PayTemps.Net Basic Payroll Dictionary of Payroll Terms PayTemps, Inc. Ó 2003, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

This dictionary is a compilation of terms related to the payroll professional in general, but also includes terms specific to ADP. The definitions relating to ADP terms do not include any internal or restricted proprietary information, and can be otherwise obtained from publicly available sources. The definitions of this dictionary are written in a concise and broad manner so as to provide the reader with a general understanding of the defined terms, and as such, should not be cited in lieu of legal counsel or authority. Links not preceded by the word ‘our’ are to government web pages outside this website. Names noted for those web pages are simply meant to be descriptive, and are not official names. Click here to view copyright terms.

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ACH – See Automated Clearing House.

ADA – See Americans With Disability Act of 1990.

ADEA – See Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

ADP – See Actual Deferral Percentage. Also see ADP, Inc.

ADP, Inc. – Originally Automatic Data Processing, Incorporated, the name was recently changed officially to ADP, Inc. World’s largest provider of outsource payroll services. Also provides a wide variety of payroll and human resource products and services, as well a brokerage services.

ADP Check – This is a payroll money-movement feature that enables clients to pay their employees with checks drawn on an ADP account, instead of from the client’s own bank account. ADP services check payment inquiries, stop payment requests, tracers and returns. In other words, ADP acts as the bank. ADP debits the client’s account for the entire amount of the ADP checks, and the amount to be debited is displayed on the Statistical Summary that the client gets with the payroll reports. Client do not need to reconcile individual employee checks clearing their own account. Check fraud protection is included with ADP's use of Positive Pay servicing. The ADP check looks very similar to a standard payroll check. It includes the client's name, address, an ADP officer's signature, and the MICR line contains ADP's bank account number. As an option, client’s can add their own corporate officer's signature and/or company logo.

ADP Connection – This feature is a customized program that ADP writes to connect non-ADP applications with ADP PC Payroll software. Due to it’s high price tag, it is not commonly used.

ADP FSA – This service is an administration of a client’s FSA accounts (see FSA). This includes processing and making determinations on claims for reimbursements submitted by employees. It can also include handling contributions to an account made by employees through payroll deductions, and making payments to employees for approved reimbursements (money-movement). This service is separate from the payroll processing services ADP provides. Clients using this feature must contact ADP FSA directly for the following: general inquiries, setup questions, specific question regarding their FSA plan or plan documents.

ADP Payroll Week – Each week of the year is assigned a processing week number by ADP, starting with 01 for the first work days of the year. The weeks are numbered from Friday – Thursday. Friday is the first day of each processing week, and Thursday is the last. Each Friday is the start of a new week number.

ADP TotalSource – ADP’s version of a Professional Employer Organization (see Professional Employer Organization).

ADP 401(k) – This is an administration service offered by ADP’s Retirement Services division. It handles the transactions related to the setup and funding of employee 401(k) accounts for an employer. This is different from simply setting up a 401(k) or other deferred compensation deduction with ADP. If a client does not use ADP’s 401(k) administration service, but does have 401(k) deductions set up, then the 401(k) amounts deducted from employee checks are calculated by ADP’s payroll processing, but it is up to the client to actually send the 401(k) amounts withheld from employee checks to their 401(k) administrator (such as CIGNA or Merrill Lynch, etc.). If a client uses ADP’s 401(k) service, then ADP calculates and deducts amounts from employee checks, and is also responsible for handling the financial transactions associated with those deductions. ADP debits the client’s account for the entire amount of the 401(k) deductions, and the amount to be debited is displayed on the ADP Statistical Summary.

AEIC – See Earned Income Credit.

