Currently businesses bear the responsibility when PEOs have failed to pay all wages and taxes, even when they may have already been paid to the PEO beforehand.

Under a new voluntary certification effective January 1, 2016, when a Certified PEO (CPEO) Regulation (H.R. 5771, Division B, Title 2, Section 206) contracts with a business, the CPEO becomes solely responsible for paying wages to employees, and collecting employment taxes on those wages. The CPEO is still responsible even if the client business has not made sufficient payment to the CPEO.

Prior to this Act, when a business enters or terminates a PEO agreement, at a time other than the beginning of a year, the business had to restart the taxable wage base for FICA and FUTA taxes. Now, CPEOs become successor employers and restarts are not necessary. The Act also establishes that certain credits apply to the client business and not to the CPEO, including Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTC), Research & Development Credits (R&D), Empowerment Zone Credits (EZ) and Indian Employment Credits (IEC). Previously it was at the PEOs discretion whether to take these credits themselves, or pass them on to their client companies.

Employee Benefit Advisors provides employee benefits, tax-advantaged healthcare, compliance guidance for ACA and Health & Welfare DOL Audits, and PEO Advisory & Consulting Services.