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WELCOME TO THE GREATER BOSTON CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN PAYROLL ASSOCIATION! June 2009 Summer is practically here! It's time for the Beach, BBQs, and Brushing up on the latest announcements in the world of Payroll! New announcement for June 17, 2009 IRS Webinar for Tax professionals, Register and attend: http://cs.sbtv.com/irswebinarreg/ For more information, click on "newsletters" tab on left of your screen! New Announcement 6/3/09: Newly Expanded Work Opportunity Tax Credit Guidance Available! For Businesses hiring Unemployed Veterans and Certain Youth. Certification deadline due 8/17/09. For more information, click on "newsletters" tab on left of your screen! Form available: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8850.pdf New Announcement 6/3/09: Need help claiming COBRA medical coverage credit? IRS provides information to help! New announcement 5/22/09: IRS Announces Withholding Adjustment Option for Pension Plans and Provides Taxpayer Education,
Also if you have questions on Massachusetts' Health Care initiative, please refer to the following link: See Calendar for invitation information, or email one of the contacts of our steering committee. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT for Labor Day Week 2008: Mayor Thomas Menino and Governor Deval Patrick have declared the First week in September National Payroll Week for the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Please join us in celebrating this important occasion!!! June 13, 2008, URGENT REQUEST FOR YOUR INPUT REGARDING MULTI STATE TAXATION!! SEE BELOW: Hi, everyone! We desperately need your input, via a simple ballot at the below-linked website, as to how to proceed with an important lobbying issue. It contains two questions, and each question has a choice of two answers. the deadline is close of business on Monday, June 16. We have meetings on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that rely on your opinion. You have probably read APA's coverage of this -- a bill in Congress that would ease the burden of multi-state income tax withholding. HR 3359, the Mobile Workforce State Income Tax Fairness and Simplification Act, would create a 60-workday threshold in all states before you would be required to withhold the state or local income taxes of a state other than an employee's state of residence. Right now, if the employee's regular work state is New York, and he or she goes to California for just a day, the wages earned on that day are subject to California withholding. And vice-versa, if a CA employee goes to NY, or just about any other state for that matter. So, this would be a huge burden reduction! But there are people fighting against us, and the current bill might not be successful. We're negotiating a revision to the bill, and we need your input. Our opponents feel a 60-workday threshold (about a calendar quarter) is too high, and certain states would lose too much in revenue. Admittedly, there are some states that have more people traveling TO them than FROM them. Basically, the below-linked survey asks for your preference among: a. A 30-workday threshold. That could still be a big burden reduction! b. A 40-workday threshold for most employees and a 20-workday threshold for employees who earned over $500,000 in the prior calendar year. It's not as simple, but, compared with the single-threshold idea, you could possibly avoid multi-state withholding on a bigger chunk of people (the people who work 31-40 days in another state but made less than $500K in the prior year) than the group of people for which you would take on multi-state withholding (the people who work 21-30 days in another state and made more than $500K in the prior year). c. Or you might say that neither of the two above options is enough, and you'd rather keep the current system and keep hoping/fighting for the 60-day threshold. Thanks, Scott
Scott Mezistrano, CPP Senior Manager of Government Relations American Payroll Association
New England Payroll Conference June, 2009: If you missed NEPC in 2008, look for more info for 2009 Make your reservations now! For more information go to: http://www.newenglandpayrollconference.org/ Hope to see you there! New job postings!! Please click the Job Openings link. New policy for postings: Job Posting Policy Members: Job postings are free for all members of the Boston Chapter APA. Non-Members: Job postings will cost $25.00 per posting. Please mail payment to PO Box 381929, Cambridge, MA 02238-1929. Job will be posted after receipt of your payment. Procedure: Simply submit an email along with a job description in Word format to Mike Boyd at Michael.Boyd@ajilonfinance.com. Job postings will be posted