Finance Tax Time

If you have employees, you are responsible for paying a variety of taxes at the federal, state, and local levels. You must also withhold certain taxes from the paychecks of your employees. So, what are employment taxes?

Employment taxes include the following.

1. Federal income tax withholding

2. Social Security and Medicare taxes

3. Federal unemployment tax (FUTA).

Federal Income Taxes/Social Security and Medicare Taxes

You generally must withhold federal income tax from wages paid to an employee. Form W-4 is used to determine the specific amount, although most payroll services or your accountant will do this for you.

Social security and Medicare taxes pay for benefits that workers and families receive under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Social security tax pays for benefits for the retired, survivors, and disability insurance distribution provisions of FICA. Medicare tax pays for benefits under the medical care provisions of FICA. As an employer, you must withhold a percentage of these taxes from employee and match the withholding amount.

In general, you must deposit these taxes by check or cash to an authorized financial institution, typically your bank. Check with your tax professional to make sure you are not required to use the Electronic Federal Tax Deposit System (EFTPS). Regardless of the payment method, you will then report them on Form 941, the Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

FUTA is a combined federal and state program that provides unemployment compensation to the unemployed. As a business owner, you are solely responsible for paying this tax, to wit, nothing is withheld from the paychecks of your employees. FUTA is determined by using Form 940, but you are encouraged to use a tax professional to determine payment amounts.

Employment taxes can be frustrating for a small business owner. They are, unfortunately, a necessary evil as your business grows.

Richard Chapo is CEO of http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com - Obtaining tax refunds for small businesses by finding overlooked tax deductions and credits through a free tax return review.

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If you are employed by a business, you have the ability to play with the withholding on your paycheck. Fortunately, there is an easy way to do this online these days.

What is one of the happiest days of the year? Holidays excluded, for many people it is the day they get their tax refund check. Yep, cold, hard cash they can spend anyway they want. Alas, this is a mistake.

If you are getting sizeable tax refund checks each year, you are making a mistake with the withholdings from your paycheck. The federal government does not pay interest on the amount you overpay in taxes. As a result, you are giving the government an interest free loan throughout each year. While the government certainly seems to need every buck it can get, you would probably prefer to use the money yourself.

If you are overpaying or underpaying taxes out of your paycheck during the year, you need to tweak your W-4 withholdings. W-4 simply refers to the tax withholding form related to your employment and is filed by your employer. You can change the number of withholding by simply asking your human resources department.

To figure out the correct W-4 amounts, you used to need calculators, abacuses, forms and a minor psychic ability. Alas, the friendly IRS has made things easier. You can now go to the IRS site and access an online system that will figure it out for you. Simply search for “W-4″ withholdings on the site and fill out the form. Once you do, it will calculate the information and let you know the adjustments you should make.

To fill out the form, you need a few things. First, you should have your last paycheck stub on hand. Second, you need your tax return from the previous year. If you need to estimate various information during the process, you can do so as long as you use reasonable numbers. It is not a test.

Once complete, the IRS site should spit out information for your withholdings. You should print this and compare it to your current information. Doing so should let you know if you need to make any changes.

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Employers often ask employees to designate the amount of tax withholdings for paychecks. Occasionally, employees will fail to withhold a sufficient amount in the eyes of the IRS. The IRS will then send a “lock-in” letter on the amount to be withheld. What’s an employer to do?

Withholdings

Four taxes must be withheld from employee paychecks - Medicare, Social Security, Federal Income and State Income tax. The Medicare tax is set at roughly 1.5 percent of salary while social security is set at 6.2 percent. The withholding for federal and state income tax, however, is subject to adjustments made by employees. The amount of tax required to be withheld by the IRS requires a calculation beyond the scope of this article, but you can look to the “Employer’s Tax Guide” on the IRS web site.

If an employee claims excessive deductions that result in insufficient withholdings, the IRS may respond. The typical response is to send an employer a “lock-in” letter.

The lock-in letter tells the employer to increase the amount of withholding tax of the employee. The IRS will actually specify the maximum number of withholding exemptions the employee can claim. The more exemptions claimed, the less tax withheld in each paycheck. The IRS will also send a copy of the correspondence to the employee.

As an employer, you must comply with the IRS lock-in letter. The IRS will designate a specific compliance date. Better to have died a small child than fail to comply with the letter. Failure to comply will result in the tax liability transferring from the employee to the employer. The employer can also expect the unwanted attention of IRS auditors. In short, make absolutely sure you comply with the lock-in letter.

What should you do if you receive a lock-in letter, but the employee no longer works for you? You must send a written response to the IRS office listed in the correspondence. The response must state the employee no longer works for you and the last date of employment to the best of your knowledge.

What should you do if the employee refuses to comply with the lock-in letter? You must comply with the lock-in letter. The employee’s wish is irrelevant and you have no discretion in the matter. Instead, the employee should be told to contact the IRS directly and request a modification to the lock-in letter.

Lock-in letters can cause stress in employee-employer relationships. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do about.

Richard Chapo is with http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com - recovering overpaid taxes for small businesses. Visit our article section - http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com/articles - to read more tax articles.

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