS’ publishing of the 2018 W-4 Withholding Allowance Form. In the meantime, anyone hired in 2018 should complete the 2017 form, and they will not need to complete the 2018 form when it is released. Unless that is, if they want to later change their withholding. A Form W-4 remains in effect until the employee gives you a new one. When you receive a new form, begin withholding no later than the start of the first payroll period ending on or after the 30th…