Payroll compliance brings many nuances from the regulations, guidelines, applicability, and agreements owing to continuous revision of tax and labor laws. It is pertinent to be careful about the above payroll aspects and avoid error and penalties. As per the statistics, in USA, $6 billion in employer penalties were assessed by the IRS in 2020 and as many as 30% of businesses were reported to have misclassified their employees. Paycheck error has also been experienced by as many as 25% of the employees and around 82 million employees in US have been affected by payroll problems. The solution of all these concern lies in having a robust and trustful payroll system in place. An up-to-date compliant payroll not only benefits employers but also increases the employee experience. Therefore, the companies must ensure compliance with technology that would help make the process more seamless and adopt mechanisms that comply with the most important regulations.
Here are the five important tips with regards to payroll compliance that would help serve the company in a better way:
5 Best tips for payroll compliance
1. Automated Payroll Processing
“Manual payroll" refers to the process of paying employees by completing a payroll run without the aid of software. This means that employee deductions and benefits must be calculated and remitted manually, and the payroll manager must ensure that the employee receives his/her net pay. Now this seems simple but involve risk of miscalculation, under/over tax deduction and delay in payment of dues, excess cost to company etc. It also creates lot of duplication and scattered effort in case the business is globally set. “Automated payroll system” on the other hand is a system that limits the likelihood of human error from manual data entry by using technology and automate the process for seamless experience. So, switch to advanced and trusted payroll software that will manage all the statutory and payroll compliance efficiently and effectively without much effort.
2. Applicability of different payroll compliances:
To apply or not to apply, that’s the question and the best way to answer the same is to know what different payroll compliances are and which one applies to you. Having thorough knowledge, makes further process hassle free. From being compliant for the minimum wage payment, to maternity benefits, to provident funds etc. needs not only a lot of time but also experts who can give advice on all these compliance measures. Payroll systems can help in this regard by providing updated information on various compliance matters.
3. Proactive tracking & Implementation of updates
“If you're proactive, you focus on preparing. If you're reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.” The same applies with payroll, keeping track of all possible changes affecting payroll not only helps you to be compliant but also ensures ample time to implement the same. Payroll systems can help in tracking these updates and ensuring timely implementation.
Post COVID-19, a change in trend on regulatory updates have been seen, which on one side is a welcome change but at the same time adds burden on employers to keep a track of the regulations, understand them in context of the business as well as employees and apply the same considering different scenarios which may be applicable on employees.
Regulatory updates can be tracked from various sources like official notification or by having a trusted partner. Check out Ramco's Compliance portal with latest payroll related updates from 50+ countries and more!
However only tracking the updates won’t help unless it is implemented on time. Many changes including rates, reports, allowances etc. comes with specific deadline to implement. Implementing the same within deadline not only makes you win the race by paying employees accurately but also saves you tons of money for breaching the deadlines
4. Keep employee information updated
In many countries tax benefits and deductions are linked to the employee personal information like marital status, count of dependents, expenditure incurred for dependents etc. So, it is pivotal that the companies keep the information of their employees regularly updated to avoid inaccuracy of payroll calculations like tax or social security. So, it is pivotal that companies keep the information of their employees regularly updated in their payroll systems to avoid inaccuracy of payroll calculations like tax or social security. Companies can even implement self-service tools within their payroll systems that allow employees to enter their details just in time, making the process much faster.
5. Ensure Statutory reports are filed accurately and on time
Report formats are generally predefined by the authorities. Making sure that report generated by the payroll systems is up to date, accurate and covers correct content, avoids unnecessary errors and delays in filing thus saving efforts and fines.
With digitalisation, direct integrations are being adopted by authorities in many countries whereby reports handling becomes quite complex like Annual tax report and wage tax return in Netherland, PIT 4R, ZUS DRA and ZUS RSA in Poland, 08 report in Hungary etc. The integrated filing requires to build complex APIs and input files as well which requires expert guidance. With the right team onboard or a compliant third part vendor or a payroll system can save lots of your efforts on compliances and negate the chances of error in filing complex reports.
Depending on the type of industry and the type of business there can be many regulations that an organization must comply with making payroll compliance complex and challenging to maintain at times. If you think being compliant is costly and tiresome then dare not to be compliant. Non-compliances not only make you pay hefty but also demotivates employee and is detrimental to business’s reputation. Hence, it is paramount to tend to these tips mentioned above, which would help improve a payroll system, help a business avoid major issues and keep the stakeholder satisfied.
