Tax Maps

What is Tax Maps?

Empeon's Tax Maps feature is designed to streamline how state and local taxes are set up and added to an employee's record.

Rather than set up and assign Tax Codes manually, Tax Maps automates this process by referencing the employee's home and work address in order to identify the appropriate Tax Codes that need to be applied. When new Tax Codes are identified, Tax Maps will automatically set them up at the company level and assign them on the Employee Profile. 

There are two scenarios that will activate the Tax Maps feature to calculate taxes:

1. Adding a New Employee - For every employee that is added via Manual Entry or Onboarding Template, Tax Maps will automatically apply the appropriate Tax Codes based on the employee's home and work address.
2. Address Changes/Work Location Changes for Existing Employees - Address changes to an employee's Primary Address or Work Location can have tax implications. Tax Maps tracks these changes and will automatically apply the appropriate tax updates to the employee's profile.

While Tax Maps automates Tax Code assignment, its key value lies in ensuring taxes are set up accurately at all times in order to maintain compliance with relevant state and local tax regulations.

Adding a New Employee

Tax Maps is most often activated when new employees are added into Empeon Workforce. For any employee added via Manual Entry or Onboarding Template, Tax Maps will automatically apply the appropriate Tax Codes. Please note that Tax Maps will not activate for any new employees who are imported.

When a new employee is added, Tax Maps references the employee's Primary Address and their assigned Location within Job Info to determine the applicable taxes. Please note that the Mailing Address, if one has been entered, has no impact on the Tax Maps calculation. Tax Maps only references the Primary Address.

For remote employees, if the Location is set to WorkAtHome, Tax Maps will use the employee's Primary Address as both the Home and Work Address. 

Upon assigning the employee their Primary Address and Location, the system will then flash a message along the bottom of the screen saying to "Please wait while we calculate State and Local taxes...". This message should only flash for a couple seconds before the State and Local Taxes populate in their respective sections.

If Tax Maps recognizes that a new Tax Code is required, so that it can be applied toward the employee, it will indicate that the "Tax Code will be added to the company".

Please note that for some local taxes to populate, the Filing Status for federal and any applicable state tax will first need to be entered.

Address Changes

When an employee's Primary Address or assigned Work Location changes, it may impact their tax setup. In either case, Tax Maps evaluates whether the change affects tax assignments and makes the necessary updates accordingly.

• Primary Address Changes - Address changes can be made by a Workforce User, or they can be facilitated by the employee through their ESS Hub if they have been permitted to do so through Empeon's Request & Approvals feature. In either scenario where the Primary Address is changed, Tax Maps will track whether the change has tax implications and make the appropriate updates if necessary.
• Job Info Location Change or Reassignment - If an employee’s assigned Job Info Location is updated or reassigned, Tax Maps assesses whether the new work address has any tax implications and makes the appropriate updates if necessary. Please note however that Tax Maps will not activate for any changes handled via import.

In either case, if the address change requires an update to the employee's tax setups, a window will flash outlining that a tax change is required. On this window, click "OK" to be able to review the tax changes.

The following screen will outline any new taxes that have been added and/or any old taxes that will be removed. Address changes don't always mean there will be new and old taxes. Some changes might only incur new taxes, others might only incur existing taxes to be removed.

Nonetheless, with any tax change it's important to effective date it accordingly. This establishes when the tax change will take place on the employee's record. 

Tax Maps - Special Tax Settings

When Tax Maps is turned on within Empeon Workforce, there are additional settings that can be found within the Taxes Card, located within the Payroll section of the Company tab.

Within the Taxes Card, there is an additional section for Special Tax Settings. This section, and the settings within it, are specific to Empeon's Tax Maps feature. 

Please note the following settings located within this section. In most cases these should be left as is however for any questions or additional support, please do not hesitate to contact Empeon Customer Support.

• Nexus Settings - This setting identifies the states where state and local taxes may apply based on employee work locations and business locations. As employees and business locations are added, the system will maintain this section accordingly by automatically updating the states where employees and/or businesses are located.
• Reciprocity Settings - This setting refers to reciprocal agreements that may exist between neighboring states. When such an agreement is in place, an employee who resides in one state but works in another is only required to pay state income taxes in the state where they live, rather than being taxed by both the state of residence and the state where they work. This setting indicates whether the organization prefers to collect and submit the appropriate reciprocal agreement forms when applicable. If selected, it will affect the Nexus Settings to only include the employee’s resident and work state. If not checked, any state with a reciprocal agreement will also be included in Nexus, ensuring Tax Maps monitors state and local taxes in those states, if applicable.
• Municipal Tax for Employee Residence - This setting applies only to organizations with employees residing in Ohio, where a municipal tax may be assessed based on the employee's residence. Some clients choose to apply this tax, while others do not. For organizations where this tax may apply, Empeon will collaborate during the initial Tax Maps setup to determine whether this setting should be enabled or disabled. For any questions or adjustments after it has been configured, clients should contact Empeon Customer Support.

MTA Tax Maps

For clients primarily in New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Payroll Mobility Tax can be difficult to determine manually since it also factors in the employee's rate/salary in addition to their home and work address. While Empeon's main Tax Maps feature accounts for MTA tax, Empeon also offers a separate MTA Tax Maps solution for clients who are not using our full Tax Maps feature but still need assistance with MTA tax tracking.