adapted from the IRS

Getting ready to file your tax return?  Make sure you have all your documents before you start. You should receive a Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement from each of your employers.  Employers have until February 1, 2010 to send you a 2009 Form W-2 earnings statement. For employers who are clients of Staff One, W-2 were sent out during the first week in January.

If you haven’t received your W-2, follow these four steps:

1. Contact your employer (if your employer is a client of Staff One, contact us) If you have not received your W-2, contact your employer to inquire if and when the W-2 was mailed.  If it was mailed, it may have been returned to the employer because of an incorrect or incomplete address.  After contacting the employer, allow a reasonable amount of time for them to resend or to issue the W-2.

2. Contact the IRS If you do not receive your W-2 by February 16th, contact the IRS for assistance at 800-829-1040. When you call, you must provide your name, address, city and state, including zip code, Social Security number, phone number and have the following information:

• Employer’s name, address, city and state, including zip code and phone   number
• Dates of employment
• An estimate of the wages you earned, the federal income tax withheld, and when you worked for that employer during 2009. The estimate should be based on year-to-date information from your final pay stub or leave-and-earnings statement, if possible.

3. File your return You still must file your tax return or request an extension to file by April 15, even if you do not receive your Form W-2. If you have not received your Form W-2 by April 15th, and have completed steps 1 and 2, you may use Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Attach Form 4852 to the return, estimating income and withholding taxes as accurately as possible.  There may be a delay in any refund due while the information is verified.

4. File a Form 1040X On occasion, you may receive your missing W-2 after you filed your return using Form 4852, and the information may be different from what you reported on your return. If this happens, you must amend your return by filing a Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.

Form 4852, Form 1040X, and instructions are available on the IRS Web site, IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2010-15 addressing provisions of the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act of 2008 which relates to qualified retirement plans, including 401(k), 403(b) and governmental 457(b) plans. The guidance includes 20 questions and answers, and discusses topics such as survivor and disability retirement benefits with respect to military service, differential wage payments, and in-service distributions. Major provisions in the law include:

• A survivor of a deceased service member is allowed tax-free rollover of certain funds to a Roth IRA or Education Savings Account.
• Employers who pay all or some of the compensation that an employee would have normally been paid to those on active duty (“differential pay”) must recognize that compensation when calculating pension benefits. These wages paid were previously not treated as wages for federal employment tax purposes, but the HEART Act amended the Code to now treat differential pay as wages for income tax withholding purposes.
• Reservists who request distributions from defined contribution plans (including 401(k) plans) while serving at least six months of active duty on or after Dec. 31, 2007 will not be subject to the 10 percent withdrawal penalty, regardless of the participant’s age.
• The HEART Act requires plans to consider an employee who dies while on active duty to be considered a “deemed rehired employee” in order to provide the employee with any additional benefits that would have been provided to an active employee. These benefits may include accelerated vesting, life insurance and other survivor’s benefits.

The notice provides that an amendment regarding the applicable HEART Act provisions should be effective on or before the last day of the first plan year beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2010. For calendar year plans this date is Dec. 31, 2010. Governmental plans need to make the applicable amendments on or before the last day of the first plan year beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2012 (Dec. 31, 2012, for calendar year plans).

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Proactive workplace safety initiatives and risk management are essential to your company’s financial health.  Staff One delivers a comprehensive risk management and safety program that includes Pay-As-You-Go workers’ compensation coverage, specialized training, loss control management and OSHA compliance assistance.

A key to controlling Workers’ Compensation premium cost, is the management of factors that affect its experience modification factor (mod), a crucial component in the calculation of a company’s workers compensation premium.  Controlling your mod will help you to control your costs.  Here are a few tips to live by if you are trying to control this cost and your bottom line.

1. Investigate accidents immediately and thoroughly. Take corrective action to eliminate hazards. Be aware of fraud.
2. Report all claims to carrier immediately. Alert carrier to any serious, potentially serious, or suspect claims. Frequently monitor the status of the claim and communicate with the adjuster to resolve as quickly as possible.
3. Take an aggressive approach to providing light duty to all injured employees upon their release from treatment. Supervise light duty employees to assure their conformance with restrictions.
4. In serious cases that involve lost time, communicate with the claims adjuster so that they recognize your interest in returning the injured employee back to gainful employment.
5. Set safety performance goals for persons with supervisory responsibility. Success in achieving safety goals should be used as one measure during performance appraisals for managers and employees.
6. Develop a written safety program and train employees in their responsibilities for safety. Incorporate a disciplinary policy into the program, one that holds employees accountable for breaking the rules or rewards them for correctly following safety procedures.
7. Frequently communicate with employees, on a formal and informal basis, regarding the importance of safety.
8. Make safety a priority. Senior management must be visible in the safety effort and must support improvement.
9. Evaluate accident history and near-misses at least monthly. Look for trends in experience and take corrective action on worst problems first, as soon as the problems manifest themselves
10. If you don’t have the resources available internally to implement these suggestions, hire a third party who specializes in minimizing the risks.