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Payroll Taxes Essay

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Payroll taxes first appeared numerous years ago and have since evolved, grown, and underwent major changes. Payroll taxes are taxes that are paid by employers and their employees. Payroll taxes are collected by the federal, state, and local governments to fund certain programs or projects. The employee’s tax proportion is typically deducted from the employee’s wages every earning period, and the employer fraction of the payroll taxes are paid directly by the employer and are based upon their employee’s wages. The amount of payroll taxes that must be paid are required to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service and the employer’s state and local taxing agencies. Smaller businesses tend to lean towards independent contractors because the business is not required to pay taxes for independent contractors. Independent contractors are considered self- employed and are responsible for the employee as well as the employer portion of payroll taxes. Whenever a business falls behind in reporting payroll taxes or paying the taxes to the IRS, there are consequences. The IRS can attach a late- payment fee or add a tremendous amount of interest to the original tax payment in addition to holding one person solely responsible for …show more content…

There are, however, nine states that do not withhold any state income taxes. Those nine states are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Washington, and Wyoming. Most states withhold taxes based on the federal policy which means the W-4 form will also be used to determine how much tax to withhold from an employee’s earnings. There are also states that withhold other taxes, on top of state income taxes. An example would be California because they also withhold State Disability Insurance, which is 0.9% of an employee’s gross pay. The state decides how they withhold state income taxes, and any additional taxes that they want to

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