Dear Maine Association of Payroll Professionals member,
The MAPP Board will be sending an e-mail newsletter to all MAPP members on a bi-monthly basis
with information about MAPP seminars/events and payroll updates/references. The goals of these
communications are to provide informative payroll and MAPP information and further your connection
with MAPP and others in the payroll profession.
The mission of MAPP is to provide payroll education, foster networking opportunities, and promote
our complex and important profession to others.
We hope your payroll year-end went smoothly!
Don’t miss the opportunity to win a free 2011 Payroll Source (aka “the payroll bible”) published by the
American Payroll Association (APA); a $350 value. The APA kindly presented this publication to
MAPP since we are providing a CPP exam study group for our members. There are five participants in
the study group that is being held from January through early April for the April exam. Jeff Crocker,
MAPP President, is coordinating the study group. We are excited about the opportunity to provide the
Payroll Source to one of our lucky members as well as supporting our members who are furthering
their professional knowledge and credentials through CPP certification.
See details further in this communication regarding signing up for the raffle.
2012 Seminar Updates:
Save The Dates!
The 2012 MAPP seminar dates are May 18th, September 14th, and November 30th. All the seminars
are held at the Augusta Civic Center.
Additional details will follow as the seminar topics and speakers are finalized.
Calling All Ideas!
We are seeking your ideas for topics and speakers for 2012 seminars. We aim to provide a variety of
speakers on the many important and varied topics of our profession and we value your input. Please
select the SurveyMonkey link below to complete a brief survey with two questions to gather your ideas
for topics and speakers. Upon completing the two questions, if you wish to participate in the raffle for
the 2011 Payroll Source, you will enter your name and contact information. (You can still enter the
raffle if you can’t think of ideas for topics or speakers.) Please complete the survey by Tuesday March
6th. The randomly selected raffle winner will be notified by March 13th. Thank you for your ideas!
Select the link to provide your seminar input/raffle entry and be sure to return to this email for
additional payroll information.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V9X565P
Payroll Updates and References:
Legislative Alert
President Obama signed into law on Wednesday the extension of the payroll tax cut (4.2% employee
social security withholding). The new law will extend the 4.2% from March 1st through the end of
2012. That means no programming changes for March and no required explanations to our employees
of why their net pays would of decreased otherwise.
Compliance Reminder
If you have employees who claim exempt from income tax withholding on their Federal or State W-4
forms, they must submit a new year 2012 W-4 in order to continue exempt withholding. If a new year
2012 W-4 is not submitted by these employees by February 15th, employers are required to withhold
based upon the employee's previously submitted non-exempt W-4 or single with zero exemptions.
Refer to the Federal and State regulations for the details of complying with this.
Resource Reminders
As always, review the MAPP and APA websites at www.mainepayrollapa.org and
www.americanpayroll.org , respectively. There is great information on both websites. Even if you are
not an APA member, you can obtain valuable information from the APA website.
Also, the Social Security Administration website has very useful information. www.ssa.gov/employer
Here are a couple best practices regarding SSNs and W-2s that are explained in detail on the website:
Use the SSA Social Security Number Verification System (SSNVS) to verify your employees SSNs and
use the AccuWage software to review your SSA file prior to submission to check for formatting errors.
Please feel free to contact me or any Board member with questions or comments regarding MAPP or
payroll in general.
Happy Payrolling,
Jeff Crocker
MAPP President
jcrocker@une.edu
602-2721 (work phone)
MAPP’s 2012 Board Officers and Members:
Jeff Crocker, President, jcrocker@une.edu Lynne Toussaint, Vice-President,
ltoussaint@mainepayrollapa.org Pat Tebbetts, Treasurer, ptebbetts@mainepayrollapa.org Deanna Ward,
Secretary, dward@mainepayrollapa.org Andrea Almeder, aalmeder@mainepayrollapa.org Angie
Brown, abrown@mainepayrollapa.org Jennifer Voisine, jvoisine@mainepayrollapa.org