Payroll is another term to refer to employee compensation its related fringe benefits have a large shape of the current liabilities. Payroll is the most significant liability any company incurs. Cost of labor is very important to companies to an extent that they develop a payroll accounting system.
The term payroll is used to refer to both the wages and salaries. Companies have a responsibility (according to the law) to maintain payroll records for every employee, to pay and file payroll taxes, and also ensure that they comply with the federal and state tax laws related to the employees compensation.
Administrative, managerial and sales personnel generally receive salaries as payments. Different terms to describe employees pay
- Wages-are the payments stated in hourly rates
- Salary-is payments stated on weekly, monthly or annual rates. For example, $54300 per year or $980 per week
- Commissions-is the pay termed in percentage of a given amount of sales amount. E.g. 2% commission on sh. 10000 sales would give;
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ 2/100 *sh. 10000=sh200 commission
- Bonus: is the amount of payment over and above the base salary. It is usually paid for an exceptional performance by an employee
- Benefits: these are items not paid directly to employees. Such includes disability, insurance, health cover, life among others
The employer provides for all the benefits to ensure that employees are motivated and feel comfortable while working in their respective companies.
Business owners pay their employees at a given base for set number of hours, known as straight time. For any additional hours worked, employees may be entitled to additional payments, what is known as overtime.
The term payroll though doesn’t apply to payments made to professionals such as attorneys, CPA™s (Certified Public Accountants), and architects. Such and other related professionals are independent contractors and are not salaried as employees. Their payments are referred to as fees.
Their payment is different in the government regulations on payments for payroll taxes applies to employees only
Determination of payroll
Gross pay
This is the total amount of wages or salaries before taxes and deductions. It also includes bonuses and commissions earned by the employees during a pay period. Companies determine the gross pay by multiplying the number of hours worked by hourly pay rate.
Further, the law also requires companies to pay 1′ times regular hourly rates for overtime of the workers
Payroll deductions
Most states and federal governments require employers to deduct taxes from their employee™s paycheck. Investments and insurance companies may also reach some of their employee™s payroll. The amount which is withheld from the paychecks is known as withholding deductions. Types of deductions
Payrolls can either be:
- Mandatory Required Deductions
- Voluntary Deductions
Mandatory Required Deductions
The mandatory payrolls are those required by the law, consisting of income taxes and FICA taxes. Voluntary payroll deductions are from the employee decisions. These include charitable contributions, union dues and insurance premiums. Mandatory deductions are classified into two;
- Required/mandatory withholding for income tax
- Employee social security (FICA) tax
Employers serve as mere agent. They subsequently deduct the payments and give it to the government.
Required/mandatory withholding for income tax
The law of US requires companies™ employers to withhold employee™s income tax from their paychecks. The amount of income withheld depends on the employer™s gross pay and the number of allowable with holdings he/she claims.
The employer files a Form W-4 with the employee to show the number of claimed allowances for the income tax holding. Any of following allowance lowers the tax amount which is being withheld;
- Childless couple claims 2 allowances
- An unmarried employee claims 1 allowance
- Married couple with a child clams 3 allowances, and so on.
Factors that determine the amount of payroll deductions
- The employees gross income
- Number of allowances claimed by employee
- Length of pay time
There is no limit on the level of gross earnings subject to the income holdings.
Required/mandatory deductions: employee social security (FICA) tax
FICA-Federal insurance contributions act, also known as Social Security Act was responsible for eh creation of Social Security Tax. The act was enacted in 1937 by the congress with a view to provide the workers with employment disability, supplemental retirement ad medical benefits.
In 1965, the congress extended the benefits to accommodate Medicare for individuals over 65 years. These benefits are financed by tax levied on the employees pay check. The amount of FICA tax withheld varies from one year to the other.
Components of FICA taxes
- 1) Old age, survivals and disability income (OASDI)
- 2) Medicare (health insurance)
In 2010, OASDI tax applied to the first $106, 800 per employee each year. The tax rate then was at 6.2%, and hence the maximum tax an employee would be deducted in this case would be:
6.2% X $106, 800=$6,622
The taxable earnings keep on adjusting annually.
At the time of introduction, FICA taxes rate was at 1% for the first $3,000 of the gross income (earnings) or a maximum of $30 yearly. However, these rates have been changing drastically since then.
In 2008, the rate was at 7.65%, inclusive of 6.2% social security and 1.45% Medicare, for the first $102,000 of the gross earnings per employee.
