Fringe Benefits

Miscellaneous Minor cost "De minimis" fringe benefits

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

You can exclude the value of a minor cost ( "de minimis") benefit you provide to an employee from the employee's wages.
A de minimis benefit is any property or service you provide to an employee that has so little value (taking into account how frequently you provide similar benefits to your employees) that accounting for it would be unreasonable or administratively impracticable.
Examples of de minimis benefits include the following. Occasional meal money and taxi fares for overtime work.
Transportation fare.
Occasional parties or picnics for employees and their guests.
Occasional tickets for theater or sporting events.
Personal use of an employer-provided cell phone provided primarily for noncompensatory business purposes.
Holiday gifts, other than cash, with a low fair market value.
Group-term life insurance payable on the death of an employee's spouse or dependent if the face amount is not more than $2,000.
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Fringe Benefits

Athletic facilities

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

An employer can exclude the value of an employee's use of an On-Premises gym (or property leased by the employer, not necessarily located on the main business premises) or other athletic facility you operate from an employee's wages if substantially all use of the facility during the calendar year is by your employees, their spouses, and their dependent children.
Athletic facilities include gyms, golf courses, tennis courts, swimming pools.
The facilities must be available to all employees on a nondiscriminatory basis.
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Fringe Benefits

Transportation fringe benefits

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

Generally, the cost of driving to work in a commuter highway vehicle between the employee's home and work place, employer provided parking, transit passes, bicycle commuting reimbursements are tax free.
You can generally exclude the value of transportation benefits that you provide to an employee during 2013 from the employee's wages up to the following limits.
$245 per month for combined commuter highway vehicle transportation and transit passes. ($240 in 2012)
$245 per month for qualified parking. ($240 in 2012)
For a calendar year, $20 multiplied by the number of qualified bicycle commuting months during that year for qualified bicycle commuting reimbursement of expenses incurred during the year.
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Fringe Benefits

Adoption Benefit Plan

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

Employer reimbursements to you or payments to a third party for qualified adoption expenses are generally tax free up to $12,650 in 2012 ($13,360 in 2011.)
The exclusion is phased out if your modified gross income is between $189,710 and 229,710 in 2012 ($185,210 and $225,210 in 2011.)
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Fringe Benefits

Health Plans including HSAs

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

Employer contributions to the HSA of a qualified individual (determined monthly) are exempt from federal income tax withholding, social security tax, Medicare tax, and FUTA tax.
For 2013, the employer can contribute up to $3,250 for self-only coverage or $6,450 for family coverage to a qualified individual's HSA.
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Tip Income Reporting

Tip Income - Self Employed persons

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If you receive tips as a self-employed person, you should report these tips as income on Schedule C
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Tip Income Reporting

Form 4137 - Employee Unreported Tip reporting to IRS

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If you received $20 or more in cash and charge tips in a month from any one job and did not report all of those tips to your employer, you must report the social security and Medicare taxes on the unreported tips as additional tax on your return.
To report these taxes, use Form 4137, Social Security and Medicare Tax on Unreported Tip Income, to figure these taxes.
The unreported tips must be included as Wages on Form 1040, Line 7.
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Tip Income Reporting

Form 4070 - Employee Tip reporting to the Employer

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If your employer does not give you any other way to report your tips, you can use Form 4070, Employee's Report of Tips to Employer. Fill in the information asked for on the form, sign and date the form, and give it to your employer.
Give your report for each month to your employer by the 10th of the next month. If the 10th falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, give your employer the report by the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.
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Tip Income Reporting

Employer - Allocating Tip Income - Less than 8% Calculation Methods

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If as the Employer, your total reported tips are less than 8% of total food and beverage sales, then you must allocate additional tip income to the W2 of every tipped employee that reported less than 8% of their respective sales, so that their total reported income reflects this minimum 8% allocation.
There are 3 methods of allocating additional employee tips. The gross receipts method, the hours worked method and the good faith agreement.
The Gross Receipts method can be used by any restaurant and usually results in a more accurate and fair allocation.
It determines the amount that each server should have reported in tips to reach the 8% minimum threshold by comparing the server’s gross receipts as a percentage of the total restaurant receipts.
If the server’s actual reported tips are less than the percentage calculated as above then a prorate portion of the total shortfall is allocated to that employees W2.
The Hours Worked method applies only to restaurants which employ fewer than 25 full time employees during a payroll period, and it allocates any tip shortfall (below 8% of total sales) by spreading it among underreporting servers based on their percentage of total hours worked as compared to all the other servers.
This method is the least accurate as it does not take into account the fact that servers work shifts with different tipping patterns.
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The Good Faith Agreement method is rarely used.
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Tip Income Reporting

Allocating Tips - 8% General rule

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

As an employer, you must ensure that the total tip income reported to you during any pay period is, at a minimum, equal to 8% of your total receipts for that period.
In calculating 8% of total receipts, you do not include nonallocable receipts. Nonallocable receipts are defined as receipts for carry out sales and receipts with a service charge added of 10% or more.
When the total reported to you is less than 8%, you must allocate the difference between the actual tip income reported and 8% of gross receipts.
Employers can request a lower rate (but not lower than 2%) for tip allocation purposes by submitting an application to the IRS.
Detailed instructions for computing allocation of tips, reporting allocated tips to employees, and for requesting a lower rate can be found in the Instructions for Form 8027. (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8027.pdf).
Speak to your local CPA about the requirements of Tip Income reporting.
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