7.5 Common FLSA Errors

Exactly 75 years ago today, Franklin Delano Roosevelt may have experienced writer’s cramp. After all, he signed over 100 bills into law on that day, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The FLSA initially covered only about 20 percent of  the workforce, setting standards for child labor, minimum wage ($.25 per hour) and a 44-hour maximum workweek. The FLSA has undergone several changes since then, but one thing remains the same: employers still struggle with complying with this law. Therefore, instead of providing a cake with 75 candles, we are paying respect to the FLSA by pointing out 7.5 frequent mistakes employers make:

Click Here for the complete list.

Important Dates to Remember

The following checklist provides insurance agents/brokers, employers and benefits and payroll professionals key upcoming dates and deadlines related to health benefits. This reminder list does not constitute all of the deadlines applicable to employers and some deadlines may be different based on variations in plan year or plan design.

Click Here for the full calendar of important dates in 2012.

Making sense of ‘special circumstance’ pay pitfalls

May 16, 2012 by Dan Wisniewski

You know when non-exempt staff have to be paid for off-the-clock time or travel. But what about these other wage and hour pitfalls?

Here are six compensable time issues that every HR pro should know how to handle, courtesy of Grace Lee and Robert Friedman of Venable LLP.

Seminars and training

Non-exempt workers who attend a lecture, a seminar or a training program outside the office don’t have to be paid if the event meets the following criteria: 

• attendance is voluntary
• attendance is outside the employee’s regular working hours
• the event is not directly related to staffers’ jobs, and
• staff members don’t perform any work during the event.

Click Here to continue reading

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IRS Updates W-2 Health Care Coverage Reporting FAQ

On January 3, 2012, the IRS issued Notice 2012-09, which restates and amends last year’s Notice 2011-28 guidance on W-2 health coverage reporting. 

The Notice arrives just as many employers are processing their first payroll of 2012, the first payroll that is subject to the new reporting requirement. Recall that §9002 of the Affordable Care Act imposes this mandate, with the cost of all applicable coverage reported in Box 12 as Code DD.

Notice 2011-28 was a 31-question FAQ. Notice 2012-09 builds upon the earlier framework, adding eight more questions and revising some of the answers (under the heading of “Additional Issues”). Here are some highlights: Click Here to read more!

• Small Employer Exception. Employers with fewer than 250 W-2s in 2011 still have an indefinite delay, as do Indian tribal governments. An employer that uses a §3504 agent does not qualify for the exemption if the employer would have exceeded the 250 threshold without the agent.
• Health FSAs. The IRS clarified that only the amount that exceeds an employee’s salary reduction (if any) must be reported. An example would be an employer’s matching contribution.

Click Here to read more!

Taxable wage base for 2012: What Payroll needs to know

Here’s one important piece of info you can pass along to Payroll to help them better prepare for 2012.

The Social Security Administration has just issued the taxable wage base for next year.

Starting in 2012, the amount of employees’ pay that’s subject to social security tax will be $110,000.

That’s a significant increase from this year’s amount of $106,800. It’s based on the increase in average employee wages.

So for 2012, the maximum social security tax employees and employers will each pay is $6,826.20.

Note: It may be good idea to remind Payroll that there’s no limit to the wages that are subject to Medicare tax, which means your firm must take the 1.45% tax off all covered wages. 

Click Here for the original article and important links!

FUTA Tax Rate Update

In an effort to keep you informed on current Payroll tax legislation, we would like to bring the following information to your attention:

§        The FUTA rate is set to decrease to 6.0% effective July 1, 2011, if legislation is not enacted to extend the FUTA surcharge.

§  If not enacted to extend, this will make the FUTA tax rate .6% after the FUTA credit of 5.4% that employers are allowed to take for making timely SUI payments throughout the quarter.

We will make the appropriate changes within the payroll software to accommodate these changes as they occur.  We continue to watch for any upcoming legislation regarding the FUTA tax, and will keep you informed.

Please contact us with any questions.

Little Mistakes, Big Headaches: Top 3 Payroll Mistakes

Few groups are as precise and detailed oriented as Payroll. That’s what makes them perfect for the job, right? But they’re not infallible.

Mistakes do happen. And when those mistakes involve overpayments, they bring an avalanche of headaches with them.

After all, people’s paychecks are as sensitive a subject as you get.  And telling employees your company paid them too much and now have to correct that will never be well received.

Link to: Read The Whole Article On CFO Daily News

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IRS Offers New W-2 Relief … to some companies

Good news, particularly for Payroll: Your company may have just been handed an extra year before it has to report employees’ health insurance costs on their W-2s. Does your company qualify?

Link to Article on CFO Daily News