In payroll management, a payroll system is a list of all employees of a given company which is entitled to get remuneration and other employment benefits and payments. The main role of payroll department in any organization is to record all the employees’ salaries and other details, as well as managing the deductions from their salaries, as per the instructions of the employer. For example, it would be impossible for an organization to calculate the salary of every employee in a timely manner if the payroll department is not functioning properly. All the records regarding an employee are maintained by the payroll department and submitted to the employer for approval. All the deductions, as per the rules, have to be approved by the employer before they are disbursed. There are many payroll services companies in India, which can be hired for handling payroll and record keeping activities.
There are certain rules which are followed by every organization to compute and release their employees’ payroll. The main rule of thumb for all these calculating procedures is calculating the average income of all the employees over a fixed period of time, which is called the gross monthly wages. After deducting all the deductions such as expenses from the gross monthly wages, the net sum is arrived at. Then, this total amount is further divided into various sections like superannuation, local taxes, State taxes, penalties and fines etc. Based on the net sum, the salary of each employee is released.
There are several sections in the payroll which are related to the calculation of payroll. Payroll tax is another section, which is responsible for calculating the amount of workers pay. This is calculated after deducting deductions from the gross salary of each employee. A certain portion of the salary is set aside as workers pay. This amount is paid to the employees as a percentage of their salaries. The percentage of workers pay in the total employees salaries and has been determined by law, based on an estimate of how much each employee would earn if he were to continue working and this is also applicable to part time workers.
Apart from the above mentioned section, there are various other sections of the payroll. These include the additional income tax, which is charged against both the regular and part time workers; the self employment tax which is charged when an employee is self employed and there is a facility in the country where he gets income from his business; corporate tax which is also calculated based on the employees’ salaries and last but not the least, the Medicare Part A and B taxes which are also calculated according to the workers wages. In fact, there are various other sections too, which are involved in the calculation of the payroll taxes. These include the social security taxes which is deducted by the employer on behalf of the employee; the Medicare supplement insurance tax which is deducted by the employee; the vehicle tax which is added to the self employment tax and finally the estate tax which is computed based on the net gains and losses of the business. However, the employers are not liable for any back taxes.
If you are really interested in finding out the tax code of your locality then you can always get hold of a payroll services provider. The payroll services provider will be the one to look into the details of the payroll taxes of the company and then he would calculate the amount of deductions that he has to make. After he has calculated the payroll taxes, he would inform you about the amount that has to be deducted or paid. You have to then deduct the amount that you have calculated and then pay it to the government revenue department. This entire process will take around three to five working days depending upon the locality.
All this means is that, payroll refers to the amount that is paid by the employee to the government for all the wages that he receives during his work period. Payroll taxes are calculated on the basis of the hourly wage that the employee gets and this amount of wages is usually very small. Hence, it is imperative that you are aware of the payroll laws of your locality before you file your tax returns with the government.