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Effective January 1, 2012, Arizona's minimum wage will be increasing $.30 per hour making the new minimum wage $7.65. There is no change in the federal tip credit of $3.00 making the allowable minimum wage for tipped employees $4.65. ..
Valued Arizona Clients: SA and JTT Taxes to be debited Sept. 7th, 8th and 9th
Monday, August 22, 2011
All AZ Employers subject to SUI now subject to Job Training Tax (JTT) of 0.10 percent
Friday, August 05, 2011
The Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) rate was reduced to 6.0% effective July 1, 2011. This makes all employers who are subject to Arizona Unemployment Insurance (UI) Tax also subject to the 0.10% Arizona Job Training Tax (JTT) on taxable wages they pay after June 30, 2011. (“Taxable wages” are the first $7,000 of gross wages paid to each employee in a calendar year.)
The JTT funds the Arizona Job Training Program administered by the Arizona Commerce Authority. It is payable to the Arizona Department of Economic Security with employers' quarterly UI Tax and assessed on the same taxable wage base, i.e., the first $7,000 of gross wages paid to each employee each calendar year.
Therefore, ALL tax-rated employers, regardless of their UI Tax rate and whether they are “new employers” or experience-rated, are subject to JTT on taxable wages they pay after June 30, 2011. (Employers who were exempt from JTT in the first and second quarters of 2011 continue to be exempt from JTT on taxable wages they paid in those quarters. In other words, for 2011: (1) if such an employer did not meet the $7,000 taxable wage base of an employee in the first or second quarter, the employer is subject to JTT only on taxable wages paid to that employee in the third and fourth quarter; (2) if the employer did meet the taxable wage base of an employee in the first or second quarter, the employer is not subject to JTT on wages paid to that employee in the third or fourth quarter.)
As a Payroll Experts' client, we have you covered! If you have any additional questions, you may call your Payroll Expert or visit https://www.azdes.gov/main.aspx?menu=316&id=6854 for the Arizona Department of Economic Security website and more details. ..
Arizona .40 % Special Assessment Effective July 20, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
House Bill 2619, which imposes a Special Assessment (SA) on taxable wages paid in 2011 and 2012, becomes law (Arizona Revised Statutes § 23-730.01) effective July 20, 2011, but is retroactively effective to January 1, 2011. The DES Unemployment Insurance (UI) Tax Section is responsible for collecting the SA according to the following provisions. ..
New AZ Withholding structure result in a 5.9% increase in SWT deductions
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
As all employers and most employees are now aware, effective July 1, 2010 the state of Arizona has changed how state withholding (SWT) taxes are calculated. For many years the SWT was based on a rate that each employee elected as a percentage of the employee’s Federal Withholding Tax (FWT). Employees could have elected a high percentage rate for SWT so that they did not come up short when they filed their annual tax return but if their FWT deduction was low (FWT is calculated using tables and is based on the gross pay amount, marital status, exemptions and pay frequency), they might have had little or no SWT deducted from their paycheck. The new SWT calculation is based directly on Gross Wages not FWT, so employees that have elected a rate other than zero will now see State Withholding on their check where they may not have in the past.
The figures are based on a sampling of 225 AZ based companies of varying size and approximately 7,000 employees and 23,440 paychecks. They include non-exempt (hourly) and exempt (salaried) employees and both white and blue collar employees (professional law firms as well as manufacturing).
Here is what we found:
1. Overall the paycheck SWT has increased by approximately 5.9%
2. For employees with gross pay up to $500.00 the SWT rate went up 504% from 0.4% to 2.04% (most employees had no SWT under the old percentages and most had SWT under the new).
3. For employees with gross pay from $500.01 to 1500.00 the SWT rate went up 106% from 1.31% to 2.69%
4. For employees with gross pay from $1500.01 to 3000.00 the SWT rate went up 117% from 2.66% to 3.10%
5. For employees with gross pay from 3000.01 – 10,000.00 the SWT rate went down 20% from 4.15% to 3.36%.
Conclusion: I wasn’t able to find the exact 2009 SWT figure but at an estimated $3bb the net increase would be $117mm. Those most impacted are low wage earnings, most of which had little or no SWT deducted under the old method almost all have some deductions under the new rule. The increases are lower as the wages go up until you see a slight decrease for the highest wage earners.
The overall increase against claims that the state will be issuing I.O.U’s for 2010 refunds paints an interesting picture?
Jason Roth, President, Payroll Experts LLC ..
The figures are based on a sampling of 225 AZ based companies of varying size and approximately 7,000 employees and 23,440 paychecks. They include non-exempt (hourly) and exempt (salaried) employees and both white and blue collar employees (professional law firms as well as manufacturing).
Here is what we found:
1. Overall the paycheck SWT has increased by approximately 5.9%
2. For employees with gross pay up to $500.00 the SWT rate went up 504% from 0.4% to 2.04% (most employees had no SWT under the old percentages and most had SWT under the new).
3. For employees with gross pay from $500.01 to 1500.00 the SWT rate went up 106% from 1.31% to 2.69%
4. For employees with gross pay from $1500.01 to 3000.00 the SWT rate went up 117% from 2.66% to 3.10%
5. For employees with gross pay from 3000.01 – 10,000.00 the SWT rate went down 20% from 4.15% to 3.36%.
Conclusion: I wasn’t able to find the exact 2009 SWT figure but at an estimated $3bb the net increase would be $117mm. Those most impacted are low wage earnings, most of which had little or no SWT deducted under the old method almost all have some deductions under the new rule. The increases are lower as the wages go up until you see a slight decrease for the highest wage earners.
The overall increase against claims that the state will be issuing I.O.U’s for 2010 refunds paints an interesting picture?
Jason Roth, President, Payroll Experts LLC ..
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