Accelerated Deposit Rule – The Federal government has rules that determine when taxes for SS, Med and FIT withheld must be deposited with the IRS, and they are detailed in Circular E (Publication 15). Those rules put an employer on a monthly or semi-weekly schedule, based on the taxes paid previously by an employer during a look-back period (see “look-back”). However, when a tax liability for an employer reaches $100,000 at any time, the tax must be deposited with the IRS the next banking day, hence, the term ‘accelerated.’ See Circular E (Rev. January 2006), page 21 for more information. PayTemps Basic Dictionary of Payroll Terms, www.paytemps.net, PayTemps, Inc. Ó 2003, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Accountable Plan – When referring to an employee business expense (EBE) reimbursement plan, an ‘accountable’ plan is one that meets IRS rules for reimbursements to be excluded from an employees’ reportable taxable wages by the employer. For a plan to be considered ‘accountable,’ employee expenses must meet all three of the following conditions: 1) reimbursed expenses must be business-related; 2) reimbursed expenses must be substantiated (with receipts, or reimbursed at IRS standard rates-such as mileage rate –see IRS Publication 463 for rates); 3) any advance payments to the employee over the substantiated amounts are returned to the employer (employee does not keep excess). If an employee received only excludable (non-taxable) EBE reimbursements during the year, the reimbursements do not need to be reported anywhere on the employee’s Form W-2. However, if an employee received both, non-excludable EBE reimbursements that must be reported with the employee’s regular, taxable wages on the Form W-2, as well as excludable EBE reimbursements during the year, then the excludable EBE also needs to be reported on the Form W-2, in box 12, with a code L. In short: If there is only excludable EBE reimbursements for the employee, there is no Form W-2 reporting requirement. If there is both, excludable and non-excludable EBE reimbursements for the employee, then the excludable must be reported in box 12. In all cases, the non-excludable is reported as taxable, in boxes 1, 3, and 5 and the state and local wage boxes, where applicable. See Non-Accountable Plan.

Accrual (Accounting or GL) – When referring to general ledgers (GLs), an accrual tries to account for a period of time that has not yet happened, or been processed. For example, if a client’s payroll processes on a bi-weekly basis, but their accounting period for their GL is monthly, the end of their payroll period will usually not coincide with the end of the accounting period. Thus, when the GL is produced at the end of the month, it has to account for a few days of a pay period that has not yet ended or been processed. A calculation called ‘accrual’ is done to post debits and credits for this period of time.

Accrual (Benefit) – See Benefit Accruals.

Actual Deferral Percentage – The percentage of wages deferred by an employee by contributing into a deferred compensation retirement plan, such as a 401(k) plan. This amount is calculated to determine if a plan is in compliance with IRS regulations that define how a deferred compensation plan may be structured. For example, specific rules require that a 401(k) plan may not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. See also Deferred Compensation.

Advanced Earned Income Credit – See Earned Income Credit.

Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967 – The ADEA prohibits employment discrimination against persons 40 years of age or older.   Portions of the Act are amended by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990 and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.  The ADEA also imposes certain record-keeping and document retention requirements.  Until 2004, the act was interpreted to mean that any discrimination based on age was prohibited by the act, if the persons negatively affected were age 40 or over.  Reverse discrimination (favoring an older employee against a younger one), was in most cases equally prohibited, so long as the younger employee was at least 40 years old.  The Supreme Court decision in General Dynamics Land Systems, Inc. v. Cline, 540 U.S. 581, 586 (2004) changed that be determining that the word “age” in the law was intended by Congress to mean “old age.”  Therefore, with certain exceptions, employers may dicriminate in favor of older employees, but not against them.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcement of this law, and is still, as of September 2006, in the process of revision federal regulations to reflect the courts’ new interpretation.  For more information on the ADEA, please go to the EEOC ADEA Web Page.

