If you have even just one employee, you can benefit from working with an experienced and knowledgeable payroll tax services partner. Withholding and paying payroll taxes are mandated responsibilities for any company with employees on the payroll.

Unfortunately, deducting and paying payroll taxes is no easy task. Regulations change all the time and penalties are steep. Deductions have to be segregated and monitored so you can be sure that you're paying the right amount for each employee. Contemporaneous records must be kept to verify that you're processing payroll taxes properly.

If you have enough employees, it could be possible that you'd need a full-time employee with the sole job of processing payroll taxes.

There's a better way. For more than 60 years, Smolin Lupin has been helping businesses manage a wide variety of tax obligations, including payroll taxes. Our team of payroll tax professionals stays well-versed on all payroll regulations so you don't have to. We assist in managing the deductions. We assist with filing the returns. We assist with maintaining the records.

When you work with us, you have a valuable partner on your side. We manage the payroll tax obligations so you and your team can focus on what's really important - growing the business.

Here is a sampling of some of the areas we handle

Statutory Employee Deductions

One of your biggest obligations is to withhold statutory payroll taxes from your employees' checks and submit them in a timely manner. There are five different types of statutory taxes:

• Federal income withholding, based on the withholding tables published by the IRS.
• Social Security taxes, which is 6.2 percent of income up to the maximum.
• Medicare, which is 1.45 percent. There is also an additional 0.9 percent that must be withheld for employees who make more than $200,000.
• State income tax withholding, which varies by state and by employee income level.
• Municipal withholding, which can vary based on the location of the employee's office or their residence.

Failure to withhold and remit the correct amount can result in serious penalties. It can also leave your employees in a difficult situation come tax time.

We handle all of these deductions so you don't have to worry about them. We help you file the returns on time and submit all payments to the IRS, state tax agencies and any applicable municipal agencies.

Voluntary Employee Deductions

If you offer your employees any optional benefit plans, you likely have to deduct premiums or contributions for those plans from their paychecks. The Department of Labor and ERISA have set out specific guidelines on how those deductions must be handled. Failure to follow those regulations could result in severe penalties.

Here are some of the types of programs that may require voluntary deductions:

• Health insurance plans
• Group life insurance
• Defined-contribution retirement plans
• Employee stock purchase plans
• Meals, uniforms, dues and other expenses

In addition to deducting the funds, you also need to keep record of them and direct them to the appropriate benefits provider. You need to know whether the funds came from pre-tax or after-tax money. Again, it's worth it to have a payroll tax services partner who can handle all of this for you.

Employer Payroll Taxes & Contributions

In addition to your employees' deductions, you also have to manage your own payroll taxes. You have to match many of their deductions to cover the full payroll tax amount. That means you need to have a system in place to set aside these matching funds during each pay period. Some of the funds you may need to match include:

• Social Security taxes
• Medicare taxes
• Federal unemployment taxes
• State unemployment taxes
• Workers' compensation taxes
• State disability taxes
• Matching 401k funds
• Health insurance contributions
• Group life insurance

There could be many more employer-paid contributions that you're responsible for. Again, making sure you can meet these obligations requires careful planning, budgeting and oversight.

We work with you to make sure you're planning appropriately and that you have the money on hand to pay your share by the correct date.

Employer Responsibilities

Of course, all of these deductions don't mean anything if you don't file and make payment at the right time. The IRS and state tax agencies have set strict timelines on when payroll tax returns must be filed and when payment must be made. There's very little lenience in missing these deadlines.

We work closely with you to make sure that you're on target to meet these deadlines. We can serve in an advisory role, helping you to meet your obligations. Or we can help you outsource the entire process, so you're free to worry about more pressing matters.

Our team of payroll experts is well-trained and highly-experienced in payroll issues. They understand best practices and can help you implement them to streamline your payroll process. At Smolin Lupin, we're not just an advisor; we're an extension of your team. Contact us today to learn how we can support you in your payroll obligations.