Blog

7 10, 2016

DOL’s overtime rule now final! Quick rundown of changes

October 7th, 2016|Overtime|

Salary threshold increasing to $913 per week The new overtime regs are here, and so are big changes for Payroll practitioners trying to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). For employees to be exempt from the overtime provisions of the FLSA, their wages will need to be at least $913 per week. That [...]

7 10, 2016

Banked overtime hours: The DOL wants affected workers to speak up

October 7th, 2016|Overtime|

Company held overtime hours until less busy workweeks One company's attempts to find an alternative to overtime pay led to a big fine – and a warning from the Dept. Of Labor (DOL) that others should heed. Investigators for the DOL found that Progressive Business Systems Ltd. Had a practice of banking employees' hours when [...]

7 10, 2016

New OT regs: Here’s guidance from Dept. of Labor regarding your sector

October 7th, 2016|Overtime|

SALARY LEVEL FOR WHO'S EXEMPT HAS INCREASED TO $913 PER WEEK In addition to releasing final regs changing the requirements for who's exempt from overtime, the Dept. of Labor has issued guidance that contains further details. Here's an overview of the guidance broken down by sector. Private employers Now that the salary level has increased [...]

7 10, 2016

Employee Vs. Independent Contractor

October 7th, 2016|Independent Contractor|

Company must supply workers with independent contractor fact sheet Plus, $38,000 in back wages must be paid to misclassified workers The Dept. of Labor (DOL) wants to be sure employers are correctly classifying employees and independent contractors (IC). It's the latest strategy to boost compliance: explaining the difference to workers themselves. That's what happened when [...]

7 10, 2016

Company made honest mistake in I-9 procedures, still must pay up

October 7th, 2016|Form I-9|

Asking non-citizens for more documents results in trouble The Immigration and Nationality Act requires a lot from employers. And even small mistakes – like asking for the wrong documents – can get companies in big trouble. One recent example: A Glendale, CA, Macy's location was hiring for an open position. The candidate it chose was [...]

7 10, 2016

Employees who worked at multiple job sites should have been paid OT

October 7th, 2016|Overtime|

Hours would have added up to over 40 in a workweek For the purposes of calculating overtime, the Dept. of Labor doesn't care where employees work – just who they're working for. And that can lead to a lot of confusion for multisite employers. A phoenix-area restaurant owner learned that the hard way when it [...]

7 10, 2016

2017 Form 941: IRS planning to add new lines

October 7th, 2016|2017 Tax Changes|

When the IRS releases Form 941 for 2017, you'll notice a couple extra lines. That's because the IRS is creating a new tax credit for 2017 – and the agency recently released a new draft of the form. The new credit is set to go on Line 11 as "Qualified small business payroll tax credit [...]

7 10, 2016

Memorial Day FTD Penalty Error

October 7th, 2016|Uncategorized|

Many taxpayers who made their next-day employment tax deposits on Tuesday, May 31, or semi-weekly employment tax deposits on Thursday, June 2, 2016, were incorrectly sent notices that their deposits were late. Due to a programming error, IRS systems did not recognize changes in deposit due dates created by the Memorial Day holiday observed on [...]

7 10, 2016

Improperly classified workers, now quarterly reports due to the DOL

October 7th, 2016|Uncategorized|

EMPLOYER'S PAYROLL SYSTEM MUST BE OVERHAULED, TOO The Dept. of Labor (DOL) usually settles violations by issuing fines and telling companies to fix problems. But occasionally it goes further. And instead of following up with the employer directly, it gets others to keep DOL officials in the loop. That recently happened with a Massachusetts-based construction [...]

7 10, 2016

DOL Releases New FLSA Overtime Regulations

October 7th, 2016|Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)|

The Department of Labor (DOL) released its final regulations making drastic changes to overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These changes will present considerable challenges to any employer that has employees they pay as Salary. Here are some key elements of the new regulation that you need to know now: 1. Salary [...]