Over the next few weeks, as your employees start to receive their 2024 W-2 form, they will likely have questions as to what all those numbers mean. For example, it is not uncommon for a salaried employee who earns a salary of $50,000 per year question why their Box 1 Wages only reflects $45,000. Did they get underpaid? Probably not. If the employee contributes to a pension plan (aka 401(k)) or has pre-tax insurance deductions, then those amounts reduces the “taxable” wage, which is what appears in Box 1. Some employees may also wonder why their Federal Income Tax withheld…
Posts published in “Payroll”
Under the provisions of the American Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), a Federal tax is levied on employers covered by the Unemployment Insurance program at a current rate of 6.0% on wages up to $7,000 a year paid to a worker. The law, however, provides a credit against federal tax liability of up to 5.4% to employers who pay state taxes timely under an approved state UI program. Accordingly, in states meeting the specified requirements, employers pay an effective Federal tax of 0.6%, or a maximum of $42 per covered worker, per year. The credit against the Federal tax may…
While the Federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour for the past 16 years, 27 states and many cities, counties and locals have set increases effective January 1st, 2025 with a few announcing a change during 2025. Many states are continuing their march to $15.00 per hour with many states now exceeding that rate with places in Washington state that have a minimum wage above $20 per hour. A list of each state/local, along with the new hourly rate is listed below. States that do not have a minimum wage change scheduled may not be listed. All rates are…
Most years, the only thing we have to worry about when it comes to retirement plan administration is adjusting for the cost-of-living increase to contribution limits. Some years we don’t even have that, but this year is an exception with that, plus major changes you will need to make and consider. So first, the easy stuff. The cost-of-living increase, to the maximum amount an individual can contribute to their 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 and the Thrift Savings plans, will be increased to $23,500, up from $23,000 in 2024. The catch-up contribution will remain at $7,500 and the limit on annual…
Did you hire someone who is giving you pushback on submitting a W-4 form, or maybe they even presented you with a little-known tax form stating that they do not pay taxes? If so, you may have hired a tax protestor. No need to panic; you may be able to talk some sense into them. Tax protestors could simply be misinformed individuals, and with social media exposure, that is easy to come by. I have seen TikTok videos, X posts, YouTube and the like, falsely leading people down this path. They claim that taxation is voluntary, does not apply to…
I am surprised that I have not covered maternity leave in the past nine years, as it is a relevant topic that can impact every employer from the beginning of time. In fact, at PayMaster we have had about a dozen employees take time off for maternity or paternity leave over our past 30 years; there were even twins once. The term maternity leave covers an employee who is away from work to care for the addition of a child to their family through birth, adoption or foster care placement, but what does it entail? Eligibility, including whether one is…
There is a fair amount of activity with the IRS-processing Employee Retention (Tax) Credit (ERC) refunds with two announcements this past month. I would call it good news for those who have legitimate claims and bad news for those who filed a not-so-legitimate claim. Actually, not all bad news for the not-so-legitimate claim group. The IRS has reopened the Voluntary Disclosure Program (VDP), which will run through November 22, 2024. As you may recall, this was started earlier this year whereby the IRS allowed you to revoke your claim and return any funds you believe were improperly claimed, keeping 20%…
E-Verify is now mandated to be performed on all new employees in the state of Florida. Check out this webinar replay for all the information you need to know.
Looking for information on what to do for year end? Need information on Secure Act 2.0? Watch this webinar replay.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the IRS, alleging that their lengthy processing time for ERC claims is violating their rights, including one to stop the moratorium that was imposed on new filings made after September 14, 2023. In recent IRS responses to these lawsuits, we have learned new information on how they intend to clear their backlog of 1.4+ million returns they have had as of May 18, 2024. 880,000 of those returns were filed before the moratorium on September 14, 2023, so in essence, the fact there is a moratorium at all, those returns received after that date…