What Are Payroll Deductions?

The payroll tax is a 6.2% tax on an employee’s salary (up to $137,700 for 2020) that is withheld from their paycheck to fund Social Security, and the employer pays another 6.2%. During the period of national emergency, Mississippi will not change withholding requirements for businesses based on the employee’s temporary telework location. Mississippi residents are taxable on their total income, regardless of where they work. However, we will not impose any new withholding requirements on the employer. Mississippi will not use any changes in the employees’ temporary work locations due to the pandemic to impose nexus or alter apportionment of income for any business, while temporary telework requirements are in place.

• Deduct what your employees owe from their paychecks as part of payroll.
• Compensation paid to a Maryland nonresident who is teleworking in Maryland is Maryland-sourced income and, therefore, is subject to withholding.
• Maryland imposes income tax and, therefore, a withholding requirement on employers, for employees domiciled in Maryland, statutory residents of Maryland, and non-residents receiving Maryland-sourced income.
• Delaware has not entered into a reciprocal agreement with the state of Maryland.
• Income is deemed Maryland-sourced income when the income is compensation for services performed in Maryland.

Another related problem deals with tax “nexus”, which is the concept that where a business has an established presence in a state, it may be required to pay sales, income and other business taxes for that state. In some states, having employees working in the state is enough to establish nexus, which could lead to further tax compliance requirements for your business. This threshold varies by state — for instance, in New York it’s 14 days, but in Illinois it’s 30. Other states have an income threshold, or a combination of time and income. Watch a quick tutorial in Help & Support to learn how to add a new employee to your payroll.

Employee Eligibility For Deferrals

Based on the guidance currently available, offering employees the deferral of withholding of Social Security taxes from eligible wages is optional for employers. Unless state laws are changed and/or the federal government standardizes the rules, employers need to understand and comply with their regional requirements around managing payroll taxes for employees working out of state. Organizations will also need to understand the possible nexus impact on their business. To accomplish these objectives, consider speaking with a legal and payroll expert who is on top of the latest state laws. They can help you update your payroll system to manage the new requirements as your employees continue working from home. Before COVID-19, employers could avoid managing payroll taxes for employees working out of state by having everyone work on site.

Check with your local tax department to see whether they collect any additional employer-paid taxes. Taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act are composed of the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance taxes, known as social security and the hospital insurance tax, known as Medicare.

The Pros & Cons Of Outsourced Payroll

And if business slows down, you may be faced with the difficult decision of delaying payments or diverting money from other resources. If you’re a small business with only a few employees and choose to process payroll manually, you will need to keep precise records of hours worked, wages paid and worker classifications, among other details. You must also ensure your calculations are correct and remember to file all the necessary taxes and paperwork with government authorities on time. As you add more employees, the more challenging payroll becomes and any mistakes you make can result in costly tax penalties. There is no income limit for Medicare tax, so it applies to all of an employee’s wages. The long-term disability deduction covers a percentage of wages for employees who are injured or too sick to work for an extended period of time.

Social Security taxes are split between employers and employees, with each party owing 6.2 percent of an employee’s wages. Deduct what your employees owe from their paychecks as part of payroll. Your place of business and where your employees perform services also play a factor in payroll deductions because not every state collects income tax. Employers must comply with many different types of local payroll taxes. Certain types of local taxes are only imposed on employers doing business in a locality.

While ADP cannot speculate on the eventual outcome, if the deferrals are to be forgiven, that could only occur through a legislative act passed by Congress. The deferral of withholding of Social Security taxes from eligible wages is optional for employers. For any employee Social Security taxes deferred from September 1 through December 31, 2020, the Treasury Notice requires the employer to withhold and pay those taxes ratably from wages paid between January 1 and April 30, 2021. Failure of an employer to withhold and pay such amounts by April 30 will result in accrual of interest, penalties and additions to tax beginning on May 1, 2021. The Treasury Notice allows, if necessary, an employer to “make arrangements to otherwise collect” the total taxes due from the employee but does not describe what form such arrangements might take. Implications for Employers and Employees Neither the Presidential Memorandum nor the Treasury Notice changes the underlying law, which makes employers liable for employment taxes whether or not they withhold such taxes from employees. The Treasury Notice confirmed that employers remain liable to collect from employees and pay taxes deferred under the Presidential Memorandum.

