Holidays can make a number of finance-related tasks — such as processing payroll — more difficult. So make sure your payroll team has a plan for tackling these dates.
Here are the legal holidays (L) from the IRS as well as the banking holidays (B) from the Federal Reserve:
- Mon., Jan. 2: New Year’s Day (L and B)
- Mon., Jan. 16: Martin Luther King Jr. Day (L and B)
- Mon., Feb. 20: Presidents’ Day (L and B)
- Mon. April 17: Emancipation Day (L)
- Mon., May 29: Memorial Day (L and B)
- Tues., July 4: Independence Day (L and B)
- Mon., Sept. 4: Labor Day (L and B)
- Mon., Oct. 9: Columbus Day (L and B)
- Fri., Nov. 10: Veterans’ Day (L)
- Thurs., Nov. 23: Thanksgiving (L and B), and
- Mon., Dec. 25: Christmas (L and B).
3 Payroll responsibilities
When it comes to holiday payroll, there are three things Payroll needs to look at:
- which holidays your company won’t observe
- whether Payroll will need to process payroll early to get direct deposits through, and
- whether any tax deposit and reporting deadlines will be changed.
For private employers, almost all (90% ) companies observe the standard six U.S. holidays, which include New Years Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day — according to BLR Research.
In addition, 64% of companies oberserve the Friday after Thanksgiving, 30% observe Washington’s Birthday/President’s Day and 26% observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
And the holidays least-likely to be observed by employers:
- Yom Kippur (1%)
- Rosh Hashanah (1%)
- Election Day (1%), and
- Lincoln’s Birthday (2%).
