Government Relations

The American Payroll Association is your voice in Washington, DC, and in the state capitals. Our registered lobbyists in Washington, as well as members of the Government Affairs Task Force, represent the concerns of employers, service providers, and software developers before Congress, federal agencies, and state governments.

Our mission is to communicate the concerns of the payroll community to legislative and executive branches of government and to find ways for employers to meet their requirements under law and support government objectives, while minimizing administrative burden and cost for employers, government, and individual taxpayers.

The federal agencies with which APA has excellent relations include:
- Internal Revenue Service
- Social Security Administration
- Office of Child Support Enforcement
- Department of Labor
- Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- Federal Reserve Bank
- Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
- Federal Trade Commission
- Office of Foreign Assets Control

APA's Government Relations staff has received SSA's Public Service Award for its ongoing dedication to improving the quality of employer wage and tax reporting and the IRS's Excellence in Partnering Award for our collaboration on clarifying employers' responsibilities and helping IRS educate employers. At IRS, we are a founding member of the Information Reporting Program Advisory Committee, and we also have representation on the IRS Advisory Council and the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee.

Member input is vital to this process. Through your e-mail, and even more importantly through your volunteer involvement, we're listening to your interests and priorities.

Current Government Relations Lobbying Efforts

Military Spouses Residency Relief Act
     APA Lobbies States for Low-Burden Implementation

Employer duties for withholding and reporting state and local income taxes have changed dramatically and retroactively to January 1, 2009, under the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act (Public Law 111-097, signed November 11, 2009). However, there is no time for employers to implement a change for 2009, and employers need protection from penalties for failure to withhold in 2010 and forward from employees who claim exemption under the Act.

The Act protects a spouse of a military serviceperson from taxation by a state or local jurisdiction when the spouse is living and working there only because he or she has moved there with that serviceperson based on military service orders. Not only would he or she be exempt from withholding, but his or her earnings would not be reported as taxable wages to that jurisdiction. In addition, that spouse will not have a change in state or local residence or domicile by virtue of such a move.

The American Payroll Association and the National Payroll Reporting Consortium submitted to the Federation of Tax Administrators (represents state tax agencies) a list of 13 recommendations with regard to the states' implementation of this law, and we participated in an FTA conference call to discuss the issue. Of the states represented on that call, there seemed to be very broad acceptance of our suggestions, and we're hopeful that the states will act accordingly.

Taxation of Employer-Provided Cell Phones

In response to Notice 2009-46 from the Internal Revenue Service, containing proposals to simplify the methods by which employers must value and tax the personal use of cell phones and similar communication devices they provide their employees, the American Payroll Association recommended IRS suspend its enforcement efforts on this issue.

As the notice requested, we also made suggestions regarding IRS's proposed valuation methods, but we pointed out that there are bills in Congress that would eliminate this taxation and that IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman has encouraged the Congress to enact this legislation

Read a combined analysis of the IRS proposal and APA's comments, as well as the text of each of the proposal and comments.

Green State Effort

APA is part of an initiative to allow employers to eliminate the use of paper paychecks nationwide. Currently, employers can go paperless in about 20 states. We're tackling the rest state by state, and we need your help! We're posting sample letters preaddressed to the state officials in those states that currently keep employers from enjoying a paperless payroll. Please download a copy of the letter, personalize it, and send it on your company letterhead.

The center of the request is to allow employers to mandate direct deposit. Where employees do not provide their bank account information, employers should be able to provide paycards instead of paychecks. It's that simple. Please join us.

Take Action to Standardize Multi-State Income Tax Withholding

H.R. 2110, the Mobile Workforce State Income Tax Fairness and Simplification Act, would significantly ease your burden of withholding income taxes for the states and localities to which your employees may temporarily travel. However, we need your help to get on the agenda for a vote on the House floor. Click here to take action!

APA member Dee Nelson, CPP, testified before the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (U.S. House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee) in favor of this bill as it existed in the 2007-2008 Congress (H.R. 3359). Click here to read Dee's testimony. Click here to read a summary of the hearing. Click here to read Dee's answers to follow-up questions from Rep. Linda Sanchez and her subcommittee.

Archived Government Relations Lobbying Efforts

Federal Forms, Publications, and Annually Announced Values

Government Contact Information

APA's Government Relations Staff

Scott Mezistrano, CPP

William Dunn, CPP