25 Payroll Terms Every Small Business Owner Should Know

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Identify any gaps in your payroll compliance with our helpful list of questions. SSN stands for Social Security number, or the code assigned by the Social Security Administration to every American’s social security account. Applicants cannot gain employment without providing this number. This professional designation is provided for those who successfully complete the certified payroll professional examination. 2023 is the first time in decades people could earn around 5% from their savings and money-market accounts, which increased the financial well-being of tens of millions of people. A Pay Event is a STP report containing the Year to Date (YTD) figures for Gross Wages, Tax Withheld, Allowance, Deductions and Superannuation created after a pay run.

Wage Garnishment

The maximum amount of employee compensation subject to Social Security, FUTA, and state unemployment insurance taxes. Exempt means “exempt from overtime.” Exempt and non-exempt employees are categorized typically by the work they do. Most exempt employees work in professional, managerial, or executive positions, sometimes referred to as a “white-collar exemption.” A timesheet documents the number of hours an employee worked within a pay period.

  • The Social Security tax applies to the first $142,800 of eligible compensation in 2021.
  • These items can be considered pre-tax or post-tax, depending on the actual deduction.
  • Salaried employees are paid an annual salary, while hourly employees are paid an hourly rate times the hours they’ve worked.
  • The information provided helps employees complete their tax returns with accurate information.

The IRS defines an independent contractor as any worker who is self-employed, as opposed to traditionally employed by a company. In terms of payroll, independent contractors are significant in that they do not require money to be withheld for Social Security or Medicare. For employees working on a part-time or hourly basis, the annualized salary is a calculation of the amount any given employee can expect to earn in a single year. Essentially, one week’s earnings are multiplied by the number of weeks worked in a year, or often, one month’s salary is multiplied by 12 to determine the annualized salary. Part time employees are usually employed on a permanent basis or on a fixed term contract.

A pay period is the time frame of work for which you’re paying an employee. If you pay every other Friday, the pay period could be from the prior two weeks, with the last day being on the Friday that’s also payday. Paid time off is time your employees don’t spend working but still earn a paycheck (at their regular pay rate). 5 steps to filing partnership taxes It consists of any paid leave, i.e., vacation or sick time and even jury duty and holidays. Federal law doesn’t have strict guidelines or requirements regarding PTO; you choose whether you want to offer paid vacation time or not. Per federal law, these hours are paid at 1.5 times the employee’s regular hourly pay rate.

Payroll Terms To Learn Before Doing Payroll

The employer is responsible for remitting a total of 12.4% of an employee’s taxable earnings to the IRS. They are permitted to take 6.2% from the employee as a withholding tax and “match” the other 6.2% as a payroll tax. There is a wage base limit, which means that the tax stops at a certain amount of wages for the year. Social Security is both an employee withholding tax and an employer payroll tax. The employer is responsible for remitting a total of 12.4% of an employee’s taxable earnings to the IRS.

Payroll Terms and Definitions: A Comprehensive Glossary

Money set aside by your employer over your working life for you to live off when you retire from work. The amount of pay a customer receives (typically in their bank account) after taxes and other deductions have been accounted for. A GST branch is formed with a business entity separately registers Its branch to suit the structural, management and accounting arrangements of the organisation.

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Take-home pay –The employee’s wages that remain after all normal deductions and taxes are taken out This is also known as net pay. Net pay – One way to think of this is that it’s the employee’s take-home pay. This is the amount the employee receives after taxes and deductions are calculated and subtracted from earnings.

It’s the amount an employee sees on an offer of employment. A non-exempt employee is entitled to overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours in a week. Overtime pay is equal to 1 ½ times the employee’s regular rate of pay.

Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes

The information provided helps employees complete their tax returns with accurate information. All information is stored in the National Directory of New Hires and helps child support agencies locate parents who owe money. Before you can begin reporting, you must register under your state’s New Hire Reporting Program. Garnishment – A legal proceeding authorizing an involuntary transfer of an employee’s wages to a creditor to satisfy a debt. A legal proceeding authorizing an involuntary transfer of an employee’s wages to a creditor to satisfy a debt. Federal law protects an employee from being fired because their wages have been garnished for one debt, and it limits how much can be deducted from an employee’s paycheck each week.

If you are a new business owner, you may come across specific payroll terms that you should understand. Knowing the language always helps better negotiate new territory. Read on to understand these payroll terms and acronyms so that you are familiar with them. Search our glossary to get simple definitions of common payroll-related words, phrases, and acronyms. Employees submit timesheets on a weekly or biweekly basis. Supervisors approve employee timesheets to ensure their accuracy.

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