{"id":5344,"date":"2019-11-21T18:47:04","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T23:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/?p=5344"},"modified":"2019-11-21T18:47:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T23:47:23","slug":"taking-care-of-business-how-do-payroll-taxes-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/taking-care-of-business-how-do-payroll-taxes-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Care of Business &#8211; How Do Payroll Taxes Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Every business owner with employees needs to understand payroll taxes. If you are a small business owner, you may not have the resources to pay for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.payscale.com\/research\/US\/Job=Payroll_Specialist\/Hourly_Rate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">payroll specialist<\/a>. In this instance, the responsibility of ensuring payroll is done correctly falls on you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aside from calculating hours and making deductions for insurance or 401Ks, you&#8217;ll also need to know how do payroll taxes work.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Businesses not only have to deduct taxes from the employee&#8217;s earnings, but they are also responsible for calculating their portion. Afterward, taxes are sent to the state and the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you an employer perplexed about payroll taxes? Keep reading or tips on&nbsp;what you need to know about payroll taxes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Do Payroll Taxes Work for Small Businesses?&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>An employee and business owner have different payroll taxes to consider. There are four main tax categories. However, not all are applicable&nbsp;to your employees. Some are based on the state you reside in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Businesses are required to have a Federal Identification Number or EIN for tax filing purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are the main payroll tax definitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FICA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>FICA stands or&nbsp;Federal Insurance Contributions Act. These mandatory taxes are based on a percentage of the employee&#8217;s earnings, minus deductions. The taxes fund Medicare, Social Security, and other benefits such as supplemental security income (SSI).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">FUTA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>FUTA is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebalancesmb.com\/what-is-the-federal-unemployment-tax-futa-397959#:~:targetText=Employers%20pay%20federal%20unemployment%20tax,for%20allowable%20state%20unemployment%20tax.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Federal Unemployment Tax<\/a>. What you need to know about payroll taxes is that it is paid by the employer and not the employee.&nbsp;Employees may be required to pay a state unemployment tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employees that lose their job due to no fault of their own may be entitled to file from unemployment. The money comes from the unemployment tax.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SDI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>State Disability Insurance is a state-level tax and is not a requirement of every state. These payroll taxes are deducted from the employee&#8217;s paycheck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SDI is similar to unemployment taxes. It is used to provide&nbsp;short-term income to employees that&nbsp;become disabled and can&#8217;t work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">State Income Taxes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The majority of states have a state income tax. This is a payroll tax in addition to federal taxes. There are nine states that do not impose a state income tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If a business has employees in multiple states, they will need to know the laws for each state. This also applies to employees that earn income multiple states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Happens if You Do Not Withhold Taxes?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You do not want <a href=\"https:\/\/abajianlaw.com\/tax-problems\/california-edd-payroll-tax-problems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">payroll tax problems<\/a>. Businesses that do not collect or pay payroll taxes are subject to civil and criminal penalties. The business can also have significant monetary fines imposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regardless, of the outcome, you&#8217;ll still be responsible for paying the taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Payroll Taxes&nbsp;is a Part of Being a Business Owner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>No one wants to pay taxes but it is a part of being a business owner. How do payroll taxes work is easy when you understand the process? If it is too cumbersome, consider an accounting program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information check out our payroll and accounting section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every business owner with employees needs to understand payroll taxes. If you are a small business owner, you may not have the resources to pay for a payroll specialist. In this instance, the responsibility of ensuring payroll is done correctly falls on you. Aside from calculating hours and making deductions for insurance or 401Ks, you&#8217;ll [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5346,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5344\/revisions\/5346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atyourbusiness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}