Payroll Processing and 2015 Federal Holidays

I don’t know anyone – employees or employers, alike – who doesn’t look forward to a holiday. After all, it’s a day away from work that you can spend with family and friends – or just by yourself – celebrating, having fun and relaxing. But for small business owners, there’s more to holidays than just a day off.

Small business employers need to determine how they will treat holidays when it comes to their compensation and benefits packages. And they need to know which days are federal holidays, so they can plan their payroll processing and federal deposits for taxes.

While the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn’t require employers to pay employees for holidays, many employers give workers paid time off for holidays as a benefit to attract and retain personnel. Generally, these holiday benefits are determined and agreed upon by the employer and the company’s employees or employee representative, such as a union. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most U.S. businesses give their full-time employees 7.6 days off as paid holidays a year.

As you process your payroll, you need to remember if you give your employees paid time off for holidays, you can’t count that off time as hours worked. Also, when computing overtime, holiday time off is not included in the total hours the employee worked.

When making payroll and federal tax deposits, you need to be aware of the rules regarding these deposits. If your company’s payday falls on a non-business day, such as a Saturday, Sunday or District of Columbia legal holiday, you can either:

• Adjust your pay date to a business day prior to the holiday (remember to adjust your submission date, too, to allow two business days to process payroll and direct deposits).
• Post direct deposit paychecks on the first business day after the holiday.

For federal tax deposits, which include your employees’ income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare) tax withheld, as well as your company’s share of FICA tax, if the deposit due date falls on a holiday, you have until the close of the next business day in order to make your deposit. If your deposit is not made on a timely basis, you’ll have to pay a penalty.

To help you properly plan for your payroll processing and federal tax responsibilities, here is a list of the 2015 federal holidays:

• New Year’s Day – Thursday, January 1, 2015
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday – Monday, January 19, 2015
• Presidents Day – Monday, February 16, 2015
• Emancipation Day – Thursday, April 16, 2015
• Memorial Day – Monday, May 25, 2015
• Independence Day – Friday, July 3, 2015
• Labor Day – Monday, September 7, 2015
• Columbus Day – Monday, October 12, 2015
• Veterans Day – Wednesday, November 11, 2015
• Thanksgiving Day – Thursday, November 26, 2015
• Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, 2015

At The Payroll Department, we know how hard it can be for small business owners to juggle all of their human resources and accounting processes. Therefore, let The Payroll Department be your payroll expert. We can make your payroll processing, payroll tax deposits and payroll form filing quick and easy, so all you have to do is focus on running your actual business. Contact The Payroll Department today for more information on our services.

– Ariane of The Payroll Department Blog Team