A Few Words About Check Issuing To a Deceased Person…

check to deceased personSorry to end this week on such a morbid note, but this is a question we get a lot, so I figured I would provide some insight into how to handle check writing outsourcing to a deceased person.
Normally this is a situation when there has been a death in the family and there are legal issues with the estate and the deceased person bank account. I will give you an example from the Cornell Law blog below as to the complexities of this type of situation.
Checks issued to deceased payees:

  1. Handling of checks when an executor or administrator has been appointed.
    An executor or administrator of an estate that has been appointed in accordance with applicable State law may indorse checks issued for the following classes of payments the right to which under the law does not terminate with the death of the payee:

Payments for the redemption of currencies or for principal and/or interest on U.S. securities; payments for tax refunds; and payments for goods and services.

Fortunately, this is something we don’t get it a lot about. Our Business is not writing checks to dead people’s relatives, although we can perform that service. The core philosophy of what we do at Checkissuing is taking some of the mundane tasks of the check writing out of your hands, So you can scale-up your business or just be happier. Would you rather spend Friday afternoon at happy hour, with prospective clients or stuffing envelopes with checks?
It’s an old adage, “The only things that are certain in life are death and taxes.” That is still true, but last April the kind souls Obama administration, (through milk of human kindness) decided to abolish the death tax.

The House voted to repeal the death tax on Thursday. There are lots of persuasive reasons to kill this odious tax. The money in a person’s estate has already been taxed over the lifetime that it was earned. The tax breaks up family-owned businesses. It reduces capital investment and lifetime savings. It encourages people with wealth to avoid leaving up to half their financial legacy to the IRS (including state estate taxes) and instead die broke.

According to the latest IRS statistics, in 2013 the estate tax raised $12.7 billion. In 2001 the tax collected nearly twice as much money ($23.5 billion) as in 2013. So it’s a small and shrinking source of government revenues.

 
Again, it’s Friday and what’s not mull on search depressing issues as our own mortality. Let’s remember we can get more out of this life by using a third-party check issuing company to take the mundane tasks of doing payroll out of your hands and to enjoy life while you’re still among the living. 🙂

 

Common Check Issuing Problems And How To Avoid Them

All employees come into work to get their job done and get paid. For small businesses, the getting paid part is sometimes problematic. Check issuing is fraught with potential pitfalls. The following are a few of the most common problems and how to avoid them. Notice that outsourcing the work to another company is often the solution.
Overtime Pay
Federal law prescribes that individuals who work more than 40 hours per week must receive pay equal to one and a half times their usual rate if they are hourly workers. Those who are on salaried pay may not qualify for bonus pay. These regulations sometimes cause confusion in the payroll department.
Tabulating the exact number of hours worked as overtime as well as the correct rate of pay for those hours is a challenge. An outside source can easily keep track of relevant regulations and adjust paychecks according to what is duly owed to the individual worker.
Minimum Wage Requirements By Jurisdiction
To add another layer of complication to the payroll mix, different jurisdictions have different minimum wage requirements. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, but that is not necessarily the minimum wage in every state or city. Exaktime.com explains how to tackle this issue,

If you’re hiring someone in a different state or country, make sure you or your payroll manager is familiar with tax and employment law in that area. States often have their own versions of laws that differ just enough to cause headaches when paying employees or paying taxes, but it is the business’s responsibility to figure them all out.

Again, having an outside source to provide assistance with this matter is advisable if one can afford it.
Automating The System
Unless a small business owner can afford some advanced payroll processing software, he or she may struggle to get payroll out in time. Obviously, this is a major snag in the operation. Employees must receive pay on time in order to continue to show up for work. It may even break some labor laws to not pay them in a timely manner.
Outside providers have already invested in the software to handle payroll operations quickly and easily. This means that those who want to leverage their services can discover an easier way to ensure that payroll is always going out on time.
Outsource check writing with the experts at Check Issuing. Our third party check printing and mailing services can save your company time, money and hassle.