I recently took over the payroll/accounting position at our company and I was very hesitant and worried about the payroll process. Luckily my account manager was very informative and helpful with the whole training process. She has made this whole transition go very smooth. She has made me feel very comfortable and I know that she is always available to help with any questions or concerns that I may have. - Telle C |
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Corporate News
WriteChoice Product Launch
- Tue | 17 Jan 2012
AmCheck announces today the availability of a powerful new web-based, ad-hoc reporting tool: WriteChoice. This innovative tool provides AmCheck Client administrators and key decision-makers with valuable business insights by enabling convenient extraction of important payroll and HR data and empowering users to quickly produce customized, sharable reports. WriteChoice is a valuable asset for those who manage operations across multiple employer identification numbers, allowing decision-makers to gain an enterprise-wide or division-wide perspective. Designed to maximize flexibility, WriteChoice streamlines reporting functions and administrative activities and provides users with significant new exporting and reporting capabilities.
This powerful new tool greatly expands the addressable dataset to include labor allocation information and from/to reporting. The datasets are designed to focus on specific groups to make selection fast and easy, but all contain common elements to eliminate the need to join datasets. The new reporting tool also supports cross-company consolidated reporting.
WriteChoice enables users to save and copy reports so they may be shared easily. In addition, it supplies advanced sorting, grouping, totaling and filtering functionalities, all while providing control over grid styles, colors and fonts. WriteChoice enables production of professional reports that may be customized with company logos and features advanced graph production capabilities. Reports may also be output in a number of data formats, including PDF, Excel and comma-separated text files.
Contact your local AmCheck Account Director or Service Representative for more information.
FUTA Credit Reduction
- Fri | 06 Jan 2012
2011 FUTA Credit Reduction
Several states have been identified as Credit Reduction States for the FUTA (Federal Unemployment Tax Act) tax, retroactive to January 1, 2011 and will be due on Federal IRS Form 940 by January 31, 2012. Employers in these states will be subject to a reduction in FUTA credit resulting from unpaid federal loans. Typically, employers pay federal unemployment taxes on the first $7000.00 in wages paid to each employee. Federal unemployment tax on taxable wages through June 30, 2011 was 6.2%. However, the IRS allows for a credit of 5.4% in effect making the rate .8%. This credit is allowed due to payment of state unemployment tax. When state unemployment insurance funds are depleted then states can borrow from the federal unemployment fund. The IRS requires the states to repay this money within 2 years. When this does not happen the Federal credit reduces by .3% each year until the debt is repaid, ultimately, increasing the Federal tax rate on wages paid.
Employers in these states below will be subject to a reduction in FUTA credit resulting from unpaid Federal loans.
State Credit Reduction
Arkansas 0.3%
California 0.3%
Connecticut 0.3%
Florida 0.3%
Georgia 0.3%
Illinois 0.3%
Indiana 0.6%
Kentucky 0.3%
Michigan 0.9%
Minnesota 0.3%
Missouri 0.3%
North Carolina 0.3%
New Jersey 0.3%
Nevada 0.3%
New York 0.3%
Ohio 0.3%
Pennsylvania 0.3%
Rhode Island 0.3%
Virginia 0.3%
Wisconsin 0.3%
AmCheck will be handling the tax payment by doing a one-time adjustment . . .
AmCheck is diligently working on our clients' year-end filings which includes identifying the additional FUTA amounts due. The additional FUTA tax owed for clients in credit reduction states, identified above, will be drafted with the quarter and year-end adjustments and remitted to the IRS in the appropriate time frame and reported as required on the 940 returns. For more information directly from the IRS Click Here
Labor Law Poster Update
- Thu | 05 Jan 2012
The National Labor Relations Board Dec. 23 announced that it is postponing until April 30, 2012, a requirement for employers subject to NLRB jurisdiction to post a notice informing employees of their federal labor law rights.
The NLRB regulation, issued Aug. 30, 2011, would require employers to post an 11-by-17-inch notice describing employee rights and to publish the notice on an intranet or internet site if the employer customarily uses such media to communicate with employees about rules and policies (62 BTM 273, 8/30/11).
The posting requirement originally was to have gone into effect in November, but the board moved the effective date to Jan. 31, 2012 (62 BTM 321, 10/11/11), stating that additional time was needed "in order to allow for enhanced education and outreach to employers."
The rule has been challenged in lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (National Association of Manufacturers v. NLRB, D.D.C., No. 11-cv-1629) and the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina (Chamber of Commerce v. NLRB, D.S.C., No. 11-cv-2516).
Judge Amy Berman Jackson held a hearing Dec. 19 in the District of Columbia proceeding and told NLRB lawyers that the legal issues "deserve more time" than the Jan. 31 effective date gave her.
Jackson held the hearing to consider legal arguments of NLRB and the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, and the National Federation of Independent Business, along with several small businesses that joined in challenging the NLRB rule.
Actively questioning lawyers on both sides of the dispute, Jackson pressed the challengers on their arguments that the National Labor Relations Act does not expressly give the board authority to require notice postings.
But the judge also questioned NLRB's authority to treat a failure to post the new employee rights notice as an unfair labor practice. "Aren't you amending the statute in the way they're complaining about?" Jackson asked a board attorney.
In a statement announcing the new April 30 effective date, NLRB said "postponing the effective date of the rule would facilitate the resolution of the legal challenges that have been filed with respect to the rule." (Source - BNA)
Attention AmCheck Client Poster Subcribers - 2012 State Labor Law Posters will be distributed in the next 2-3 weeks.
2012 Minimum Wage Guide
- Fri | 06 Jan 2012
Numerous States increased minimum wage in 2012. For a complete listing by state Click Here
Payroll Tax Cut Temporarily Extended into 2012
- Tue | 03 Jan 2012
Payroll Tax Cut Temporarily Extended into 2012
IR-2011-124, Dec. 23, 2011
WASHINGTON — Nearly 160 million workers will benefit from the extension of the reduced payroll tax rate that has been in effect for 2011. The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 temporarily extends the two percentage point payroll tax cut for employees, continuing the reduction of their Social Security tax withholding rate from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent of wages paid through Feb. 29, 2012. This reduced Social Security withholding will have no effect on employees’ future Social Security benefits.
Employers should implement the new payroll tax rate as soon as possible in 2012 but not later than Jan. 31, 2012. For any Social Security tax over-withheld during January, employers should make an offsetting adjustment in workers’ pay as soon as possible but not later than March 31, 2012.
Employers and payroll companies will handle the withholding changes, so workers should not need to take any additional action.
Under the terms negotiated by Congress, the law also includes a new “recapture” provision, which applies only to those employees who receive more than $18,350 in wages during the two-month period (the Social Security wage base for 2012 is $110,100, and $18,350 represents two months of the full-year amount). This provision imposes an additional income tax on these higher-income employees in an amount equal to 2 percent of the amount of wages they receive during the two-month period in excess of $18,350 (and not greater than $110,100).
This additional recapture tax is an add-on to income tax liability that the employee would otherwise pay for 2012 and is not subject to reduction by credits or deductions. The recapture tax would be payable in 2013 when the employee files his or her income tax return for the 2012 tax year. With the possibility of a full-year extension of the payroll tax cut being discussed for 2012, the IRS will closely monitor the situation in case future legislation changes the recapture provision.
The IRS will issue additional guidance as needed to implement the provisions of this new two-month extension, including revised employment tax forms and instructions and information for employees who may be subject to the new “recapture” provision. For most employers, the quarterly employment tax return for the quarter ending March 31, 2012, is due April 30, 2012.
