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Payroll

Everything About Payroll

67 articles
Payroll management, processing, and compliance for businesses of all sizes

ACA Forms 1094-C and 1095-C: The 2026 Compliance Playbook for Applicable Large Employers

How Applicable Large Employers file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C for the 2025 reporting year. Covers the March 2 and March 31, 2026 deadlines, the post-2024 furnishing-on-request rule, the 2026 penalty amounts ($3,340 and $5,010 per employee), the new 90-day Letter 226-J response window, and the Line 14/16 coding errors that most often trigger IRS audits.

Section 127 Educational Assistance: How Small Businesses Pay $5,250 of Tuition or Student Loans Tax-Free in 2026

Section 127 lets employers reimburse up to $5,250 per employee per year for tuition, books, or student loan principal and interest with no payroll or income tax. OBBBA made the student loan provision permanent in July 2025 and begins indexing the cap to inflation in 2027 — here is how a small business sets up a compliant plan.

Section 132 Fringe Benefits: How Employers Deliver Tax-Free Perks Without Inflating Payroll

A practical guide to Section 132 fringe benefits — working condition, de minimis, employee discounts, no-additional-cost services, the 2026 $340/month transportation limits, and achievement award rules — covering which perks qualify as tax-free, the cash-equivalent trap, and how to document everything so the program survives an IRS payroll audit.

Section 162(m) and the $1 Million Cap: Why Your Covered Employee List Is About to Get a Lot Longer in 2026

Section 162(m) caps a public company's federal deduction for executive pay at $1 million per person. Starting in 2026, OBBBA aggregates compensation across the IRC § 414 controlled group — including partnerships and LLCs — and the ARPA expansion adds the five highest-paid employees to the covered list in 2027.

Mandatory Roth Catch-Up Contributions in 2026: Why High Earners Over $150,000 Are Losing the Pre-Tax Choice

Beginning January 1, 2026, SECURE 2.0 forces employees with prior-year FICA wages above $150,000 to make 401(k) catch-up contributions on a Roth basis—$8,000 standard, $11,250 for ages 60–63—with no pre-tax option. Here is exactly who is affected, what it costs in real dollars, and the steps to take before the first paycheck of 2026.

QSEHRA vs. ICHRA in 2026: How Small Employers Without a Group Plan Can Reimburse Workers for Individual Health Insurance—Tax-Free

For 2026, QSEHRA caps tax-free reimbursements at $6,450 self-only and $13,100 family for employers under 50 FTEs, while ICHRA has no IRS cap and lets any-size employer vary contributions across 11 federal employee classes—provided the 9.96% affordability test, MEC requirement, and 90-day notice are all met.