Important Year-End Payroll Information Reminder
Form W-2 and payroll returns provide information to your employees and various government agencies. It is important that information reported on those filings is complete and accurate. In order to help you with this process, we have listed a couple important tips.
1. The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act, enacted last December, accelerated the payroll due date for employers. You are now required to file copies of Form W-2 and W-3, submitted to the Social Security Administration, by Jan. 31. The new Jan. 31 filing deadline also applies to certain Forms 1099-MISC reporting non-employee compensation such as payments to independent contractors. The January 31 deadline for employers to furnish copies of these forms to their employees remains unchanged.
2. Please contact your payroll service provider for the cutoff date to report changes to your payroll.
3. It is essential that any payroll information pertaining to employee or employer taxes be submitted to your payroll service. If a payroll tax deposit is due, it will need to be made no later than January 6, 2017 (for payroll dates scheduled on December 31) if you are a semiweekly depositor. If your pay date is on an earlier date, please check with your payroll service provider on the deadline to deposit taxes if you are not enrolled in auto pay with them. If the information is received late, your payroll tax returns would not be accurately processed and you could incur penalty due to late payroll tax deposit.
4. All quarterly changes such as voided checks, pre-written (manual) checks, 401(k) changes, third party sick pay or any other changes must be sent to your payroll service company in order to supply you with appropriate tax deposit information and close out your 2016 payroll data.
5. Fringe benefits such as life or health insurance and personal use of company-provided vehicle may need to be included on an employee’s W-2. You may be required to report the total value of certain employer-sponsored health benefits on employees’ W-2s.
6. Please download and complete this vehicle questionnaire for all company owned vehicles, estimating information for the month of December. Return it to our office if you would like us to calculate the taxable fringe benefit to be submitted to your payroll service before the end of the year. We must have the completed form in our office no later than December 15, 2016, for timely calculation.
7. For restaurant clients with tipped employees, it is of the utmost importance to make sure the total tips reported and allocated tips meet the requirements prescribed by the IRS. It is your responsibility, as the employer, to verify this prior to the printing of the W-2 forms for your Company. If you are in doubt, please call our office immediately. Tip information must be submitted to your payroll service before W-2’s can be processed.
8. You will need to provide your payroll service with a schedule of employees subject to pension, profit sharing or 401(k) plans so that the correct box can be checked on the employees’ W-2 forms.
9. Make all necessary changes to name, address and social security numbers. Also, have every employee verify his or her social security number and address that was on their last paycheck stub.
Please be advised that this list is not meant to be all-inclusive, please contact our office if you have any questions.