In the last two years of the pandemic, companies across the globe have seen changes taking place throughout their industries. One of the most significant of those involves the flexibility employees would like to have in their work environment.
These days, companies are starting to embrace a hybrid work solution for their employees, and some are allowing them to take their work responsibilities entirely remote. However, there can be issues, especially if a company has never had employees working away from the office long-term.
In today’s workshop “Employment Issues Encountered with a Remote Workforce,” tax experts Rebecca Harshberger, CPP, VP of Payroll Tax at Entertainment Partners, and Mindy Mayo, CPP, Tax Managing Director at KPMG, discussed some of these challenges. These include withholding requirements and reciprocal agreements, among other issues.
“The pandemic has proven what some of us already secretly knew—people can work effectively, efficiently, and thrive remotely,” Harshberger said. “Payroll departments are paying employees in states where they have no previous experience, they don’t know what they don’t know. This workshop is critical for those who, maybe their whole career, only paid employees in one or two states and now are dealing with 10 or 20 states.”
Mayo said a workshop like the one she presented is perfect for an event like Payroll Congress because the convention is a one-stop shop for payroll education and for payroll professionals to meet each other, share ideas, and address the topics that are relevant to their jobs.
“This topic is extremely timely and one that all professionals are facing in their current jobs,” Mayo said. “Not only do our professionals receive up to date technical material but they also are able to interact with their peers and discuss best practices and how to actually implement the technical material in today’s workplace.”
Harshberger hopes attendees now realize that the state legislative landscape is constantly evolving and that old rules that have been around for years with little applicability are now being “dusted off.”
“Some of these rules are surprising employers that historically have been focused on the basic tax rule—tax where the work is performed,” Harshberger said.
Mayo adds: “We hope everyone walks away from the session with more technical knowledge around multistate withholding rules than they started with and, more importantly, hear how their peers are handling this complex area of tax.”
Jim Bolek, CPP, with BASIC Payroll Plus in Wyoming, Michigan, walked away from the workshop, especially about taxation.
“There is a ton of stuff that I learned," he said. "Everyone is dealing with remote work in all industries, in all types of business. A lot of things jumped out to me especially with the taxation of different states and people moving around. That made me think, ‘Hey, I need to talk to my tax department about this.'"
Maggie Ory, CPP, with the California Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, said the workshop was helpful to her because the payroll landscape is always shifting, and she wants to make sure she has all the latest information.
“We can sit at our desks and dig up different articles, but at Congress we get what we need from the APA," she said. It’s interesting to hear how other companies are dealing with this. It’s valuable information."