The HIRE Act and Nonprofits

Two new tax benefits are now available to all employers hiring workers who were previously unemployed or only working part time. These provisions are part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act enacted into law on March 18. Employers who hire or hired unemployed workers after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011 may qualify for a 6.2-percent payroll tax incentive, in effect exempting them from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to these workers after March 18, 2010.

The new law requires that the employer get a statement from each eligible new hire certifying that they were unemployed during the 60 days before beginning work or, alternatively, worked less than a total of 40 hours for someone else during the 60-day period. The IRS is currently developing a form employees can use to make the statement.

Employers will still need to withhold the employee’s 6.2-percent share of Social Security taxes, as well as income taxes. The employer and employee’s shares of Medicare taxes would also still apply to these wages. Eligible employers will be able to claim the new tax incentive on their revised employment tax form for the second quarter of 2010. Revised forms and further details on these two new tax provisions will be posted on IRS.gov during the next few weeks.

Click here to go to the IRS news release on the HIRE Act.

Nonprofit News

A few things caught my eye recently and I thought I would share. The first is something to keep an eye on, “Foundation Director in Oregon Held Financially Liable for Bad Investments.” This could have a major effect on the sector depending on how it plays out.

Next are two items from Idealware. The first is on Virtual offices and things to keep in mid when setting folks up to work remotely. It offers a nice tool kit of resources to use to stay connected and productive with co-workers. The second is about back-ups.From backing up key files to a whole system back up that allows you to get going again after a disaster, this is a good article. However you decide to do back-ups, just make sure you do them and do them regularly.

We will end with two good human resource articles. We should all be aware by now that identity theft can happen to anyone. As this article tells us; make sure your employment files and your employee’s social security numbers are safe. It will help prevent theft and potentially keep you out of trouble as an employer. The second article talks about Bat Pat Files. When an employee makes a mistake it goes into their file. But what about successes and triumphs? Make sure they have a place to go as well.