Preparing for Year End 2020 and Year Beginning 2021

Tips, Strategies and Best Practices for Payroll Department to Prepare for Year End 2020 and Year Beginning 2021

Preparing for year-end should not begin in October or November as it may have in the past. Preparation should begin in January and be conducted throughout the calendar year. This is especially important now as the IRS is looking at year-end compliance issues. In this webinar, Industry expert Vicki M. Lambert, CPP will give the latest best practices to help your payroll department transition from a year-end crunch to a smooth and compliant year-end process. She'll discuss how checklists can help keep you on track to ensure all tasks are completed. How a simple two-page memo can prevent dozens of employee questions. Vicki will cover how your duplicate Form W-2 request form and procedures should be set up and in place in advance of issuing the forms and how it will assist you when processing those requests in the upcoming year.

During the webinar Vicki, will provide an example of checklists that should be prepared for each year-end to assist in a smooth transition. She'll also provide updates for the calendar year 2021 on such items as social security wage base, deferred compensation limits, mileage rates, and Forms W-2 and 941. This webinar will provide a sample of a form to request a duplicate Form W-2 that can be used by the attendee in their own department as well as information on setting up the procedures for requesting the form. Vicki will also discuss how to work throughout the year to collect information from accounts payable for year-end instead of trying to obtain all the information in December. She'll demonstrate how this helps smooth out the year-end processing and relieve year-end stress for both departments and will provide the basis for a year-end memo to help payroll departments inform the company’s employees of what lies ahead for the upcoming year to help curtail questions during this hectic time for payroll.

Vicki will also cover any late-breaking legislation/regulation changes—including COVID-19 reporting changes to Form W-2.

Webinar Objectives

This webinar concentrates on preparing the department for the end of the calendar tax year and the new year processing. Topics include reconciling, completing, and submitting Form W-2 federal and state; update to annual changes from the IRS, SSA, DOL, and on the state level; and best practices that will help make the year-end and year beginning go smoother.

Webinar Agenda

• Latest update on the Form W-4 for 2021!
• Reconciliation of Form W-2 to Form 941 and why it must be done
• Update on year-beginning annual changes for social security wage base, fringe benefit limitations, federal per diem allowance, standard mileage rate, qualified transportation fringe benefits, and more.
• How to use the required year-end notice to update your employees for the coming year 
• Best practices on organizing the payroll department for year-end including action item checklists for Form W-2, Year-end and Year beginning to ensure a smooth process
• How to handle duplicate requests for Form W-2 including charging fees
• Status review of Publication 1494 for 2021
• Changes to Form W-2 for 2020
• Best practices for gathering, calculating, and reconciling W-2 data all year long as is now expected by the IRS
• Taxation of fringe benefits for year-end including awards and prizes, personal use of company cars, and gift certificates
• Latest update on white-collar exemptions
• Electronic delivery of W-2s to employees
• When to use the Form W-2c and when to correct the W-2 itself 
• State regulatory changes affecting payroll including SUI wage bases, minimum wage increases, and more
• Review of EFW-2 record changes for the tax year 2020
• Verifying employee names and SSN’s
• Review of filing deadlines
• Third-Party Sick Pay reporting

Who Should Attend

• Payroll Executives/ Managers/ Administrators/ Professionals/ Practitioners/ Entry Level Personnel
• Human Resources Executives/ Managers/Administrators
• Accounting Personnel
• Business Owners/ Executive Officers/ Operations and Departmental Managers
• Lawmakers
• Attorneys/ Legal Professionals
• Any individual or entity that must deal with the complexities and requirements of Payroll compliance issues for Year-End closing and preparing for the upcoming year.