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ISSUE 4
Relying on Payroll to Get “It” Done There will always be a new tax, a new benefit, a new law or a new reporting requirement that causes management to lean on payroll… not lean-in to payroll, no, no… but to lean ON payroll to make “IT” happen. Our focus in global business is to gain and maintain compliance across all work locations, which creates a lifelong learner of each payroller. Each of the new taxes, benefits, laws or reports require the payroller to not only learn how the change will affect the payroll processes in place but also how they may affect the business, the employees or the shareholders. During times of sudden changes, like when the pandemic caused many of us to pivot, the learning curve becomes quite steep. It can be a struggle to determine what it is that we do not yet know about the changes. Enacting the changes without knowing all the details may lead to systemwide errors, overpayments to employees or underpaid taxes to authorities… all of which could be considered payroll procedural failures from an auditor’s perspective. Changes Since 2020 All this is not to say that the payroller goes quietly into the payroll unknown with adventures in legal interpretations of quickly drafted legislation.
the worldwide events of 2020 brought us more into the spotlight than many of us wanted or were ready for. “And yes, payrollers around the world made "it" happen, but not without making good use of the multitude of opportunities to create more awareness around historical restrictions placed on the payroll.” Yes, there was much complaining. There were many Zoom calls with more questions than answers. There were multiple levels of tax credits and economic stimulus payments that conflicted, were duplicated or became administratively burdensome without reprieve. And yes, payrollers around the world made “it” happen, but not without making good use of the multitude of opportunities to create more awareness around historical restrictions placed on the payroll. We let it be known that a lot was being asked of us without any additional resources - in fact, fewer resources in many cases. We brought to the attention of leadership the workaround processes that had been developed as a stop-gap for system deficiencies prior to the sudden pivot to full-time remote work.
We have become a much more lively community over the past decade, and
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