Payroll & W2 services or DIY?

[Anonymous]

Can anyone recommend services (or local accountants) for payroll and W2 processing that are inexpensive? Breedlove.com seems great, but very pricey...

[Anonymous]

Just DIY; it's not too difficult.

[Anonymous]

Any recommendations for an affordable accountant who can help us set up the withholdings, and complete the W2 at year end?

[Anonymous]

Sorry, we went w/ Breedlove. It is pricey, but I can't tell you how glad I am to literally never have to worry about doing anything and know I'm fully compliant and covered.

There are other services also but I don't know of any accountants who are cheaper than Breedlove. (We did check w/ ours and his fees were higher than the service.)

Good luck

[Anonymous]

We went with 4nannytaxes. We pay our nanny ourself and use their website to calculate the deductions, and they send me tax forms when they are due. We got our nanny's W2 form and the tax returns about two weeks ago. Took me about 10 minutes to sign forms and write checks.

It's $500 a year and cheaper than our accountant too.

[Anonymous]

I DIY, and I agree that FICA, federal withholding, state unemployment, and worker's comp weren't that hard. State withholding (MD) was much more complicated to understand in terms of how to pay it to the state.

However, if you can devote 8-10 hours to internet reasearch and phone calls, you can get all of this set up. After it's set up, it's simple. You can also not do federal or state withholding, and let the nanny do her own payments for income taxes.

W2s can be generated right on the social securities business services website -- also easy.

[Anonymous]

OP forgot to mention where she is...

[Anonymous]

If you DIY, I suggest paying twice a month rather than weekly. It makes it much easier to calculate anything that has to be quarterly, like unemployment insurance in MD.

[Anonymous]

We use SurePayroll. My employers set it up and so far we are all very happy with it. It's not as expensive as breedlove I don't think.

[Anonymous]

Do the nanny payroll companies issue check stubs for the nanny?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the nanny payroll companies issue check stubs for the nanny?

Yes, typically electronically.

[Anonymous]

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you DIY, I suggest paying twice a month rather than weekly. It makes it much easier to calculate anything that has to be quarterly, like unemployment insurance in MD.

You are right about the tax calculations, but it complicates overtime calculations which are based on a 40 hour work week.

[Anonymous]

Another surepayroll user. they had an ap on the Iphone so i could process payroll immediately with a few clicks and a confirmation. Used it for a year, now going to use it for the summer full time nanny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you DIY, I suggest paying twice a month rather than weekly. It makes it much easier to calculate anything that has to be quarterly, like unemployment insurance in MD.

You are right about the tax calculations, but it complicates overtime calculations which are based on a 40 hour work week.

Not really. You only pay overtime after the 40 hours, so when the overtime occurs, you calculate it. If you pay her on the 15th, which is a Wednesday, and she hasn't hit any overtime for that week yet, then you don't include it. If she hits 41 hours on Thursday, it gets paid out when she gets paid for Thursday, which would be in the next pay period. Either way, you still have to count up the hours she works each day and add them all together.