to the site within 3 days and will automatically expire after 60 days. ALSO NEW! Check out the history of Chapter Leadership in the "About the Chapter" link! Assembled diligently by Paul Rogers and Sue Baptista and Ruth Chobit, it is a fascinating step back in time. Furthermore it is an inspiration to all of us enjoying the benefits of the Chapter today looking back on the achievements of others! For detailed information on upcoming meetings, please refer to the Calendar link. Please also note, the "Members Only" site is not operational, please stay tuned for changes as early as December 2007. UPCOMING MEETINGS: See Calendar link for more information, as it becomes available. Career Opportunities in Payroll: If you are looking for a job, please refer to Job Openings link. If you are an employer, please contact michael.boyd@ajilonfinance.com to learn the process to post with The Chapter and to submit your posting. CPP Class/Northeastern: Planning to take the CPP Exam? Northeastern University's nine-week 2-evening or six session Saturday Payroll Administration Program allows payroll administrators and managers to obtain a higher level of proficiency in their careers. The program is an effective tool to help participants prepare for the Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) exam, valued and recognized designations among payroll professionals. Spring classes enrolling soon. For more information, contact rosemarie.fraumeni@nuance.com or go to: http://www.ace.neu.edu/professional/evening/payroll.php **YOUR INPUT MATTERS!** We welcome your ideas for meeting topics. To make suggestions, go to Officers or Contact Us. Suggest speakers and/or topics for future meetings. We want your ideas and input! We envision our chapter website will be a great service to the payroll community of Greater Boston. We hope that if you find it beneficial you will join us at our quarterly chapter meetings and as a member. Our volunteer board will strive to keep this website as updated as possible. THANK YOU! Prior Meeting Summaries: Feb 26, 2009 “Time & Attendance: Moving from Automate To Optimize” Payroll is not just about producing paychecks. More than the biggest company expense, it is the biggest investment. Payroll has a critical role in Best Practices that touch nearly every critical part of the business, including employee satisfaction, managing profitability, compensation planning, employee leave, and labor forecasting. November 20th 2008 at the Radisson Boston our year-end meeting featured representatives from the Massachusetts Fair Labor Division and the U. S. Department of Labor. There was a lively discussion with many great questions from the large crowd of attendees. Never a dull moment with these speakers! September 25, 2008 saw our Chapter meeting at the Mathews arena, we enjoyed a topic as fast paced as Northeastern's hockey pucks on the ice! The topic was “The Next Generation of Web Technology" and presented by Jon Bohnert, Executive Vice President, Symmetry Software. The Breakfast meeting on April 17, 2008 at Boston College. Our presenter will be Bruce Brumberg, editor-in-chief and co-founder of www.myStockOptions.com, and his presentation was titled "Restricted Stock & Trends in Equity Compensation: What You Need to Know About the Fastest Growing Forms of Stock Compensation." This was an information packed seminar and included prizes for answering technical questions correctly!! February 14, we had a dual presentation: Wendy Campbell from IRS speaking on "Employment Tax Update" and Regina Bachini from SSA speaking on "What's New at SSA". Wendy Campbell presented information about the tax gap as it relates to employment tax and information return reporting; the Automated Underreporting Program; the Withholding Compliance Program and lock-in letters, etc; Regina Bachini presented information on how employers can now easily file W2s electronically with SSA. We were informed of the changes to the paper W2 and the new features of the Social Security Card, as well as how the Social Security Number Verification Service can help employers provide the correct SSN on the W2. In November 07, we had a great meeting led by Pete Berard of Ernst and Young with a large turnout. He discussed a multitude of payroll compliance issues. He raised awareness on Cellular Phone use and how employers should be treating it from a tax perspective. And in September, a successful presentation on Compliance and a Washington DC update was enthusiastically received by a large turnout in the beautiful Flag room in the Massachusetts State House! Attendees learned about legislative approaches to address the aptly nicknamed PDD, Pension Deficit Disorder, among many other things.
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