COLIN O’DOWDBLOCK 33 /17 /09

Tax and Payroll

Gross and Net Pay

Gross: Total of an employee's regular remuneration including allowances, overtime pay, commissions, and bonuses, etc., before any deductions are made.

Net: The remaining amount of an employee's gross pay after deductions, such as taxes and retirement contributions, are made.

Payroll Register

The payroll register is an accounting document that provides a summary of the payroll information for a pay period.

It is important because it can help you file your payroll information.

FICA

Determine if you are required to pay FICA tax. Any person who is in a standard employee/employer relationship is required to pay tax on all taxable income. Anyone completing work which is considered employment under FICA law or receives funds as compensation for time spent are also required to pay FICA taxes.

Calculate your total taxable income for the pay period. This includes all earning as part of an employee/employer relationship, such as tips, commissions, overtime, piecework earnings and any taxable benefits. Deduct any heath and dental premiums from this amount, as they are non-taxable.

Look up the current percentage taxation rate for OASDI and the Medicare or Hospital Insurance Program. These rates are updated and maintained by the Internal Revenue Service, complete with instructions on the method used to calculate the amounts to be deducted from your pay.

Multiply the current percentage tax rate against the taxable earnings for the period for both OASDI and Medicare or HI to calculate the amount of the deduction. The rates and limits differ between the two programs, although they are combined in the FICA tax amount.

Compare the amounts deducted from your payroll statement against your calculation to ensure that the correct limits and percentages are used.

Federal and State Unemployment Tax

In stating to calculate payroll taxes, each of your employee must complete an IRS form W-4. This form will be used to calculate payroll taxes. In the W-4, you can calculate the amount of the federal income tax, and because most states have income tax structures that are based on the federal taxation system, you may also use this form to calculate the state tax to be deducted from the salary of your employees. Also needed to calculate payroll taxes are the percentage currently used for the social security and Medicare. Both the employer and employee split the amount needed to be paid. Whatever is deducted from the employee to pay the social security and Medicare taxes, the employer must match that amount.

Payroll Tax Liability

A business' payroll tax liability consists of not only the taxes required to be withheld from employees' wages (Social Security tax, Medicare tax and federal income tax) but also the employer's matching share of Social Security and Medicare taxes

Taxes

The IRS publishes various tax return forms which vary in their level of detail. The type of form you should fill out depends on whether you have dependents (e.g. children), what kinds of income you have, and whether you "itemize" deductions. Most taxpayers choose to fill out the least complicated tax form that they are allowed to use.