Payroll Processing Fees

[peggysioux]

Would any of you care to share what you are charging for payroll processing fees?

If you would be so good to share, I would appreciate the fee charge for inputting and then the extra charge of printing checks or direct deposit of payroll per payroll period. Making EFT deposits for both Federal and State Preparing the New Hire Reports. Quarterly reports for both Federal and State. Answering State and or Federal garnishment notices and associated checks for garnishment payments. Cost of preparing W-2 forms per employee.

Much appreciated.

PeggySioux

[Uncle Sam]

I thought it was against public policy to publicly disclose or discuss specific fees for specific services publicly on the board.

[S T]

Since Uncle Sam does believe it would be appropriate for us to respond and state our fees, a suggestion would be to check with other Payroll Preparers/Processing in your area, such as ADP, PayChex, etc. It is relatively easy to obtain a "matrix" of fees from them.

I do have some based on California Rates, but don't don't how that will equate for your area. You can PM me.

Sandy

[Koss]

Fees

I don't think it is a violation of message board policies to discuss fees.

Uncle Sam wrote:

I thought it was against public policy to publicly disclose or discuss specific fees for specific services publicly on the board.

The phrase public policy could be interpreted to mean some sort of IRS policy, but I don't think that's what Uncle Sam was talking about. It is certainly not a violation of Cir. 230 regulations, or any other rules that I know of, for a tax professional to publicly disclose fees. I'm pretty sure Uncle Sam was talking about the policy of this message board.

There is a very recent post from Brad Imsdahl concerning what is appropriate and what is inappropriate on this board. That post says nothing about discussion of fees and rates.

Here's the link:

http://www.thetaxbook.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19072

There are also many threads which discuss fees in great detail. Some of these threads are very recent; others are older. None of them has any intervention by a message board administrator.

One of them is a poll that I posted a little over a year ago. Another one is a thread that began this morning, in which I commented about what I would charge for an amended return that involved a late Form 8938, with the potential for a $10,000 penalty. There are many other threads about fees in which I have not participated.

None of these threads has any comments from a message board administrator.

Here are links to some of those threads:

http://www.thetaxbook.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19883

http://www.thetaxbook.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20052

http://www.thetaxbook.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19971

http://www.thetaxbook.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17269

http://www.thetaxbook.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20267

But none of those threads talks about payroll services.

My office doesn't do payroll.

We are considering taking on one new client that may have one or two employees, only for a couple months this summer, as a seasonal thing. I told them to pay the employees monthly. If we do it, we won't be issuing checks. The client can call us with the relevant data, and we'll tell them what the net paycheck is. Then we'll do the quarterly filing, and the client will have to write that check, too. Although most of it can be done electronically. Ohio has Alice-in-Wonderland city income tax, with mandatory employer withholding. Massive PIA.

We might charge 'em around $50 a month. My colleague doesn't really wanna do it, thinks it's too much trouble, not worth it. I just want to help out the little guy, small business, startup phase, etc. I'm being generous with my time. In terms of pricing, I'm trying to meet or beat ADP.

BMK

[Uncle Sam]

My post was referring to some Federal law that prohibits public discussion of fee disclosure, which seems to imply price fixing. I'd have to research more to find the exact source that discusses that - but it was not any policy set on this board. But I'm sure the
moderators of this board would not permit any activity that is in violation of any government provision.

[Koss]

Publication of Fees

Uncle Sam wrote:

My post was referring to some Federal law that prohibits public discussion of fee disclosure, which seems to imply price fixing. I'd have to research more to find the exact source that discusses that - but it was not any policy set on this board. But I'm sure the
moderators of this board would not permit any activity that is in violation of any government provision.

From 31 CFR 10.30:

(b) Fee information.

(1) A practitioner may publish the availability of a written schedule of fees and disseminate the following fee information—

(A) Fixed fees for specific routine services.
(B) Hourly rates.
(C) Range of fees for particular services.
(D) Fee charged for an initial consultation.
(ii) Any statement of fee information concerning matters in which costs may be incurred must include a statement disclosing whether clients will be responsible for such costs.

(2) A practitioner may charge no more than the rate(s) published under paragraph (b)(1) of this section for at least 30 calendar days after the last date on which the schedule of fees was published.

(c) Communication of fee information. Fee information may be communicated in professional lists, telephone directories, print media, mailings, electronic mail, facsimile, hand delivered flyers, radio, television, and any other method. The method chosen, however, must not cause the communication to become untruthful, deceptive, or otherwise in violation of this part. A practitioner may not persist in attempting to contact a prospective client if the prospective client has made it known to the practitioner that he or she does not desire to be solicited. In the case of radio and television broadcasting, the broadcast must be recorded and the practitioner must retain a recording of the actual transmission. In the case of direct mail and e-commerce communications, the practitioner must retain a copy of the actual communication, along with a list or other description of persons to whom the communication was mailed or otherwise distributed. The copy must be retained by the practitioner for a period of at least 36 months from the date of the last transmission or use.

31 CFR 10 is also known as...

Circular 230.

BMK

[RitaB]

Don't enjoy em

The only payrolls I do currently are mixed in with the other bookkeeping for two companies.

About six years ago, I did the payroll for a landscaper with 3-4 employees, paid weekly. Boss would call in the hours, and I would print the checks. He sent employees (with muddy feet) to pick up. They were usually here 3.4 seconds after he called in the hours. Did the quarterly reports, W-2's. Charged him $100 a month. Felt like a hostage. With a dirty carpet. Would not do it again.

Two years ago, had a company with 15 -18 employees, weekly, all reports. Owner picked up. Charged her $200 a month. Loved it. She appreciated me, was respectful of my time, and wore clean shoes. She sold the business. Too bad.

It seems to me that there is a minimum fee to make doing payroll worth my time, and it's not $100 a month.

[geekgirldany]

I do about three that have weekly checks that I print. Two clients I charge $100 a month because they only have from 1 to 3 employees. The other client at one time had 15 employees but that has dropped down to 6. I still charge him $200 a month. With all three they call in or email me the timesheets, I print the checks, do the monthly tax deposits, quarterly forms, and year end forms.

I have about total 12 payroll clients. A couple have bookkeeping mixed in but it is going by their bank statements so it is not full charge bookkeeping. My charges for that are around $100 a month. Quarterly only clients I charge $125 to reconcile and prepare their payroll forms.

Any new clients I would take on now I would charge a flat fee of $100 even if it was only one employee. The $50 client are is one that started with me and they are really good people. I have not felt the need to go up on charge.

I got a new client for bookkeeping and sales tax prep a couple of months ago. She said her old accountant only charged $50 and the only reason she was changing was because she did not want to drive so far to his office. My charge is $100. She tried to get me to go down but I told her that my starting fee. Really take or leave it I did not care.

[JohnH]

Did you ask her if there's anyone around who charges less Than she does for her services, and if so why doesn't she reduce her prices to all her customers? I think that's a fair question for prices shoppers since that's essentially what they're asking you to do.

And if you ever run across one who insists they are the cheapest person around in their particular business, may as well turn them down anyhow. They wont stay in business very long.

[arlo]

payroll

I use to do payroll but I used a company call PAYCYCLE. You turn in the hours and you can print out a check on paper which has all the year to date info. Then you or the employer can write ck and include the paper check with all the information Paycycle does all the rest. all kinds of reports are available. I loved it.