Americans With Disability Act (ADA) of 1990 – The ADA gives a broad range of rights to handicapped or disabled persons in areas of employment, housing, education, healthcare, as well as in access to all manner of government and private facilities that are open to the public. Of special importance to employers, the law requires employers to provide “reasonable” accommodations to allow a handicapped employee to perform a job and to access a workplace. The law itself does not spell out what are considered disabilities, or what is considered “reasonable” accommodations, which initially led to much litigation. Since 1990, case law has given employers some guidelines on how to maintain compliance with the act. More recently, U. S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed down the definition of what is to be considered ‘”disabled,” for the purposes of the law. PayTemps Basic Dictionary of Payroll Terms, www.paytemps.net, PayTemps, Inc. Ó 2003, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Automated Clearing House (ACH) – This is a bank network that processes electronic payments [also known as electronic funds transfers (EFTs) or direct deposits] under the rules of the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), and is operated by the Federal Reserve Bank, the American Clearing House Association, the Electronic Payments Network, and Visa.

Automatic Pay – This is a feature that most ADP clients use to automatically pay the established salary (Rate 1) to salaried employees, or the primary hourly rate (Rate 1) times the Standard Hours for hourly employees, without having to make an entry. Sometimes clients have two pay groups within one company code, with automatic salary being active on a payroll for pay group 1 or 2, or both. Refer to page 5-7 in the ADP You and Your Payroll (YAP) Manual, “Paying Your Employees” section, for a list of entries that cancel Automatic Pay.

BLS – See Bureau of Labor Statistics.

BLS Monthly Counts – See Twelfth-of-the-Month Counts.

Backup Withholding – Backup withholding is federal income tax withheld by financial institutions, like banks, on income other than wages, such as interest income from savings accounts. Financial institutions must withhold FIT from taxpayers that the IRS has declared subject to the backup withholding. Backup withholding is reported annually on a Form 945. This is not a payroll issue. However, an institution may use their payroll service’s tax deposit feature, such as ADP’s Tax Filing Service, to deposit taxes by using the payroll system. Also see Form 945.

Benefit Accruals – The calculation of vacation, sick, or other hours that become available to an employee to take as paid time off. For example, and employee may receive a benefit of accrual of 3.08 vacation hours per bi-weekly payroll (for a total of 80 hours – or ten days – per year). Most payroll processors can set up calculations, based on payroll processings, to calculate accruals, based on a calendar system (e.g. everyone gets 80 hours at the start of each year on January 1) or anniversary date system (e.g. each employee gets 80 hours on the anniversary of their hire date); and based on whether it is a ‘fixed’ accrual (one lump sum allowed at a given time, usually once a year), or a calculated accrual (a pro-rated amount is allowed each payroll, or each month). Many different rules can apply to a benefit accrual system, such as how much, if any, carryover is permitted for unused time from one accrual year to the next; how years or months of in service may increase hours allowed (given) to an employee; and is there a maximum balance of unused hours an employee can carry at any given time (note that a balance limit or maximum is different from a carryover limit).

Benefits eXpert – This is an ADP product that provides employers with on-line benefits administration and employee self-service capabilities. Employers can set up their benefit programs and plans via administration screens and then employees of that company enroll in their benefits via the Internet. This feature can be purchased by itself, or as an add-on to other payroll processing services.

