Reimbursing Employee Business Expenses: Navigating Taxes (2023 Updates)
Speaker: Patrick Haggerty
Speaker Designation: Owner, Tax and Consulting Services
Speaker: Patrick Haggerty
Speaker Designation: Owner, Tax and Consulting Services
Employee expense reimbursement is one of the targets of a current IRS audit initiative. Employers often provide travel advances, business expense reimbursement, or use of company property to employees. Unless expense reimbursements are made under an accountable plan, the payments must be included in employee wages. Accountable expense reimbursement plans provide tax savings for both employers and employees. But insufficient documentation or faulty procedures can result in the reclassification of the reimbursements as wages. This results in additional tax and possibly penalties. An employer may even become liable for taxes it failed to withhold from the employee reimbursement.
This webinar will cover tax compliance for employee business expense reimbursements under both accountable and non-accountable employee business expense plans.
While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) did not change the treatment of employee business expenses reimbursed under an accountable plan, employee expenses that are not reimbursed under an accountable plan may no longer be deducted by the employee.
Accountable reimbursement plans have strict documentation and record-keeping requirements and require timely reporting and return of excess reimbursements by employees. For certain expenses, per diem arrangements can be used in place of actual substantiation of the amount of expense.
This webinar will include a discussion of these requirements as well as how to report reimbursements that do not qualify under the accountable plan rules and identify reimbursements that must be included in employee wages. You will also learn how to properly report expense reimbursements and facilities provided to employees in compliance with IRS requirements.
Upon course completion, you will be able to:
This webinar will provide valuable insights to:
Pat Haggerty is a tax practitioner, author, and educator. His work experience includes non-profit organization management, banking, manufacturing accounting, and tax practice. He began teaching accounting at the college level in 1988. He is licensed as an Enrolled Agent by the U. S. Treasury to represent taxpayers at all administrative levels of the IRS and is a Certified Management Accountant. He has written numerous articles and a monthly question and answer column for payroll publications. In addition, he regularly develops and presents webinars and presentations on a variety of topics including Payroll tax issues, FLSA compliance, information returns, and accounting.