Let me be perfectly clear. I stress at chess. Similarly, checkers is challenging. So there you have it. I am terrible at these games. Why? I suppose it is because I never took an interest in learning the complexities of the board movements available to each playing piece, and how each of those movements had a series of potential outcomes that the players have to mentally calculate for and prepare for both offensively and defensively concurrently, always staying at least one step ahead of the challenge. This is where the transformation from player strategy to risk management takes place for me as a payroll professional.
Compliance Challenges
For public companies, labor law and tax regulations are just the beginning of the compliance landscape. There are industry-wide controls, known as SOX controls, that were put in place to hold corporations accountable to their own performance records. Many of these controls touch the payroll processes on different levels, and it is imperative that the department work closely with General Counsel, Finance and Accounting, and sometimes even Treasury, to ensure that all controls are being followed, audited and attested to on a regular cadence.
Another challenge that many employers face in today's new world of remote workers is the compliance with various state and local regulations that may, and many times may not, align with payroll rules in the company's home state. Reciprocity between states can either alleviate or eliminate the need to track earnings in other locations, but not all states participate in these types of agreements. Thirty-four states and the three US territories have no reciprocity agreements at this time. It is the responsibility of the employer to know which rules to follow in each situation.
Knowing what we don't know is, in my professional opinion, the more challenging of the compliance barriers. Education budgets are not as affluent as they used to be, and getting approval for subscriptions to online tools can prove difficult for a non-revenue generating cost center like payroll. This is also the issue that brings to light those individuals I like to refer to as "payroll unicorns." You know who I mean... that one person on the team who always needs to let everyone at every company event know that they need to report any gifts they win in the raffle for tax purposes... or gets on a mobile device right away to determine the fair market value of the bottle of wine someone is gifted with and begin the approval process for grossing the value up... That is your payroll unicorn. Beautiful to have around, and sometimes a royal pain in the rear, but not for no good reason, right?
In the coming weeks, I plan to deep dive into many different and important areas of payroll compliance. To be sure you are notified when the next post is published, be sure to join my extended network on LinkedIn, or bookmark the Wages Creek home page. I look forward to your comments on and/or contributions to this series!
Sharing my #passionforpayroll
Christine Stolpe CPP
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