Benefits Options – This is a money-movement ADP feature offered for clients using ADP’s PCPW product. This allows an employer to offer voluntary employee benefits at virtually no cost to the employer. The current options are for health and welfare insurance policies that can be funded through employee payroll deductions. The deductions from employees’ checks are then sent, via a direct deposit transaction, to cover the employees’ premiums. Through BenefitOptions employees may qualify for special group rates on a portfolio of insurance products that includes: Universal Life, Level Term Life Insurance, Disability Income, Accidental Death & Dismemberment and Specified Critical Illness. To have this feature, clients must be set up with direct deposit (either regular or FSDD) and have an available direct deposit code that can be used for the benefit deductions. Aon Worksite Solutions is ADP’s partner in this offered service, and it provides the client with an email attachment CSV file with all newly enrolled employees (additions) as well as any changes or deletions. Clients save and import the file into PCPW and transmit their payroll to ADP. The file is the full set up for direct deposit including the providers bank account information. PayTemps Basic Dictionary of Payroll Terms, www.paytemps.net, PayTemps, Inc. Ó 2003, 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Bonds – In payroll terms, through payroll deductions, employees can purchase series EE U.S. Savings Bonds for $50, $100, $250, or $500, bonds that have maturity values twice the purchase value (a bond purchased for $50 has a $100 face value). (Note that series EE bonds are different from series HH or I bonds.) Employees can have smaller amounts deducted from their paycheck towards the purchase of a bond, but the bond is only actually purchased when enough money has been deducted to pay for half the face value of the bond. Bonds redeemed prior to maturity date are valued at the purchase price, plus interest. Bonds redeemed at maturation date are valued at face value (twice the purchase price) or purchase price plus interest, whichever is higher. The maturity date is determined at the time of purchase, when the U.S. Treasury indicates how long the bond must be held before the U.S. Treasury will guarantee the full face value (thus doubling the original investment). ADP can produce a Bond Report that tracks employee purchases of bonds. When using ADP’s bond purchasing feature, goal limits must be set at the above noted values (for example, goal can’t be for $45). When an employee reaches a goal, goal-to-date is automatically reset to zero, and deduction continues (this is different from normal goal limits that must have goal-to-date cleared before deduction can resume). ADP does not buy the bonds (no money-movement). Effective December 11, 2001, Series EE Bonds bought through other, non-payroll methods are called Patriot Bonds. For more information on Series EE savings bonds go to the PubDebtBureau EE Bonds Web Page.

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) – The federal government’s primary agency responsible for collecting and compiling statistical data in the field of labor economics as well as on the economy in general. Originally established in 1884 as the Federal Bureau of Labor, it acquired its current name when it was brought under the U.S. Department of Labor in 1913, when that department was created. The principal federal agency responsible for gathering and compiling statistical data on employment and other labor-related information. It operates under the U.S. Department of Labor, and is the primary user of the data gathered via the Multiple Worksite Reporting on Form 3020 filed by employers with their respective state unemployment insurance agencies. See Multiple Worksite Reporting.

CAWR – See Combined Annual Wage Reconciliation.

COBRA – See Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.

Cafeteria Plan – Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code was initially enacted in 1978, and has been amended several times since. It allow employers to offer certain kinds of non-taxable benefits, such as medical, dental or life insurance, to employees. Typically, employees pay for these benefits through pre-tax, or tax exempt, deductions from their payroll checks. The term Cafeteria is commonly used to apply to these benefits because of the number of choices that can be offered to employees by one employer under a Section 125 plan. The different kinds of benefits are numerous and varied, and beyond the examples already listed above, range from adoption assistance programs, to medical flexible spending accounts, to dependent care benefits. Employers must meet certain requirements before they can offer benefits under this type of plan. One of them is that the plan cannot disproportionately benefit highly compensated, or key employees (such as top management officers). Because of this, compliance testing must be done periodically by employers to certify that their plans are in compliance. Previously, the IRS required employers to submit this compliance testing information by annually filing the Form 5500, Schedule F, to certify their compliance. However, with the April 2002 publication of IRS Notice 2002-24 this requirement has been suspended as of this writing. Note that Form 5500 filing requirements remain for pension and welfare benefit plans covered by ERISA (see Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) as well as for what are referred to as Direct Filing Entities that file for plans that participate in certain trusts, accounts, and other investment arrangements.

Certified Payroll – The Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 requires private employers, working on federal jobs, pay their workers no less than the local “prevailing” wages, as determined by the U. S. Department of Labor. States may also have similar laws. As a result, government agencies may require an employer (a government job contractor) to process a “certified payroll.” This is documentation that a payroll was paid according to government regulations mandating specific hourly rates for specific kinds of work. A certified payroll, then, is a normal payroll with a report added that shows how employees were paid for hours worked, thereby ‘certifying’ that payroll met government standards for government contracts. Usually it means a breakdown of hours paid (regular, overtime, etc.) by the day with a rate for each type of hour. Management Reports can provide clients with the needed data for certified payroll report, but require special coding of an employee’s pay so the computing system can provide a breakdown of the hourly data. The government agency requesting a certified payroll should spell out for the employer the required format and contents of the report.

