At the end of the year your HR team has a hefty to-do list to work through: closing payroll accounts, year-end checks, salary certificates (reflecting cantonal differences), employee profit shares, social security, withholding tax, obtaining information from other countries, and much more besides. We’d like to show you how to take care of these year-end tasks efficiently and compliantly.
Closing your payroll accounts and incorporating any changes in the law for the new year demands your entire HR know-how. Your payroll accounting specialists have to be able to correctly implement a whole host of changes – not just new guidance on salary certificates, but also on social security, for example applicable pay, compulsory social insurance requirements, and collecting social security contributions.
The tax and social security authorities also modify their practice every year. For example, since last year the Canton Zurich tax administration has viewed non-occupational accident insurance contributions covered by the employer as income subject to tax at source, while Canton Bern treats lunches paid for in the course of an audit as income subject to tax at source. These differences in treatment make your payroll accounting even more complex.
Major changes are coming up in withholding tax (tax at source). The definitive version of the fully amended ordinance on taxation at source was published in June 2019 and enters into force on 1 January 2021. We were able to review and influence the ordinance. It poses various challenges for employers and manufacturers of payroll software. But it also makes things clearer and simpler.
With so many new rules and regulations to cope with, there’s a risk you’ll lose track. We’d be glad to show you how to handle your year-end accounts, salary certificates, payroll and new-year changes confidently and cost-efficiently. If you wish, we can take care of your payroll on an outsourced or software-as-a service basis, or a hybrid of the two. This way you and your HR professionals can take advantage of our secure, state-of-the-art cloud solution. If you also need support with your financial accounts and tax returns, our qualified accountants will be glad to help.
You can count on our specialists in this area
- On-site support if you lack the resources to deal with your close of accounts and payroll
- Recommendations for working more efficiently with Abacus: January brings a lot of extra work, but it doesn’t have to make life difficult for your payroll department
- Timekeeping rules and a state-of-the-art timekeeping solution
- Annual updates on changes to the law relating to payroll, including a short check of changes in the current year
- Reviews of salary certificates and addenda for employee profit shares
- Reviews of special year-end declarations (e.g. statements for staff taxed at source, reporting on employee profit shares, etc.)
- Hotline for general questions on close of HR accounts, payroll and payroll accounting matters
- Implementing new salary components in payroll accounting, social security, taxes at source and other taxes
- Analysing and documenting processes
- Incorporating these things in your Abacus payroll accounting/checking your current Abacus environment
- Suggestions on implementation in payroll applications other than Abacus
- Reconciling social security declaration and personnel expense as per financial accounting
- Meeting special disclosure requirements for German cross-border commuters