However, employers must consider their unique circumstances and make that decision. State law generally requires employers to withhold state income tax based primarily on where an employee performs services, and secondarily where the employee resides. There are many exceptions, generally involving state reciprocity agreements, in which residents of nearby states are permitted to work in a state without incurring income tax liability. For example, Illinois residents working in Iowa are not subject to Iowa income tax, and the employer is not required to withhold Iowa income tax , because Iowa and Illinois have a reciprocal agreement. This is intended to reduce the number of income tax returns that an employee who lives in one state and works in another is required to file. End-to-end payroll processing integrates payroll with other aspects of workforce management, such as performance measurement, training, scheduling, benefits and compensation. By making this connection, you can improve communication, recordkeeping, analytics and efficiency throughout the employee life cycle.

The federal government requires employers and employees to pay social security and Medicare taxes, based on a percentage of an employee’s pay. When you have employees, you as the employer have certain employment tax responsibilities. As an employer, you must withhold and deposit the employee’s part of the taxes and for some taxes pay an employer amount. Keeping track of all the employer-paid taxes for payroll isn’t easy, and you might not realize you’ve missed one until you receive an agency notice that may include a penalty. Below are the most common employer-paid taxes that must be deposited by employers, along with filing the appropriate forms. If an employer defers an employee’s Social Security taxes pursuant to the Treasury Notice, is an employer obligated to collect the deferred tax amounts from the employee after December 31, 2020 and, if so, how?

Employer And Employee Decisions Factor In

Maryland imposes income tax and, therefore, a withholding requirement on employers, for employees domiciled in Maryland, statutory residents of Maryland, and non-residents receiving Maryland-sourced income. Income is deemed Maryland-sourced income when the income is compensation for services performed in Maryland. Delaware has not entered into a reciprocal agreement with the state of Maryland. Compensation paid to a Maryland nonresident who is teleworking in Maryland is Maryland-sourced income and, therefore, is subject to withholding.

No refunds are possible if employee Social Security taxes were withheld after September 1 and an employee later chooses to defer. Also, if an employee initially defers and later decides to revoke the deferral election, no additional tax will be collected retroactively for the period in which the deferral election was in effect.

If my company wants to offer to defer employee Social Security taxes, what kind of records will we need to maintain? The IRS will need to issue guidance on what kind of recordkeeping employers must do to track deferrals for its employees. ADP is working closely with the IRS to address this open question. If an employer implements deferrals after September 1, may the employer refund taxes already withheld after September 1? No, an employer cannot adjust for prior payrolls to retroactively apply a deferral decision.

Now, safety precautions and stay-at-home orders may have forced your organization to account for a multi-state workforce, especially since the pandemic has pushed many employees beyond the temporary thresholds for working from home. Accordingly, the wages of nonresident employees temporarily working remotely in another state instead of their South Carolina business location continue to be subject to South Carolina withholding. Minnesota DOR announced that it will not seek to establish nexus for any business tax, including withholding tax, solely because an employee is temporarily working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The DOR will not impose added individual income tax or payroll withholding tax requirements for employees who ordinarily work outside the state, but are temporarily telecommuting from a Minnesota location due to COVID-19.

ADP has prepared a sample form, available here, that employers can leverage to explain to employees their option to defer employee Social Security taxes and indicate to their employer whether they elect to defer. If an employer offers to defer employee Social Security taxes, does an employer need to first obtain individual elections by each employee to start deferring? Based on the latest guidance, it appears that individual employee elections are not required. However, because employees are expected to have different preferences as to deferral, employers should consider having employees affirmatively opt-in to have their Social Security taxes deferred before deferring. Does the Presidential Memorandum forgive the deferred taxes, and if not, is there a possibility that these deferrals will be forgiven via new legislation? No, the Presidential Memorandum only defers or delays the withholding and payment of employee Social Security taxes. Employer remain liable to collect from employees and pay taxes deferred under the Presidential Memorandum.

State income tax withholding for cross-border commuters has become a significant issue recently because of the national COVID-19 pandemic. As many state and local governments issued stay-at-home orders, many employees found themselves working at home for an extended period. For those employees that normally commute to work from another state, this may create new legal and tax obligations for employers and employees. Employers should consider taking action now to evaluate and comply with state tax requirements. Payroll processing is important because paying employees late or filing taxes incorrectly may result in penalties and interest on back taxes.

Given the possible questions and concerns for both employers and employees, employers who wish to implement deferrals should offer employees the option to affirmatively opt-in before deferring their employee Social Security taxes. If an employer offers to defer employee Social Security taxes and obtains employee elections, what should an employer do if an employee does not convey any preference? While the Presidential Memorandum and Treasury Notice do not address this question, if an employee makes no election, the employer should consider withholding 2020 Social Security taxes as normal. ADP strongly recommends that clients consult with their legal counsel and tax advisors regarding whether to allow employees to defer Social Security taxes pursuant to the Presidential Memorandum.