CheckMate – This feature, available through ADP’s PCPW software, enables a client to dial into ADP’s mainframe to generate tax calculations. Instead of having to manually calculate taxes for a manual check, a client can then receive a breakdown of correct taxes to be entered for a manual (prepaid) check. The information received from ADP, if saved, is automatically transmitted with next payroll processing, in the same way as all manual checks.

CheckView – This feature allows ADP clients to view the Payroll Register information (that is, the detail of each pay produced for each employee on any specific payroll processing), through their PCPW software. The information is populated by the Pay Detail data file (See Pay Detail). Provided an ADP client is diligent in receiving their downloads, this often under-utilized feature can be used to provide employees with appropriately formatted earnings statements for any pay period, or time period (such as six months) desired. It can even be used to quickly determine a specific amount posted, paid or deducted from an employee’s pay for any time period (for example, how much sick time was posted for the last three months).

City Code – See Local Code.

Client-Defined – Refers to a use, definition, or purpose determined by a client. In other words, a client-defined field, or value, is one whose purpose or meaning is decided by a client. For example, the Department Number field in PCPW is ADP-defined. Its purpose is determined by ADP. However, the actual numbers entered in a Department field are client-defined values. The client determines what their department numbers are. However, the Custom Area 1 field in PCPW is a client-defined field. The client determines the purpose of the field as well as the values to be entered in the field.

Combined Annual Wage Reconciliation (CAWR) – This is an IRS function that compares the totals reported on the Forms 941 filed in a given tax year to the totals reported on all the Forms W-2 for the same company under the same federal identification number in the same year. Typically, the IRS compares returns one to two years after they are filed

Common Paymaster – When related corporations, with different taxpayer identification numbers (TIN), employ the same employee at the same time, or within a given tax period, they may opt to have the employer tax obligations handled by a common paymaster, usually a ‘parent’ corporation. The purpose is to avoid having each separate company meet the taxable wage limits separately for Social Security, FUTA (see Federal Unemployment Tax Act), and state unemployment taxes for the employee. Usually, when an employee works for two different companies, each company must start at zero when figuring when the employee meets applicable taxable wage limits, and cannot take credit for wages reported and taxes paid by the other company. For example, the FUTA wage taxable wage limit is $7000 per employee per year, per employer. If the employee already met the limit at one company, and then goes to work for another company, the new company cannot take credit for the taxes already paid by the previous company, and must pay FUTA taxes from the first dollar, up to the $7,000 limit. This means both employers could pay FUTA taxes on up to $14,000 in taxable wages. The same goes for Social Security and state unemployment taxes (See Social Security). The common paymaster rule permits related corporations to combine their tax obligations as a single employer, and frees them from having to meet the taxable wage limits separately. Note that the corporations must be related. This means that at least one of the companies is a majority stock holder in the other, shares a majority of its board of directors or a majority of its officers with the other, or shares 30% of its employees with the other related company. The common paymaster, under its own TIN, reports the wages and pays the taxes for all the different, related companies, thus combining the taxable wages reported, and taxes paid, for all the companies, reducing their potential tax obligations. In the above example, if the two companies are related, and use a common paymaster, and the employee worked for both during a calendar quarter at the same time, both companies together will only be liable for taxes on up to $7,000, instead of $14,000, in taxable wages. They will pay the common paymaster their share of their tax obligation, while the common paymaster in turn pays the taxes to the appropriate agency. One complication: Some companies use a common paymaster to file their federal taxes, but still file their state unemployment taxes under the separate employer TINs. When the IRS reviews FUTA (Form 940) returns, and checks to see if employers did in fact report wages and pay taxes to the states as claimed on their Form 940, it must be advised to cross-reference the TINs.

Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 – This law aimed at assisting economically depressed areas, contains a provision that exempts federally recognized Indian Tribal governments from the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), provided they are compliant with state unemployment requirements.

Company Code – The 2 or 3 (usually 3) character long alphanumeric identification for a payroll entity or control processed with ADP.

Company Rates – In ADP, unlike Rate 1, Rate 2, or Rate 3, which are rates for specific employees (employee-level, as in each employee has their own Rate 1, 2 or 3), Rates 4-9, and A-D are set for a company. In other words, they are company-level rates. For example, Rate 4 is the same for every employee, and therefore, Rate 4 is not stored in an employee’s permanent information records or folder. Instead, the company is set up to pay, for example, ten dollars an hour whenever Rate 4 is used.

Compensatory Stock Options – See Non-Statutory Stock Options

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985 – This law gives employees covered by an employer’s group health plan the right to continued coverage, under certain conditions called “qualifying events”, even after a change in the employee’s employment status, such as a layoff. It also gives the right of dependents, or other beneficiaries, of the employee covered under the same health plan, to retain continued coverage when “qualifying events” occur, such as the death of the employee. The intent of the law is to keep covered persons from losing health care coverage when a qualifying event occurs, though the affected persons must typically pay for the full amount of the insurance premium for it to continue. The coverage can be extended 18 or 36 months, depending on the combination of qualifying events. ADP offers COBRA administration services.

Constructive Receipt – Also referred to as constructive payment, constructive receipt rules are generally used by tax agencies, such as the IRS, to determine the point in time at which tax liabilities are incurred on income paid/received. Income is considered to be constructively received when it is made available to the intended recipient, without limitations or restrictions. This does not require actual possession of the funds, but rather, free access to them. This includes the receipt of cash, a check, or the crediting of a bank account. In payroll, the date the constructive receipt occurs (wages are actually made available to the employee), is the ‘real’ pay date, and the date on which employee and employer tax due dates are based. The ‘official’ pay date noted on payroll documents, including payroll checks, is irrelevant if the pay is being made available prior to the official pay date. Therefore, wages paid to an employee on December 31, 2003, are taxable as 2003 wages, and reportable on 2003 tax returns, even if the pay date is shown on payroll documents to be in January 2004. Note that period ending dates are irrelevant

Control – In payroll, usually refers to a payroll entity that has specific characteristics, such as how particular types of earnings, or deductions, are identified and processed, and how frequently the payroll is processed. In other words, a control identifies a set of rules used to process the payroll for a set of employees. In ADP, a control is identified by a two or three-character code referred to as a ‘company code.’ In Paychex, controls are identified by four-digit codes. A company can have one or more controls, depending on their need to process separate payrolls in different manners.

Cumulative File – This kind of file contains records of year-to-date, month-to-date, and other totals-to-date data for employees. The file accumulates pay data over a period of time, starting from the beginning of the calendar year, quarter, and other client-determined periods such as for the month, or fiscal year. Some accumulations are standard, that is, they are tracked for every client, and some are tracked by special accumulators, which are set up on client request. A cumulative file is distinct from a pay record file (Pay Detail in ADP – see Pay Detail) in that it is a running total, while a pay record file has data only for a specific pay period; and, there is only one cumulative file that is updated with each payroll processing, while a totally new, distinct, pay record file is created for each pay period. In ADP, the data records are by file number, meaning each file number has its own set of cumulative data, and the file’s naming convention is PRCCC.YTD, where CCC is the identifying company code. For PCPW (now PC/Payroll) to display the correct information, this file must be downloaded from ADP after each payroll processing.

Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 – See Certified Payroll.

Deduction – A subtraction from net pay. A positive deduction amount reduces net pay. A negative (reverse) deduction amount increases net pay.

