Payroll Taxes

Thomson Reuters has released a special retrospective report focused on the key tax developments that occurred during 2013, which included a major federal tax law as well as many significant new cases, regulations, rulings, and revenue procedures.

The IRS surprised employers a few weeks back with a rule change that allows flexible spending account participants to roll over up to $500 of their unused account balances into the next year.

Having to run payroll for foreign nationals seems like a remote possibility for most payroll service providers. And it's true that only 14% of Thomson Reuters tax and accounting software users who process payroll reported paying foreign nationals in a recent survey.

Your payroll clients are already paying FUTA, a federal tax levied on employers that are covered by their state's unemployment insurance program. Depending on where they're located, your clients may face an increase in FUTA when they file their 2013 taxes.

This month, we'll look at state unemployment tax, or SUTA. Unlike FUTA, SUTA offers employers in many states a way to reduce their tax rates in 2014. It's called a "voluntary contribution."

As we began 2013, taxpayers were shrouded in a cloud of uncertainty concerning taxes. That seemed to quickly be resolved for this year and into 2014, but we are now faced with a number of new tax and payroll issues.

Backed by business and labor groups, the state agency for injured workers has filed new legal documents in its fight to overturn a judge's ruling that some employers were overcharged $860 million in workers' compensation premiums from 2001 to 2009.

A federal judge on Friday sentenced Robert R. Sacco, the owner of a Dayton, Ohio-based payroll company, to 6 1/2 years in prison and ordered him to pay $26.7 million to the Internal Revenue Service.