Reviewing U.S. Tax History

This chapter provides an overview of tax history, lists common fields, and discusses how to:

Click to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Tax History

Each time that you process a payroll cycle, the system creates historical records of tax information associated with each payment. You use historical information to answer employees' questions, generate historical and government reports, and process year-end forms for employees. You can review this history to verify that it is correct. You can review these types of information:

Tax history includes detail and summary information for wages and taxes. To review tax history, you can use online review forms as well as reports. This table illustrates the tax summary tables and their corresponding detail tables:

Summary Table

Detail Table

Tax History table (F06136)

Pay Check History Tax Ledger table (F06166)

Pay Check History Summary table (F06156)

Pay Check History Tax Ledger table (F06166)

Click to jump to parent topicCommon Fields Used in This Chapter

Tax Area

Enter a code that identifies a geographical location and the tax authorities for an employee work site, including employee and employer statutory requirements. In the Vertex payroll tax calculation software, the tax area code is synonymous with the GeoCode. To determine the valid codes for the location, refer to the documentation for the tax calculation software that you are using.

Tax Type

Enter a user-defined code (07/TX) that specifies the type of payroll tax being processed. To set up state minimum wage amounts, you must enter MW in this field. To do so, you must first add MW to user defined code (UDC) 07/TX. However, you should not change the codes and definitions that are provided with the system.

Click to jump to parent topicReviewing Tax History

This section provides an overview of tax history review and discusses how to:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Tax History Review

When you review tax history, you can review detail history or summary history. Review summary history when you need to review monthly balances and year-to-date amounts. Review detail history when you need to review this information by payment.

When you review tax history, you might discover an error that you need to correct. If the user account has the necessary security permission, you can manually revise the history to correct the error. However, you generally use interim payments to correct tax history. Using interim payments to update history information creates an audit trail and ensures that all payroll and accounting history tables are updated correctly.

Important! Payroll history programs require the highest possible level of system security.

When you revise payroll history manually, be aware of these points:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicForms Used to Review Tax History

Form Name

FormID

Navigation

Usage

Work With Tax History

W070920A

U.S. History Inquiries (G07BUSP14), Tax History

Select a tax history record to review.

Tax Summary

W070920C

On the Work With Tax History form, select a record in the detail area, and then click Select.

Review summary tax history.

Tax Detail

W070920D

On the Work With Tax History form, select a record in the detail area, and then select Tax Detail from the Row menu.

Review detail tax history.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSetting Processing Options for Reviewing Summary Tax History (P070920)

Processing options enable you to specify the default processing for programs and reports.

Defaults

This processing option determines whether the system will display Calendar Year or Fiscal Year dates for the beginning and ending year dates.

1. Tax Detail History Begin and End Dates

Specify the default begin and end dates on the Tax Detail form. The dates can either be fiscal year or the calendar year. Fiscal year is the default.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicReviewing Summary Tax History

Access the Tax Summary form.

If the user account has the necessary security permission, you can correct any of the tax summary information.

Excludable Gross

Review the amount of monthly gross pay excluded from the tax calculation. This amount includes deductions for retirement savings plans and other nontaxable accounts.

Excess Wage

Review the amount of wages earned, but in excess of the annual limit, for tax calculation.

Tax

Review the monthly amount of tax calculated.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicReviewing Detail Tax History

Access the Tax Detail form.

If the user account has the necessary security permission, you can correct any of the information.

Pay Period End Date

Review the last day of a processing period (pay period, month, quarter or year).

Check Number

Review the number of the matching document, such as a receipt, payment, adjustment, or credit. You apply a matching document (DOCM) against an original document (DOC), such as an invoice or voucher.

Check Control Number

Review the number used to group all payroll transactions for each payment or individual interim payment. This number is carried into the accounting journal entries and facilitates the update of the actual check number after payment printing is complete. This number is also used for automatically voiding payments. The payment work table contains both the actual check number and the check control number. All associated payment transactions are automatically reversed using the check control number.

This is not the actual check number.

Gross Pay

Review the gross pay that the system associates with the tax authority. For instance, if an employee earns wages in multiple states for the period, the gross pay would be apportioned to the tax authority for each state.

Excludable

Review the excludable gross amount. Based on tax regulations, the excludable gross can be different for each tax authority. For example, one authority might allow exclusion of 401(k) contributions, but another might not.

In Excess

Review the total amount of wages that exceed the annual limit for the respective payroll tax.

Tax Amount

Review the amount of tax withheld or paid to each tax authority.

Tax History Type

Review this code (07/TH) to determine the type of information being tracked for the employee in the US Taxation Summary History table (F06136) or the Canadian Tax History table (F0713). The value in this field determines the type of year-end form that the system generates.

Click to jump to parent topicSetting Processing Options for Tax History Reports

This section discusses how to:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSetting Processing Options for the Tax History by Company Report (R07416)

Processing options enable you to specify the default processing for programs and reports.

Company

1. Company number

Specify the company number of the company for which you want to print the Tax History by Company report. If you leave this processing option blank, the system includes all companies on the report.

Year

1. Reported Year

Enter the last two digits of the calendar year for which you want to print the Tax History by Company report. For example, enter 05 for the year 2005.

Month

1. Reported Month

Specify the month for which you want to print the Tax History by Company report. Values are:

1: January

2: February

3: March

4: April

5: May

6: June

7: July

8: August

9: September

10: October

11: November

12: December

Format

1. Print Format of Report

Specify whether the report includes amounts that are greater than 100 million USD. Values are:

1: Amounts are less than 100 million USD.

0: Amounts are greater than 100 million USD (default).

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSetting Processing Options for the Federal Taxation History Report (R07347)

Processing options enable you to specify the default processing for programs and reports.

Report

1. Type of Employee Number to Print

Specify the type of employee identification number that appears on the Federal Tax History report. Values are:

1: Address Book number (default).

2: Social Security number.

3: Third employee number.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSetting Processing Options for the State/Local Taxation History Report (R07348)

Processing options enable you to specify the default processing for programs and reports.

Defaults

1. Employee Number Format

Specify the employee number format that appears on the report. Values are:

Blank: Address Book number (default)

2: Social Security number

3: Third employee number

2. Company

Specify the company that the system uses for the report.

3. Tax Types to Print

Specify the type of payroll tax (UDC 06/TX) that the system processes for the report. You can specify up to five tax types. If all five tax types are left blank or if tax type F is among the tax types that you select, then all state and local taxes are reported regardless of the selection. If you do not want to report all state and local tax types, do not include tax type F and specify the specific tax types that you want to report.

4. Print Miscellaneous Tax Totals

Specify whether to print wage and tax totals for each tax type on the report. Values are:

Blank: Print tax totals.

1: Do not print tax totals.

5. Year

Specify a two-digit number that identifies the applicable year for the report. If the field is left blank, the system uses the current year.