Optional/voluntary deductions
Any voluntary deductions from employee™s gross earnings should be authorized in writing by the employee involved. The authorization may be done individually or as a part of the group. The voluntary types of deductions have no effect on the payroll tax expense to the employers
Most employers provide cafeteria plus, which allows their employees to also select from a list of insurance coverage.
Health, union dues and life insurance coverage are mostly made on group basis.
Net pay
Also known as take-home pay, the remainder after deductions has been made from an employee™s gross earnings;
Net pay=Gross pay-Deductions
The net pay is what employees receive in the paycheck. Some companies deposit the net pay in employee™s bank accounts while others pay in checks.
EMPLOYERS PAYROLL
Employers too, are required to pay at least 3 payroll taxes;
- 1) Employer FICA tax
- 2) Federal unemployment tax
- 3) State unemployment tax
These taxes added to other items such as pensions and vacations are collectively known as fringe benefits.
Employer FICA taxes
Each employer has an obligation to pay FICA taxes. Further, employers are required to match each of the employee™s contribution of FICA. This matching contribution leads to payroll tax expenses to employers.
Employer™s FICA tax is subject to same rate and same employees maximum earnings. The employer records the payroll tax in FICA tax payable account; same account is used to record employee™s taxes and deductions.
Federal unemployment taxes
The tax was established by the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), with the purpose of providing benefits for a specific time period for employees who lose their job with no fault of their own.
The entire federal unemployment tax is borne by the employer. There is no withholding or deductions made from employees. Companies usually use Federal Unemployment Tax Payable Account to recognize such a liability.
State unemployment taxes
These are all unemployment compensation programs in all states under SUTA (States Unemployment Tax Act. The tax works similarly to the federal taxes in providing benefits to the employees who lose their jobs. The basic rate of state unemployment taxes is usually 5.4% for the first $7,000 of wages paid to the employees.
The basic tax rate is adjusted to employer™s rating on experience.
Payroll entries
There are 3 types of payroll entries;
- (A) Primary payroll entry
- (B) Accrued payroll entry
- (C) Manual check entry
Primary payroll entries
This type of entry is for initial payroll re coordination. It records wages earned by the employees, plus with holdings and any other additional tax owed by a given company. It™s the summary level entry compiled from the payroll register and is either recorded in general ledger or payroll journal.
The entries include debit for salaries, labor expenses and companies portion of payroll taxes which have not been paid, and the cash which has already been paid as the net pay.
There may arise other additional deduction in the payroll entries. Examples of such deductions may include life insurance, pension plus, vision insurance and health insurance.
Accrued payroll entries
It™s common to have some unpaid wages at each accounting period, and hence the expense should be accrued. Accrual entry is simpler than comprehensive payroll entry because all the payroll taxes are clumped into a single expense account, while liability account is offset.
After the entry has been made, the same should be reversed in the next accounting period, recording actual payroll expenses when they occur.
Manual paycheck entries
It™s quite common to create a manual check, either the company is laying off or firing its employees, or because the employee had short payments in prior payroll and hence is obligated for the person to get paid before the next payroll schedule.
The check may be paid through corporate account payable bank account, rather than from the payroll account and hence the entry should be made through account payable system. If it is recorded directly to the payroll journal or general ledger, the same line items should be used for t he entry of payroll journal.
Payroll recording
This involves maintaining payroll departmental records, recognizing expenses and liabilities in payroll, and recording payment of payroll. A payroll record is similar to cash payments journals. It serves as a check register for payroll check recordings.
Maintaining payroll departmental records
An employer, in a means to comply with federal and state law, must keep cumulative record of every employee™s gross earnings, deductions and net pay, for each year. The record which contains such information is known as employees earning records.
Companies maintain separate records for each employee™s earnings and update them after each pay period. Employers use the cumulative payroll data earning records to;
- File state and federal payroll tax return
- Determine when employee has reached maximum earnings in accordance to FICA taxes requirements
- Provide employees with statements of their gross earnings as well as tax with holdings for the year
Most companies, in addition to employee™s earnings records, necessitate for preparation of payroll register. It accumulates the employees earning, deductions and net pay for each pay period.
In other companies, payroll register still functions as book of original entry or journals. Postings made from it are put directly to the ledger accounts.
Others use payroll register to serve as memorandum record which provides data for posting in the general journal and subsequent posting to ledger accounts.
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