Secretary Ken F. Ortiz of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions has announced a decrease in the taxable wage base for 2010. The wage base will decrease from $20,900 for 2009 to $20,800 for 2010. Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on New Mexico unemployment taxable wage base or visit our Unemployment Taxable Wage Base page.
Director Lawrence G. Rebman of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations has announced a increase in the taxable wage base for 2010. The wage base will increase from $12,500 for 2009 to $13,000 for 2010. Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on Missouri unemployment taxable wage base or visit our Unemployment Taxable Wage Base page.
This week’s question comes from Elizabeth, a small business owner. I need to give copies of my quarterly tax returns to my CPA so I can finish my income tax return. I can’t find my copies anywhere. How can I get copies of my quarterlies? Answer: Vision Payroll offers a CPA Reporting Service that will deliver electronic or paper copies of your quarterlies to your CPA. Your CPA will appreciate always having your file up-to-date and you’ll appreciate the timesavings for both of you at year-end. And there’s no charge for this valuable service. Send us the name and address of your CPA and we’ll get you the paperwork to enroll. Contact Vision Payroll today to get started.
According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending October 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 521,000, a decrease of 33,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 554,000. The 4-week moving average was 539,750, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 548,750.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.5% for the week ending September 26, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 4.6%.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending September 26 was 6,040,000, a decrease of 72,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,112,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,144,250, a decrease of 15,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 6,160,000.
The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.677 million.
According to the 2009 Deloitte LLP Ethics & Workplace Survey, “58 percent of executives agree that reputational risk and social networking should be a boardroom issue.” As employees (and employers too) increase their usage of such sites as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others, employers need to address social media in the workplace and consider a social media policy.
Some of the issues involved include the following:
What are the four common approaches towards managing social media? What is the best response to this quickly emerging and constantly changing issue? What are some key elements that should be included in a social media policy?
To learn the answers to these questions and more, be sure to read this month’s featured article by the HR pros at MyHRSupportCenter, Keeping Pace with Social Media in the Workplace. If you’re not yet signed up or would like a free trial of MyHRSupportCenter, contact Vision Payroll today.
The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) recently released updated Standard Industry Fare Level (SIFL) rates which are used to value employee personal use of company aircraft. The revised rates are 25.01¢ per mile for 500 or fewer miles traveled, 19.07¢ per mile for greater than 500 miles traveled and up to 1,500 miles traveled, and 18.33¢ per mile for greater than 1,500 miles traveled. The terminal charge is $45.71. These rates apply to the period from July 1, 2009 to December 31, 2009.
Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on SIFL changes.
Due to the tsunami resulting in severe storms and flooding in American Samoa on September 29, 2009, President Barack Obama declared the Territory of American Samoa a federal disaster area. Therefore, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced recently that it will waive failure to deposit penalties for employment and excise taxes due after September 28, 2009 and before October 15, 2009 as long as the deposits were made by October 14, 2009. In addition, affected taxpayers will have until December 28, 2009 to file most tax returns. Contact Vision Payroll if you were affected by the severe storms and flooding caused by the tsunami and need further information on the relief provided by the IRS.
Due to severe storms and flooding in Georgia on September 18, 2009, President Barack Obama declared the following counties a federal disaster area: Bartow, Carroll, Catoosa, Chattooga, Cherokee, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett, Heard, Newton, Paulding, Rockdale, Stephens and Walker. Therefore, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced recently that it will waive failure to deposit penalties for employment and excise taxes due after September 17, 2009 and before October 6, 2009 as long as the deposits were made by October 5, 2009. In addition, affected taxpayers will have until December 17, 2009 to file most tax returns. Contact Vision Payroll if you were affected by the severe storms and flooding and need further information on the relief provided by the IRS.
Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in September (-263,000), and the unemployment rate (9.8%) continued to trend up, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently. The largest job losses were in construction, manufacturing, retail trade, and government.
Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 7.6 million to 15.1 million, and the unemployment rate has doubled to 9.8%.
Unemployment rates for the major worker groups—adult men (10.3%), adult women (7.8%), teenagers (25.9%), whites (9.0%), blacks (15.4%), and Hispanics (12.7%)—showed little change in September. The unemployment rate for Asians was 7.4%, not seasonally adjusted. The rates for all major worker groups are much higher than at the start of the recession.
Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 603,000 to 10.4 million in September. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for twenty-seven weeks and over) rose by 450,000 to 5.4 million. In September, 35.6% of unemployed persons were jobless for twenty-seven weeks or more.
The civilian labor force participation rate declined by 0.3 percentage points in September to 65.2%. The employment-population ratio, at 58.8%, also declined over the month and has decreased by 3.9 percentage points since the recession began in December 2007.
In September, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed at 9.2 million. The number of such workers rose sharply throughout most of the fall and winter but has been little changed since March.
About 2.2 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in September, an increase of 615,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior twelve months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.
Among the marginally attached, there were 706,000 discouraged workers in September, up by 239,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.5 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in September had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
This week’s question comes from Thomas, a controller. I received a notification from the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance concerning their new QUEST program. What do I need to do to get ready for QUEST? Answer: QUEST (Quality Unemployment System Transformation) is the new online unemployment insurance system scheduled to be available on December 7, 2009. Soon all registered employers will be receiving a letter with their user ID and temporary password. Someone must logon, reset the password, list an Account Administrator, verify the employer account information, make updates, and provide missing information. Clients of Vision Payroll will also need to authorize Vision Payroll as their agent and select the roles that Vision Payroll will perform. When you receive this notification, contact Vision Payroll for assistance in registering with the QUEST system.
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