Payroll Tax & Compliance

Every time a payslip is approved, ianaiERP records the payroll taxes it produced as permanent, unchangeable facts. Payroll Tax & Compliance is the set of screens built around that record: registering your accounts with each tax authority, watching the deadlines that follow from them, recording the deposits you pay, correcting a filed return line when needed, and preparing the employer's own returns — Florida RT-6, New York NYS-45, and similar state and federal forms. This is separate from the per-employee year-end documents such as the W-2, which are covered in Year-End & Severance.

These screens track your own records of your payroll tax position. They don't submit filings or move money on your behalf, and nothing here should be read as a statement that a particular obligation has been satisfied.

Where it lives

All of these screens are tabs in the Payroll workspace: Tax Registrations, Tax Ledger, Tax Deposits, Filing Adjustments, Tax Deadlines, and Employer Returns. Each screen's header carries a shortcut to the ones it connects to most — for example, Tax Deposits and Employer Returns both link to your open tax deadlines.

How the pieces connect

Tax Registrations record that your company is registered with a specific tax authority for a specific program. Everything else traces back to one of these, so start here. Registrations are set up by an HR admin; the tab isn't shown to users who have payroll access only.
Every time payroll runs, approved payslips post entries into the Tax Ledger — the append-only record of what was actually withheld and owed.
Tax Deadlines list what's due and when, based on your registrations.
Tax Deposits record what you paid, allocated against specific ledger entries.
Filing Adjustments record an evidenced correction to one line of an already-filed return.
Employer Returns is where the return itself is prepared, checked, approved, and its filing recorded.

The Tax Ledger and Tax Deadlines are read-only — you never create entries in them yourself; you read them to know what's owed and by when.

Tax Registrations

One record per authority and program — for example, a state unemployment insurance account. Each registration carries the jurisdiction (country, state or province, and locality where relevant), the authority and program, your employer account number, the effective period (open-ended while it's still active), the filing and deposit schedule, your assigned rate and wage base, and the forms it covers. You attach the agency's notice as evidence and record your review of it. A registration moves through Pending, Active, Inactive, and Closed.

Some programs show extra fields specific to that jurisdiction — for example, choosing the right program variant for a state's unemployment or disability plan — and the form checks the rate you enter against that program's rules.

Tax Ledger

Labeled Immutable Payroll Tax Ledger, this is a list of individual liability facts, not a running total. A row is created only when a payslip is approved; nothing in Draft or Calculated status ever appears here. Each row shows the approval event, the liability date, the employee and pay period, the program and jurisdiction, whether it's the employee's or employer's side of the tax, the taxable wages, and the tax amount.

A row's Source is Original (from an approved payslip), Reversal (a payslip was reversed), or Correction. Because a reversal is its own row rather than an edit to the original, a return is built by summing the ledger for a period — which is exactly why the ledger can't be edited.

Tax Deposits

Labeled Payroll Tax Deposits, this screen records payments toward specific ledger entries. It carries a "Records only — no funds transmission" label: it never sends money to a tax authority.

Create a draft from a registered program and attach the payment evidence.
Approve it. Approval locks the amount, period, jurisdiction, and evidence.
Record Settlement once funds have actually cleared — not when you initiate the payment. Enter the authority or bank confirmation number and the time it settled, then allocate the payment: search the liability facts by program, employee, pay period, or approval event, select the ones this deposit covers, and assign each an amount.

The allocations must add up to exactly the payment amount — not more, not less, and to no more than two decimal places — before the settlement can be saved. Each liability fact can be allocated only once.

Filing Adjustments

Labeled Payroll Tax Filing Adjustments, an adjustment corrects one line of a filed return after the fact, rather than reopening the return or rewriting approved payroll. Each one names the tax registration, the authority, the form and the specific line it corrects, an adjustment type, a signed non-zero amount (positive increases the tax, negative decreases it), the period it covers, a currency, and a reason — plus the source notice or workpaper as an attachment.

Saving an adjustment only records it for review. It has no effect on return preparation or reconciliation until it's approved, and it can't be approved by the same person who created it.

Tax Deadlines

Labeled Payroll Tax Deadlines, this read-only schedule lists each obligation — the form, the obligation type, the coverage period, the due date, and the registration it belongs to. Each deadline shows how close it is: Overdue by N day(s) or Due in N day(s). Prepare Return takes you straight to preparing the matching employer return.

If a deadline's registration reads Registration not linked, preparation for it is blocked until you complete the tax registration for that authority and program.

Employer Returns

Labeled Employer Payroll Tax Returns, a return moves through fixed stages shown right on the list: Generate → Validate → Reconcile → Approve → File. Each row shows its control state, the registration and official form revision it's based on, whether it's reconciled against the Tax Ledger (Matched to liability schedule, Liability mismatch, or Not reconciled), the return's tax against payments recorded so far (Balance due or Overpayment), and who performed each step.

Separation of duties is enforced. The person who prepares a return can't also validate, reconcile, or approve it — each step needs a different reviewer.
Reconciliation compares the return's tax with the deposits allocated to it. A mismatch found here sends the return back rather than letting it proceed.
Preparation is form-specific. Florida RT-6 and New York NYS-45 each have their own preparation panel with that state's fields and rules; other states' quarterly contribution returns use a general preparation flow.
Some forms lock their export to a date. Florida RT-6, for example, can only be exported on its planned submission date in the state's filing timezone. If export is unavailable on an approved return, check that date before assuming something is wrong.

Filing is tracked separately from preparation and approval. For returns filed through the agency's website, you download the prepared file, file it in the agency's portal yourself, then record the human portal submission — the date and any confirmation reference — and later the agency's acknowledgement (accepted, rejected, or action required). Some returns, including RT-6 and NYS-45, currently stop at preparation: you download the prepared file and complete the filing in the tax authority's own portal, with nothing further to record here. Either way, a filing record never moves money or stores your agency login.

Statutory Payroll Inputs

Some tax rules need an employee-level figure payroll can't work out on its own, such as hours counted under a specific statutory basis. Those figures are entered in the Statutory Payroll Inputs panel on a pay period's detail page: select New Input, pick the employee and the Statutory definition, enter the amount (zero or more), and choose the Source method. Evidence is required when the definition asks for it, and a manual attestation also needs Source notes.

Inputs can be added and edited only while the pay period is Open, and only as drafts. A draft has no effect on payroll until a different authorized user approves it; once approved, the amount, source, and evidence are locked. When a rule requires an input, payroll stops rather than guessing if no approved one exists — so enter it explicitly, even when the amount is zero.

Common questions

The deposit settlement won't save. The allocations have to equal the payment amount exactly. Look for a rounding difference or a liability fact you left unselected.

A filing adjustment saved, but the return didn't change. That's expected — an adjustment only counts once it's approved.

I can't validate, reconcile, or approve a return I prepared. That's by design. Have a colleague take the next step.

I can't approve a statutory input I entered. Approval needs a different authorized user, and the pay period must still be Open.