Per Diem Rates from the U.S. General Services Administration
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Rates are set by fiscal year, effective October 1 each year. Find current rates in the continental United States ("CONUS Rates").
Using a Payroll Service
If you're a do-it-yourselfer and have employees, you may be tempted to tackle the job of payroll preparation. However, saving time to devote building your business may be more profitable and give you a better return on your investment, not to mention relieving you of the daunting task of dealing with employment tax law changes, payroll data entry and computations, payroll reporting, filing employment tax returns and depositing employment taxes.
A payroll service may be a better and cost effective way to go! You'll avoid compliance penalties and received accurate and timely payroll reports.
What a Payroll Service Does
Here are the typical services provided by a payroll service:
- Calculate payroll.
- Generate paychecks for distribution to employees.
- Calculate tax deposits.
- Make tax deposits.
- File quarterly and annual employment tax returns.
- Provide you with copies of employment tax returns.
- Provides you with a detailed record of each payroll (e.g., each employee's gross pay, withholdings, net pay).
- Provides you with the information needed to record each payroll in your books.
- Provides you with a summary employment taxes due and paid.
- Keep employee payroll records up to date.
- Implement employment tax law changes.
- Answer your payroll tax questions
Your Role When Using a Payroll Service
You provide the payroll service with the information it needs to calculate the payroll. They do the rest.
Checklist of things to do:
- Have each new hire fill out Form W-4, which is an exemption certificate..
- Have each new hire complete Form I-9. This is to comply with immigration law. You also must obtain the proper identification from each new hire. Form I-9 shows the types of documents deemed acceptable. For example, a social security card and driver's license.
- Have each new hire complete your state's employment tax withholding form (the federal W-4 equivalent). If your state has no personal income tax this won't be necessary.
- Provide the payroll service a copy of each of the above documents. Make sure signatures of the employee and employer appear where applicable. Keep the originals for your files.
- For hourly employees (non-exempt employees), set up a system for tracking their time. You need to provide the payroll service with the number of hours each hourly employee worked during the pay period.
- Provide the payroll service with the hourly rate for each hourly employee and the frequency of their pay period (i.e. weekly, bi-weekly).
- Exempt employees are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime rules. According to the FLSA rules, an employee may be considered exempt or nonexempt depending on (a) how much they are paid, (b) how they are paid, and (c) what kind of work they do". For example, outside sales persons are exempt employees while inside sales employees are nonexempt. The payroll service needs to know the gross salary for each exempt employee and the frequency of their pay period (i.e. weekly, bi-weekly, monthly).
- Provide the payroll service with information regarding bonuses, sick pay, vacation pay, changes in hourly rates for nonexempt employees, changes in gross pay for exempt employees, and terminations (voluntary and involuntary).
- If you use an unincorporated independent contractor to perform services for your business, have the contractor provide you with his/her taxpayer identification number (TIN) . This could be a social security number or employment identification number.
- If you pay a contractor $600 or more during the tax year and you fail to get a correct TIN from the contractor, backup withholding is required. The backup withholding rate for 2024 is 24%.
- Use Form W-9 to request a taxpayer identification number from independent contractors. They complete Form W-9 and return it to you for your records. Provide the payroll service with a copy of Form W-9.
- Form 1099-MISC must be issued to each independent contractor who was paid $600 or more during the tax year. Although Form 1099-MISC is not required if a contractor was paid less than $600, it may still be issued.