Payroll Maryland, Unique Aspects of Maryland Payroll Law and Practice

By Charles Read
The Maryland State Agency that oversees the collection and reporting of State income taxes deducted from payroll checks is:

Comptroller of the Treasury
Revenue Administration Div.
Income Tax Bldg.
Annapolis, MD 21404-0466
(410) 260-7150
(800) 638-2937
www.comp.state.md.us/



Maryland requires that you use Maryland form "MW507, Employee's Maryland Withholding Exemption Certificate" instead of a Federal W-4 Form for Maryland State Income Tax Withholding.


Not all states allow salary reductions made under Section 125 cafeteria plans or 401(k) to be treated in the same manner as the IRS code allows. In Maryland cafeteria plans are not taxable for income tax calculation; not taxable for unemployment insurance purposes. 401(k) plan deferrals are not taxable for income taxes; taxable for unemployment purposes.

In Maryland supplemental wages are taxed at a 4.75% plus county rate.


You must file your Maryland State W-2s by magnetic media if you are required to file your federal W-2s by magnetic media.



The Maryland State Unemployment Insurance Agency is:

Division of Employment and Training
1100 N. Eutaw St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410) 767-2525
(800) 492-5524
www.dllr.state.md.us/employment/

The State of Maryland taxable wage base for unemployment purposes is wages up to $8500.00.

Maryland requires Magnetic media reporting of quarterly wage reporting if the employer has at least 100 employees that they are reporting that quarter.


Unemployment records must be retained in Maryland for a minimum period of five years. This information generally includes: name; social security number; dates of hire, rehire and termination; wages by period; payroll pay periods and pay dates; date and circumstances of termination.


The Maryland State Agency charged with enforcing the state wage and hour laws is:

Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation
Division of Labor and Industry
1100 N. Eutaw St., Rm. 607
Baltimore, MD 21201-2357
(410) 767-2357
www.dllr.state.md.us/labor

The minimum wage in Maryland is $5.15 per hour.


The general provision in Maryland concerning paying overtime in a non-FLSA covered employer is one and one half times regular rate after 40-hour week.


Maryland State new hire reporting requirements are that every employer must report every new hire and rehire. The employer must report the federally required elements of:

Employee's name
date of hire
medical benefits availability
starting wage
Employee's UI ID
Employee's address
Employee's social security number
Employer's name
Employers address
Employer's Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN)

This information must be reported within 20 days of the hiring or rehiring.
The information can be sent as a W4 or equivalent by mail, fax or electronically.
There is a $20 penalty for a late report in Maryland and $500 for conspiracy.

The Maryland new hire-reporting agency can be reached at 888-634-4737 or 410-347-9911or on the web at www.mdnewhire.com


Maryland does not allow compulsory direct deposit

Maryland requires the following information on an employee's pay stub:

Gross and Net Earnings
itemized deductions


Maryland requires that employee be paid no less often than semimonthly, biweekly; less frequently for FLSA-exempt employees.


Maryland payroll law requires that involuntarily terminated employees must be paid their final pay by their next regular payday and that voluntarily terminated employees must be paid their final pay by the next regular payday or by mail if employee requests it.


There is no provision in Maryland law concerning paying deceased employees.


Escheat laws in Maryland require that unclaimed wages be paid over to the state after three years.

The employer is further required in Maryland to keep a record of the wages abandoned and turned over to the state for a period of 10 years.


Maryland payroll law mandates no more than $2.77 may be used as a tip credit.



In Maryland the payroll laws covering mandatory rest or meal breaks are only that minors under 16 must have 30 minutes rest after five hours of work.



Maryland statute requires that wage and hour records be kept for a period of not less than three years. These records will normally consist of at least the information required under FLSA.

The Maryland agency charged with enforcing Child Support Orders and laws is:

Child Support Enforcement Administration
Department of Human Resources
311 W. Saratoga St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
(800) 234-1528
www.dhr.state.md.us/csea/index.htm

Maryland has the following provisions for child support deductions:

When to start Withholding? Immediately after receipt of order.
When to send Payment? Within 7 days of Payday.
When to send Termination Notice? Within 10 days of termination.
Maximum Administrative Fee? $2 per payment.
Withholding Limits? Federal Rules under CCPA.




Please note that this article is not updated for changes that can and will happen from time to time.




About the author:

Charles J. Read, CPA has been in the payroll, accounting and tax business for 30 years, the last fifteen in private practice.
Mr. Read is the author of “How to Start a New Business.”