Deferred Compensation – Compensation, as in earnings or pay, deferred (not received when earned). Typically, this refers to deferred compensation retirement (or pension) plans where employees can have amounts deducted from their earnings to contribute into their retirement accounts, deferring income taxes until withdrawal of the funds after reaching retirement age. These plans fall into two major categories: qualified and non-qualified. Qualified deferred compensation retirement plans are governed by rules under Sections 401(k) (most common), 403(b), 408(k), 408(p), 457, and 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code. These rules include limits on how much income employees can defer to contribute to their plans, requirements that employers must meet to make sure the plans do not favor highly compensated employees. Amounts deferred to compensation plans are included on Form W-2 in boxes 3, 5 and 12 (with a code). For more information and current limits on qualified plans, please see our Deferred Compensation Reference Page. Non-qualified deferred compensation plans do not have to follow the rules of qualified deferred compensation plans, and are usually for highly paid employees or company executives. Because of this, these non-qualified plans can take many forms. While this may seem discriminatory against rank and file employees, the non-qualified plans that provide a tax deferment also carry a risk of forfeiture (see Top-Hat Plans). Generally, non-qualified deferred compensation amounts are included on Form W-2, boxes 3, and 5, and distributions from the same plan (a pay-out to the employee) are reportable on box 1 and box 11. Special rules may apply to different situations, so a tax adviser should make any final determinations. For more information on non-qualified plans, go to the IRS NQDC Web Page. See also Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974.

De Minimis Fringe Benefit – Under the Tax Reform Act of 1984, non-cash benefits given to employees, often referred to as fringe benefits, must be included as taxable income to the recipient employee, unless specifically excluded by law (see Taxable Fringe Benefits). One of those exceptions applies to ‘de minimis’ fringe benefits – benefits of such relatively small fair market value, and awarded infrequently, that tracking and accounting for them would be administratively unreasonable and impractical, they need not be treated as taxable income to the employee. (Regrettably, the IRS does not readily specify how low, but a $40-$50 threshold is generally recognized.) For example, a holiday turkey or theater tickets to a particular show would normally qualify as de minimis benefits. The frequency and reason for the benefits can affect whether certain small benefits are taxable. For example, if a turkey was awarded to each employee every month, then all of them would be taxable. But, meals regularly provided for workers required to work overtime may not be taxable. Cash gifts or gift certificates easily redeemable for cash are always taxable, no matter how small the value. Regarding a gift certificate that is not redeemable for cash (say it can only be redeemed for certain items), the IRS until recently provided no published rules, and contradictory application of the tax code. However, in a technical ruling issued in April of 2004, the IRS determined that even if a gift certificate cannot be “easily redeemed for cash” as published guidance says it should be, or even at all, it is still taxable as wages because tracking and taxing it is not administratively difficult. This is because the value of the certificate is easily determined, as well as to whom it was issued. Thus, the words “easily redeemed for cash” are, for all practical purposes, no longer operative in determining if a gift certificate is taxable. For more on fringe benefits, go to the IRS 15-B Fringe Web Page.

Department Number – The alphanumeric character identification of a payroll department. In ADP, can be 3 or six characters long. Entering a department number in a payroll entry that is for a pay number 1 will cancel automatic pay.

Direct Deposits – Electronic transfer of funds to an employee’s bank account in place of a live check. With regular direct deposit, the payroll processor, such as ADP, sends a file to the client’s bank, the originating bank, which in turn sends out the electronic credits to employees’ (receiving) banks. ADP also offers Full Service Direct Deposit (FSDD), where ADP acts as the originating bank, and impounds the client for one lump sum amount. In either case, the Federal Reserve allows up to 72 hours for an electronic transfer to arrive at the receiving bank maintaining the destination bank account. A reversal of a direct deposit erroneously issued usually must occur within five days of the deposit date for a bank to honor it. This means it must reach the bank by the fifth day, so one must allow for the time it takes to get the reversal to the receiving bank.

E-Time – See eTime.

EEOC – See Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.<