Vision Payroll

According to the California Employment Development Department (EDD), employers in the county of San Bernardino directly affected by the damage resulting from the severe winter storms may request up to a 60-day extension of time from EDD to file their State payroll reports and/or deposit State payroll taxes without penalty or interest. This extension may be granted under Section 1111.5 of the California Unemployment Insurance Code (CUIC). Written request for extension must be received within 60 days from the original delinquent date of the payment or return to file/pay. Contact Vision Payroll if you’ve been affected and need to file the extension request.

According to the California Employment Development Department (EDD), employers in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Francisco and Siskiyou directly affected by the damage resulting from the severe winter storms may request up to a 60-day extension of time from EDD to file their State payroll reports and/or deposit State payroll taxes without penalty or interest. This extension may be granted under Section 1111.5 of the California Unemployment Insurance Code (CUIC). Written request for extension must be received within 60 days from the original delinquent date of the payment or return to file/pay. Contact Vision Payroll if you’ve been affected and need to file the extension request.

This is one in a continuing series on the 2009 Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, which employers must generally furnish to employees no later than February 1, 2010. Forms mailed on the due date are considered furnished if properly addressed. Employers unable to meet that deadline may file a request for extension of time to furnish the forms. Today we review Box 12, codes.

Enter codes and amounts in boxes 12a, 12b, 12c, and 12d. The letters a, b, c, and d do not relate to the codes, but are strictly for identification purposes. If an employee has code C for $100 and that is the only code for that employee, the employer may enter code C in box 12a; it does not need to be entered in box 12c. If filing copy A on paper, enter only four codes on one Form W-2. Employers should use multiple forms for employees with more than four codes. There is no limit on the number of codes on any other copy of Form W-2. Enter the code and amount without dollar signs or commas.

The codes and their descriptions are as follows:

Employers should combine elective deferrals and elective catch-up contributions into one sum and report under the appropriate elective deferral plan code.

The next topic in this continuing series will be Box 13, checkboxes. Contact Vision Payroll with any questions on the 2009 Form W-2.

This is one in a continuing series on the 2009 Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, which employers must generally furnish to employees no later than February 1, 2010. Forms mailed on the due date are considered furnished if properly addressed. Employers unable to meet that deadline may file a request for extension of time to furnish the forms. Today we review Box 11, nonqualified plans.

Box 11 shows the amount of distributions from a nonqualified plan or a nongovernmental §457(b) plan. These distributions should also be reported in box 1. Distributions from governmental §457(b) plans are not reported in this box.

Box 11 should show deferrals and earnings that became taxable for social security and Medicare purposes in 2009 because the deferrals and earnings were no longer subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture, but only if the amounts were for services before 2009 and no distributions were made in 2009. These amounts must also be reported in box 3, up to the $106,800 wage limit, and box 5.

Box 11 should not be used for deferrals that are included in box 3, up to the wage limit, and box 5 and that are for services performed in 2009.

Box 11 should also not be used when payments are made from a nonqualified plan and deferrals are included in box 3, up to the wage limit, and box 5. Employers should use Form SSA-131, Employer Report of Special Wage Payments. Generally the employer should report the amount from box 1 of Form W-2, plus any amounts deferred during 2009, less any payments from the nonqualified plan.

Assume Cameron retired during 2009. He earned $50,000 in wages, but deferred $35,000 of that amount in a nonqualified deferred compensation plan. Since he retired, he also received $75,000 in payments from the plan. Since there are both distributions and deferrals in 2009, no amount is reported in box 11. Box 11 should also not be used to report special wage payments earned in a prior year such as accrued sick pay or vacation pay. These amounts should be reported on Form SSA-131, however, so that the Social Security Administration may accurately calculate the recipient’s social security benefits.

The next topic in this continuing series will be Box 12, codes. Contact Vision Payroll with any questions on the 2009 Form W-2.

This week’s question comes from Rachael, a receptionist. I just filed my 2009 tax returns. Usually I get a big refund, but this year my refund was a lot less. My income and deductions are pretty much the same as in 2008. Why did my federal income tax refund go down? Answer: Your income tax refund is based on many factors, but one important factor to consider is the amount of federal income tax withheld. Last February, the Internal Revenue Service released revised withholding tables that increased most taxpayers’ take-home pay by reducing the amount of federal income tax withheld. These tables reflected changes mandated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including the Making Work Pay Credit. Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions.

According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending January 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 482,000, an increase of 36,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 446,000. The 4-week moving average was 448,250, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 441,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.5% for the week ending January 9, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.5%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 9 was 4,599,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,617,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,750,500, a decrease of 109,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,860,250.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.412 million.

Do you need to know the most important employment legislation, HR case laws, workplace trends, and major employee issues anticipated for 2010 and how they affect employers? In this month’s HRCast, a recording provided by our team of HR Pros and available exclusively on MyHRSupportCenter, you’ll learn more about these seven hot HR topics:

1. Employment Litigation
2. Social Networking
3. Expanded FMLA and Military Leave
4. Pandemic Illness Preparedness
5. ARRA COBRA Subsidies
6. Health Care Reform
7. Employee Free Choice Act

Visit MyHRSupportCenter regularly not only for our HRCasts, but also to get late-breaking compliance alerts, best practices to implement, and HR tools to use every day. If you’re not yet signed up or would like a free trial of MyHRSupportCenter, contact Vision Payroll today.

According to the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, because of the amount of unemployment benefits that were paid out over the last couple of years there have been legislative changes made. The department invoked RSA282-A: 84 – Emergency Power for the last 3 quarters of 2009, which added a 0.5% surcharge onto all employer tax rates. For all quarters of 2010, a full 1.0% surcharge will be added to all employer tax rates. Negative rated employers (employers whose benefit charges exceeded tax paid) will have a 1.5% added to their tax rates in addition to the 1.0% surcharge for all quarters of 2010.

New Employer rates for all quarters of 2010 will be 3.7% (includes 1.0% surcharge). Contact Vision Payroll if you have any questions on the Emergency Power Surcharge.

According to the California Employment Development Department (EDD), employers in the county of Humboldt directly affected by the damage resulting from the earthquake may request up to a 60-day extension of time from EDD to file their State payroll reports and/or deposit State payroll taxes without penalty or interest. This extension may be granted under Section 1111.5 of the California Unemployment Insurance Code (CUIC). Written request for extension must be received within 60 days from the original delinquent date of the payment or return to file/pay. Contact Vision Payroll if you’ve been affected and need to file the extension request.

This is one in a continuing series on the 2009 Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, which employers must generally furnish to employees no later than February 1, 2010. Forms mailed on the due date are considered furnished if properly addressed. Employers unable to meet that deadline may file a request for extension of time to furnish the forms. Today we review Box 10, dependent care benefits.

Box 10 shows the amount paid or incurred by the employer under §129 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) for dependent care assistance provided to the employee if the assistance is furnished pursuant to a “dependent care assistance program” under that section. This box should include amounts paid or incurred for dependent care assistance in an IRC §125 (cafeteria) plan. The fair market value of any employer-sponsored or employer-provided day care facilities should also be included. Even though there is an annual exclusion limit of $5,000, the total amount paid or incurred must be reported in box 10. Amounts over $5,000 must also be reported in boxes 1 and 5 and box 3, subject to the wage limitation. Amounts that cannot be excluded for other reasons such as benefits for highly compensated employees in plans described in IRC §129(d), must also be reported in boxes 1 and 5 and box 3, subject to the wage limitation.

The next topic in this continuing series will be Box 11, nonqualified plans. Contact Vision Payroll with any questions on the 2009 Form W-2.