To find professional payroll service at a budget price go to www.PayrollonaBudget.com a paperless payroll company.

For a full service payroll bureau with CPA’s on staff visit www.CustomPayroll.com .

See an excerpt of Mr. Read’s interviews from William Shatners “Heartbeat of America” television show on the web sites linked above.


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Lawyer Suspended for Violating Client Confidentiality

By Gary E Rosenberg
Matter of Michael Caliguiri Appellate Division, First Dept. Admitted to Bar: 1980. Discipline imposed: One year suspension from practicing law.

From 1984 until 2003 Caliguiri was employed by Garbarini & Scher, a law firm that mostly represented doctors and hospitals that were sued for medical malpractice. Caliguiri became the firm's managing partner in 1999. Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Co. (MLMIC), a very large insurer of doctors, was one of the firm's biggest clients.

In light of Caliguiri's expertise, a neighbor of Caliguiri's asked him to answer medical malpractice questions from one of his partners, for which no money changed hands. Caliguiri knew that the defendant doctor being sued by the neighbor's law firm was insured by MLMIC.

Caliguiri's wife worked for MLMIC and secretly copied MLIC's confidential file on the neighbor's law firm's case and gave it to Caliguiri. Both Caliguiri and his wife testified that she did this without Caligiuri ever asking her to do so. Caliguiri had looked at the file, which confirmed his opinion that MLMIC would not voluntarily settle the case because it felt it could successfully defend it.

The neighbor's law firm disclosed Caliguiri's participation to MLMIC and the medical malpractice case was settled.

At the end of 2005 Caliguiri left Garbarini & Scher over "philosophical differences." One month later his wife was fired by MLMIC.

Caliguiri says: The opinion he gave about the way the case would proceed was the same before he read the documents as after. In other words, he did not formulate his advice based on something he learned from the file.

The Appellate Division found: that while it believed that Caliguiri did not ask for his wife to copy MLMIC's file, he should never have even looked at it.

Despite the fact that Caliguiri made no money (there was no personal gain at all) the Appellate Division held that his conduct violated the attorney-client privilege, and that he should have kept secret his client's confidential information, even though his law firm was not even representing the client for that particular case.

Commentary: The Court actually toyed with imposing a longer suspension, but found that in addition to not gaining financially from his misconduct, Caliguiri showed "profound remorse" and had suffered devastating financial and personal consequences. It also helped that he had a clean disciplinary record, this being his first infraction in an otherwise clean 25-year legal career.

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Philadelphia Family Law Topics

By David Siegel
Factors Considered

When setting an amount for modification of child support, the court may consider the same factors used when formulating an original support order; these factors include the standard of living the child would have enjoyed if the marriage had not been dissolved, and the financial resources of the noncustodial parent. The factors to be considered for modification or termination as to each party are: (1) their ages, social conditions health, and whether there are any children dependent upon them for support, (2) the duration of the marriage, since the longer the marriage the greater a woman's claim for support becomes, and (3) their agreement as to the property settlement adopted in the divorce decree.

Failure to Pay

Noncompliance with a court order to make support payments is prima facie evidence of contempt. Where defendant's inability to pay child support was because of economic circumstances, the court was correct to find that an employment layoff and an attempt to become self-employed were not attempts to evade financial responsibility. Father, did not make child support payments because of reliance on a late 1967 order which relieved him of the obligation to make such payments, and who did not willfully and contumaciously refuse to obey the child support provision of the divorce decree warranted the refusal by the trial court to issue a rule to show cause against father.

Failure to Reinstate Obligation

The trial court, after entering an order suspending a husband's child support payments during a period when the husband was disabled, could not subsequently hold the husband responsible for payments accruing after the disability had ended, when the court failed to reinstate the obligation according to the terms of its own order.

Held Sufficient

Trial court's finding that children were adequately provided for was supported by the evidence when $604,000, in addition to a portion of the annual alimony payments, had become available to provide for the two children's support upon decedent's death. Child support of $200 per month for a 16 year old was not grossly inadequate despite father's income of $41,000.

Incarceration of Obligor

Incarceration is comparable to an involuntary loss of employment, however, incarceration, as a foreseeable result of criminal activity, does not ipso facto relieve one of the obligation to pay child support. The matter can be looked upon when the obligor is released from prison. There will be an affirmative duty at that point to make support payments.

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