Paychex offers business owners info on HIRE Act

A happy man and woman are interviewing a prospective new female candidate for a job. Paychex makes it easy for such employers to know just how much tax credit they'll receive for that employee via the federal HIRE Act.

Business owners can find out about the new federal HIRE Act with a new Web page hosted by Paychex. (Photo: ThinkStock)

Paychex, Inc., a payroll, HR and employer benefits outsourcing firm that has been serving small- to medium-sized businesses since 1971, is now hosting a dedicated Web page that will enable business owners to learn about how the new federal HIRE Act works and receive credit counseling regarding applicable tax credits. Owners will also be able to calculate just how much they might be able to save as a result of the new tax laws, reports MarketWatch.

Paychex says HIRE Act works for employers and employees

In addition to general info on the HIRE Act, Paychex has configured the Web page’s interactive calculator to aid business owners in figuring their tax savings. By inputting an employee’s hire month; pay type (by the hour or by salary); annual pay; and hours per week, the Paychex calculator tells employers how much they could save in Social Security and business tax credit. Hiring new workers and keeping those workers on the payroll for more than one year are both benefits employers want during this recession, and the HIRE Act can provide them. It’s also a boon for the unemployed. As Paychex Senior VP of Sales Del Humenik wrote in a press release, “The Act is good news for the unemployed, because now organizations have additional incentives to hire them.”

No limits on hiring, Paychex claims

Those worried that the HIRE Act imposes a hiring ceiling needn’t, claims Paychex. There is apparently no imposed hiring cap and employers cannot fire payday loan-using employees in order to make room for new ones that would enable them to take advantage of the HIRE Act. Here are two major tax incentives of the HIRE Act for employers:

Businesses save 6.2 percent per new employee on the Social Security tax, provided the employee is hired after February 3, 2010, and before January 1, 2011. That amounts to as much as $6,622.00 per new qualified employee, depending upon pay. Wages earned from March 19, 2010 to December 31, 2010 qualify.
After 12 months of employment, each new employee still employed earns the company a tax credit of up to $1,000. To claim this credit, any wages paid to the qualified employees over the past 26 weeks must be equal to or greater than 80 percent of employees’ wages from their first 26 weeks of work with the company.