Year End Tips For Payroll Professionals

Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas looms in the distance - which can only mean one thing, right?

Year-end payroll. We know it’s not fun, but it’s important. Here are some tips you can utilize now to make preparing for 2018 easier.

Verify Employee Information

Your employees change throughout the year. Some get married; some have babies. Others may be terminated or promoted. This all means information changes. Going through everyone’s accounts to ensure everything is up to date is necessary. Their addresses, names, marital statuses, and social security numbers must be correct in order for the right W-2 to be sent to the right person. An issue payroll professionals may face includes employee addresses changing and potentially with them, local taxes. A local tax identifier can ease this.

Verify Company Tax Data

Depending on where you do business, compliance may be required in multiple tax jurisdictions. Be sure everything is set up with the right legal information and every employee has correct lived-in and taxed-in locations.

Validate Affordable Care Act Compliance Reporting

Any employer with 50 or more full-time employees must report health care coverage information to both the IRS and their employees annually. The IRS uses this reporting to enforce the ACA’s employer mandates and administer tax credits as fit.

Go Over Payroll Reconciliation

Payroll reconciliation includes verifying employees have been paid properly, taxes have been paid properly, and expenses are applied to the appropriate accounts. When it’s year-end, you must reconcile payroll with all your employees’ W-2s. Their W-2s must match the actual amount they earned that year, and if they don’t, they are owed reconciliation.

Scope Out The Next Payroll Year

Throughout the year, there are numerous holidays that have an impact on payroll. Take note of what’s coming up for the rest of the year (i.e. Christmas) and also set your eyes for the future. Determining the impact now can help you make adjustments for employee schedules, pay, and more. Schedule your off cycle payrolls and year end adjustments. Getting ahead and knowing your numbers can help prevent any possible penalties for missing payroll deadlines.

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