Other types of job expenses that can be deducted from payroll include uniforms, meals and travel. Statutory deductions are mandated by government agencies to pay for public programs and services. They consist of federal income tax, Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax and state income tax. To file them correctly, you need to know the work status of your employees.

When LTD is deducted pre-tax, employees pay slightly less for premiums, but are charged federal income tax on any benefits received. Post-tax LTD deductions, on the other hand, result in employees receiving slightly less take home pay each pay period, but their benefits aren’t subject to any further tax if they use them. Many Americans who have health insurance purchase it through their employers via payroll deductions. This offers considerable cost savings because the premiums can be withheld from their wages on a pre-tax basis under a Section 125 plan. In actuality, however, employees are not paying for their health coverage directly, but are reimbursing their employer, who submits payment to the health insurance provider. Payroll deductions are generally processed each pay period based on the applicable tax laws and withholding information supplied by your employees or a court order. The calculations can be done manually or you can automate the process using a payroll service provider.

Many businesses choose automation because it reduces errors and ensures that payments are filed with the proper authorities on time. If an employer offers to defer employee Social Security taxes, can an employee whose Social Security taxes are being deferred choose to stop deferring and resume withholding, and how will an employee be able to opt-out? However, because employees are expected to have different preferences as to deferral, as a best practice, employers should permit employees to change their elections. Changes will take effect shortly after making an election and will be prospective. The IRS is aware that most employers will not implement the deferral by September 1 and recognizes that the deferral may be put into effect any time after September 1 on a prospective basis.

Changes to state income tax withholding may be a relatively minor part of a much larger impact for an employer. That is, the presence of an employee in a state in which an employer does not have a legal and tax presence (known as “nexus”) may subject the employer to new obligations in any states in which employees are now working from home. Establishment of nexus, or legal presence in a state, may subject the employer to new state business income tax and sales tax obligations, so employers are generally careful not to inadvertently establish offices in new states. Even if you’re not paying someone else to do payroll for you, it’s still considered a business expense. This is because your employees’ wages and your share of payroll taxes cut into your profit margin.

To the extent an employer’s payroll for a pay date after September 1 has already run and taxes withheld, ADP cannot retroactively apply the employee Social Security tax deferral. When it comes to tax withholding, payroll primarily follows the rules of the state where the work is performed. If employees who live out of state come to your business for work, payroll would follow the withholding rules for the state where your business is located. Employers often withhold partial amounts for the residence state in addition to the worked-in state, or in some cases the employees handle that themselves when they file their personal income tax returns. ADP, which serves more than 800,000 businesses across the country, published a guide for employers last week explaining to employees that Trump’s order is simply a deferral and not a tax cut. In early August, President Trump signed an executive order deferring the collection of payroll taxes from employees through the end of 2020.

As an employer, you’re responsible for calculating and withholding money for federal, state and local taxes from every employee’s paycheck. The amount you withhold is determined by the Forms W-4 submitted by your employees and current tax rates. In addition, the United States government requires that you pay federal unemployment tax and match what your employees pay in Social Security and Medicare taxes. When you hire employees, you need to pay several taxes on their behalf. Keeping track of all the employer-paid taxes for payroll isn’t easy, and you might not realize you’ve missed one until you get hit with a government penalty. If your employees are unionized, they’ll likely have to pay for their membership and any taxable benefits offered through the union.

Also, the I-9 form is available in the Help & Support section of the RUN platform under Forms & Tools, then Tax & Payroll Forms. The U.S. government will implement the payroll tax deferral for its employees beginning later this month. The move has led critics to say the government is treating its employees like guinea pigs. If you are planning to offer your employees the option to defer their payroll taxes, here are six points to aid them in their decision. Would the Division advise employers in your state to not change the current work state set-up for employees in their payroll systems who are now telecommuting or are temporarily relocated at an out-of-state employer location? The Division would not require employers to make that change for this temporary situation.

Payroll that’s unreliable can also hurt employee morale and tarnish your business reputation. When you consider these ramifications, it’s often best to dedicate the necessary resources, whether it’s time or money, to make sure you get payroll right.

For example, if an employee deferred a total of $800 in 2020, an employer that will pay eight payrolls between January 1 and April 30, 2021, will deduct $100 per pay from the employee to collect and pay the deferral. This withholding will be in addition to the normal Social Security tax due on 2021 wages paid during the same period, which may cause some questions and concerns. Is it mandatory for employers to offer employees the option to defer their Social Security tax pursuant to this program?