Making Employee Loss Less Stressful
For any human resource or payroll administrator, the unexpected death of an employee is a heart-wrenching experience. Millions of questions surface, including: what to do and say first in regards to the employee’s family or partner, what health or life benefits did the employee have, and is there an emergency contact to send the employee’s final paycheck and tax forms to? Then there are the other more personal aspects such as how the company can send condolences to the employee’s friends and family members on behalf of the company. No one wants to have to ask these tough questions, yet they come with the territory of being in business and hiring people.
Useful Employer IRS Forms to Have On Hand: Federal & State
Fortunately, it’s possible to get your house in order so that if an employee suddenly passes away, these and other aspects of final small business payroll and tax duties can be handled with care. To accomplish this, there are a number of important employee documents, including federal and state payroll tax forms that you should have easy access to. You’ll want to have all updated employee federal ID numbers, state tax ID numbers, tax EIN numbers, and tax reporting forms up-to-date and logged into your payroll management system.
Here’s is a complimentary list of forms to download and have on file:
- IRS W-4 Form Establishes the correct amount of Federal and State Income Tax Withholding
- IRS W-9 Form Establishes the employee’s Federal Tax Status, including the state tax ID or EIN number
- IRS Form 940 Employee’s Annual Unemployment Tax Return
- IRS Form 941 Employee’s Quarterly Federal Income Tax Form
- IRS Form I-9 To verify employee eligibility to work in the USA, employee’s surviving spouse and children may be eligible for Social Security Benefits
- State Links to Form Collections – from the Internal Revenue Service, you can access all instructions and forms for New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida or other states where you do business.
Important Employee Forms
Additional forms you will want to have on file for all of your employees and regularly update, include:
Employee Emergency Contact Form – Microsoft Office provides a completely free form that you can customize for your company. It’s recommended that you update this form at least every 6 months for employees. In addition, make sure you have the employee’s most recent mailing address in your payroll processing system so that you can send any paperwork or final paychecks to the emergency contact.
Group Life and AD&D Insurance Forms – Your company will have access to any group life or accidental death & dismemberment insurance forms and information that you may provide to the deceased employee’s next of kin to start the claim process.
Flexible Spending or Health Savings Account Information – To disburse any final benefits if the employee participated. You will also want to work with the employee’s family if there are any unpaid medical or hospital expenses for care received during the final days of life. Provide the employee’s health insurance information to the employee’s executor and make sure that the health care claims are handled promptly to reduce the stress on the employee’s loved ones.
SourceOne Partners is a team of payroll and PEO specialists that can help find the most cost effective solution for any small business. With offices in South Florida and New Jersey, we can help you find a solution to better manage your payroll services, employee benefits and company taxes so that you can save time, money and avoid the penalties of non-compliance. Please call 561-674-0748 to speak with a payroll expert or click here to contact us online.