15May 2012 by Nancy Smyth
Deducting the Cost of Lost Equipment from an Employee’s Pay

Deducting the Cost of Lost Equipment from an Employee’s Pay

IRS Information, Payroll Tips
  Can you deduct the cost of lost equipment from your employee’s pay?  As a business owner I'm betting that on more than one occasion you have had an employee who has lost his company provided cell phone more than once and you've have to replace it.   Perhaps you want to recover the cost of the phone via a payroll deduction - before you do, read the rest of this great article from HR Matters E-Tips, because the answer depends first on state and federal restrictions and second on how much you want to deduct. Both federal and state laws limit the deductions employers can take from their employee’s wages.  The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which requires minimum wage payments and premium overtime pay for covered employees,…
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27Oct 2011 by Nancy Smyth

How the IRS Feels About Employer Provided Cell Phones

IRS Information
The Internal Revenue Service has released guidance aimed at clarifying the tax treatment of mobile phones provided by employers to their employees. The guidance explains a provision of last fall's Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 that removed cell phones from the definition of listed property, a category under tax law that normally requires taxpayers to perform additional recordkeeping. IRS Notice 2011-72, issued in mid-September, provides guidance on the treatment of employer-provided cell phones as an excludible fringe benefit. According to the new guidance from the IRS, when an employer provides an employee with a cell phone primarily for noncompensatory business reasons, the business and personal use of the cell phone is generally nontaxable to the employee. The IRS will not require recordkeeping of business use in order to receive…
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13Oct 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Has the Need for Instant Gratification Made Us Forget Our Manners?

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff
Has the need for instant gratification made us forget our manners?  More and more people seem to want everything their way and they want it now - no matter when NOW is.  Instant everything.  Instant messages, email, fax, internet. Instant food, the faster the better. Instant education, job, wealth.  Instant medical service, diagnosis, and an instant cure. Instant family. Instant travel. Instant information. Instant banking.  Instant support and training - even if it's 10 p.m. at night. Right or wrong, good or bad,  it seem that most people want it NOW!  What happened to please and thank you? I live in a very small, rural town - where people still wave at strangers, if you see someone broken down on the side of the road - you stop to help…
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