Payroll - Employer Liability SS / Medicare

[Buffalofoodshelf1]

Version 11.5

Let me begin by saying that I am not very savvy with payroll issues.....

We currently use a spreadsheet to calculate payroll, then I write out manual checks and then enter the manual checks into PCPlus.

I would like to eliminate the spreadsheet and have PCPlus calculate our payroll. We only deduct SS & Medicare - which I have figured out how to set up / add the tax table in PCPlus for the employee portion.

My question is with the Employer portion.....is that a "non-tax" item? Do I enter the rates in the tax table? I tried using the help function but could only find info on the Employee portion.

Any guidance is appreciated.

[NeilZ]

Version 11.5

Let me begin by saying that I am not very savvy with payroll issues.....

We currently use a spreadsheet to calculate payroll, then I write out manual checks and then enter the manual checks into PCPlus.

I would like to eliminate the spreadsheet and have PCPlus calculate our payroll. We only deduct SS & Medicare - which I have figured out how to set up / add the tax table in PCPlus for the employee portion.

My question is with the Employer portion.....is that a "non-tax" item? Do I enter the rates in the tax table? I tried using the help function but could only find info on the Employee portion.

Any guidance is appreciated.

I'm going to assume that you have NEVER used the Payroll module before.

If this is true, I would suggest to use the Payroll Setup Assistant. It will walk you through each and every step needed to setup payroll. It will make sure you don't forget something.

When you start the assistant, the first page has a CHECKBOX checked next to Setup Payroll Manually. Uncheck that box.
Then just click on the NEXT button when you've finished each step of the assistant. You can have the PCPlus manual open or press the F1 key on your keyboard to bring up the built-in help. This would serve as a good reference for each step.

I'm going to assume you have the proper expense accounts setup for the pastor and staff. The one thing you have to do different for the Pastor is that most pastors are assumed to be self-employed, which means they do not have SS & Medicare taken out. They can also opt out of having Federal Withholding taken out. However, I would advise that the Pastor take advantage of Federal Withholding for Income Tax. In this way they do not have to do a quarterly deposit of taxes, and they can have extra taken out to cover the their Self-Employment taxes so at the beginning of the year they don't have this huge payment to make.

It will ask you various questions such as are all the employees on the same pay schedule ? Do get get weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.

The assistant will walk you through the setup of the SS & Medicare rates for this and for Federal Withholding will need to have access to the IRS Pub 15 to get the tax rates for both. I'm assuming you would want to start using this for 2016, so get the newest edition to enter the rates.

You'll then come to adding the Income Items. Again for the Pastor you have to do something special. On their Income Item, you should select More Options from the Tax Options pull down selections. Using this you can exempt the income from SS & Medicare taxes. All other staff you can use the default of Taxable.

The system will also ask you for any liability accounts to account for Retirement, Health insurance, Fed Taxes. Again, if they're not already setup you'll have the capability to create them at this time by clicking the green PLUS sign next to the input box.

If this doesn't give you enough flexibility, just use it to get started, and you can then make adjustments later.

Does this help ??

[Buffalofoodshelf1]

I do use the payroll module to manually enter the payroll checks. So not sure if I can do the manual set up.

[NeilZ]

I do use the payroll module to manually enter the payroll checks. So not sure if I can do the manual set up.

OK ... you'll have to do the manual setup of all the Pay Items.

As far as employer taxes, they are the same rate (AFAIK) next year as the employee SS & Medicate taxes, so you only have to create one tax table for Medicate and one for Social Security.

However, you WILL have to create two separate tax items, one for employee withheld tax, and the other for the employer payroll tax liability. You'll need a set for Social Security, and a set for Medicare.

Basically, the payroll topic in the PCPlus manual can be a great help you may have to flip pages in the manual for the area you're working in, or just press the F1 key and the built-in context help will appear. If you have questions then ask here.