As 2016 winds down, there are several payroll actions you can take to ensure your year-end proceeds as smoothly as possible.
If you handle payroll compliance, beware: The IRS is hunting down payroll-law violations more aggressively this year. That means intense new scrutiny of your W-2s, 1099s, 1095s and other payroll tax reporting compliance. Year-end preparation is the key. Get ready with help from Payroll Compliance: Preparing for Year-End and 2017.
Make sure you've completed these tasks.
√ Check the IRS' website to ensure that you have the 2016 Forms 940 and 945.
√ Distribute 2017 W-4s. Employees whose family status changed, and those who claimed an exemption from income tax withholding in 2016, must file new forms; everyone else may refile.
√ Notify managers of the cutoff dates for the last 2016 payroll and the first 2017 payroll.
√ Let employees know whether you will charge a fee for issuing replacement W-2s.
√ Inform your service bureau of your W-2 schedule and changes for 2017, including employees' benefits deductions and new W-4s.
√ Notify employees by the end of January if you haven't withheld on their personal use of company cars or are using the special accounting rule to value noncash fringes.
Make even one critical error in your W-2 reports and you'll be bumped down into non-filer status and become easy penalty bait for the IRS. Plus, this year-end promises to be the most challenging in a generation—new (and accelerated) filing due dates, new rules severely limiting filing extensions, and new safe harbors—which have yet to be entirely fleshed out. Join us Wednesday, December 21, for Payroll Compliance: Preparing for Year-End and 2017.
√ Reset employees' calendar-year benefits balances for 2017. Include: 401(k) pretax contributions and allocations for paid time off, cafeteria plans and flexible spending accounts.
√ Process special December payroll entries—impute the tax for group-term life insurance over $50,000, personal use of company cars, interest on compensation-related loans of at least $10,000 with below-market interest rates and 2% S corp owners' medical insurance.
√ Reconcile fourth-quarter taxes before the final tax payment is due to ensure timely corrections; reconcile year-to-date corrections.
√ Ensure that all stop payments, voids and manual checks have been processed and run payroll adjustments accordingly.
√ Archive 2016 data before processing the first 2017 payroll. Ensure the Social Security wage base, state unemployment and disability wage bases (if applicable), federal/state withholding allowances and tax rates, and employees' benefits data are entered into the system. Manually calculate the first 2017 paycheck of a maximum wage earner, a minimum wage earner and an employee in between to determine whether the payroll system has been completely updated.
Our timely new webinar, led by payroll expert Alice Gilman, Esq., editor of Payroll Legal Alert, will show you: - What's changed with W-2s and how you should respond
- 8 steps for completing 1099s that will keep the IRS off your back—forever
- Step-by-step instructions and tips on how to complete new Forms 1095/1094 to report offers of health benefits to full-time employees
How to gain cooperation from other departments to ensure a smoother year-end process- How to protect payroll against scammers and ID thieves who are becoming more aggressive
- What's on the IRS's regulatory plate for 2017 and 2018
- Mandatory reporting of employees' health benefits—even if you're off the hook for the employer mandate penalties this year
- And more!
This 75-minute training session gives you practical, easy-to-understand solutions to the complex issues you'll face in December and January. Plus, you'll get answers to your specific questions during our interactive Q&A session.
Bonus: Each attendee will receive a copy of our 2017 Payroll Checklist, a 14-page, step-by-step compliance guide to each pay period, month and calendar quarter of the year. Plus, get all the critical information you need to satisfy your ACA reporting duties.
Year-end payroll mistakes can cost a pretty penny … and cause upper management to lose confidence in your payroll department. Don't let that happen! Guard yourself with Payroll Compliance: Preparing for Year-End and 2017.
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