National Paid Leave Health Insurance Credit

Hi, CETER.

We actually have a great article that goes over how to track paid leave and sick time for the corona virus. It details how to set up your expense accounts for the paid leave, setting up the payroll items and setting up the tax item. You can view it here, tracking paid leave and sick time for the Covid19.  If you have any questions, please let me know by replying below.

Hello,

I went through that link when I set everything up initially, but I am still having a problem with the health insurance credit not calculating correctly. 

I am having the same problem! I set it up exactly how QB explains.  Hoping to get an answer. 

Thanks for your prompt response, @CETER, and @Karen.

Since you're having a problem with the health insurance credit, I recommend reaching our Payroll Support team. They have tools to verify the root cause of it and give you possible fixes.

Here's how:

1. Open QuickBooks and press F1.
2. Click Contact Us.
3. Type your query and hit Continue.
4. Choose to Start a chat.
   

I'll add this article as your reference where you can find your state's COVID-19 employer resource website: COVID-19 employer resource website by state.
 

Please let me know if you have further questions after reaching our support. I'm always here to help. Have a good one!

Unfortunately, I got cut off after trying too hard to explain the problem. 

Can someone look at the original instructions for setting up the payroll item for the Health Insurance Credit? It looks to me like it's creating a expense and a credit essentially cancelling each other out. Am I crazy?

Hello there, @Karen O.

Thank you for reaching out to the community. I'd like to ensure your account is set up correctly so that you can manage your business as easily and efficiently as possible. 

The health insurance premium is there as a positive and negative amount because you're using the same account for the liability and expense account.

For more information, please refer to the 5th step under the National Paid Leave - Health Premium: How to track paid leave and sick time for the coronavirus.

Please add another reply below if you still need help with this. The Community is always here for you. 

Hi GraceC-

There is no step 5 in the below link, step 4 is that last step. Instead of using the COVID-19 Expense for both the expense and liability, should we have a different liability account?

In trying to get the total amount to use for out credit, can we take the wages from the COVID-19 expense account and the dollar amount from the National Paid Leave- Health Credit account?

Hello RachelleH,

Here's a quick guide of what GraceC is referring to:

1. Open this link: How to track paid leave and sick time for the coronavirus.
2. Go to Step 3: Set up payroll items.
3. Under National Paid Leave - Health Premium, you can follow the sub-step 5.

From there, it should answer your question on what accounts to use. Then, you can continue setting up the item.

If you have additional queries on how to set up the item, please let us know. We're here to help.

I had this same problem and it is because when you set it up on step 5 - On the Agency for company-paid liability screen, select COVID-19 Expenses from the Liability account dropdown, and select COVID-19 Expenses (or whatever you named the expense account) from the Expense account dropdown, and then select Next.

Leave the Liability Account as Payroll Liabilites and only change the Expense account to the COVID-19 account. 

Then you should be good to go!! Good Luck!!

Julie

Hi JulieSeq:  Do you put the name of the health insurance company that payments will be made to in the  "Enter name of agency to which liability is paid" box in that same screen?  That way it sets up a liability payment to that vendor for the employer portion of the health premium.

Did anyone figure this one out?  I have not been able to get an answer from QuickBooks and I'm doing my first payroll today where I am paying someone for the National Paid Leave-Employee and taking the medicare and health insurance credit.  When I run my report I am also seeing the positive and negative for the medicare and health insurance so it is cancelling it out. I have been on the phone with QuickBooks 5 times in the last 2 days and can't get a solution. Help please...

I need help as well.  Same problems.  

can anyone help?  I have chatted with support to no avail.  

Thanks for chiming in this thread, Ghicks2417.

As per my colleague GraceC mentioned above, you'll see the health insurance premium as a positive and negative amount if the same account is used for the liability and expense account.

If you haven't set up an expense account, you'll want to follow these steps:

1. Go to the Lists > Chart of Accounts.
2. From the Account drop-down, then select New.
3. Choose Expense, then select Continue.
4. From the Account Type drop-down, select Other Expense.
5. Add a name for the expense account, such as COVID-19 Expenses,
6. Fill out all the relevant information, and click Save & Close.

Here's a sample screenshot for a visual guide:

Once done, select the expense account on step 5 under the National Paid Leave & Medicare Credit section in this article: How to track paid leave and sick time for the coronavirus. For the National Paid Leave - Health Premium, you can follow the suggestion provided by JulieSeq.

Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions about the process. I'll be here to help.

RenjolynC - 

Something isn't working correctly for the Medicare Credit - it's showing up in the expense account as both a credit and a debit from the paycheck, so it cancels itself out. 

Then, when you try to put the credit against your 941 Liability check, it leaves you with an incorrect negative amount in that Expense account. 

It seem's like JulieSeq's solution with the Health Insurance credit would also solve this one, but I want to make sure it doesn't cause any unforeseen problems farther on...  Can you look at that, please?

Hi there, @secorpaint.

You can follow the suggestion provided by @JulieSeq but, still, I suggest consulting your accountant. Since every business structure is unique, they can help determine the correct recording. To ensure your reporting are right.

For more guidance about tracking paid leave and sick time for coronavirus, you can visit the articles provided by my colleagues above.

For future tasks, visit our Community Help Articles hub, if you need tips and related articles.

If there's anything else I can do for you, let me know by commenting below. I'd be happy to further assist you. Have a great day.

In a previous quarter, I entered National Paid Leave (NPL) in Other Payroll Items on a paycheck, but I used the gross amount minus the employee's portion of healthcare that is deducted. Then I entered both the employee's portion of the health insurance along with the employer's portion as one amount as National Paid Leave - Healthcare (NPL-HC).

I also entered these on the 941 tax liability as negative numbers to take the credit.

Now I realize I should have left the entire gross amount as the NPL & only the employer's portion of healthcare as the NPL-HC , & those same amts as NPL-Credit & NPL-HC Credit. The total amount of credit taken is correct, but the posting is incorrect.

I could fix the posting on a current paycheck for the employee if I could enter these same amounts as negative numbers in Other Payroll Items & then re-enter the correct amounts as positive numbers again, to the corresponding NPL & NPL-HC accounts, but QBDT does not allow the amounts to be entered as negative. Can this be fixed? I could do the same reversal posting on the liability (941) form & have all the posting correct for end of year.

I can't make anything like a journal entry to correct posting to payroll items. Suggestions?

Thanks for joining us here today, @P_S_.

I have some information about how to correct the gross in your paid leave. You can create a payroll liability adjustment. Let's go to the payroll center to see it.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Employees menu, then Payroll Taxes and Liabilities, and select Adjust Payroll Liabilities.
2. Tick Employee Adjustment, then the employee's name.
3. Complete the Taxes and Liabilities fields.
4. Choose the Item Name you want to adjust. In your case, the National Paid Leave.
5. Enter the Amount of the adjustment. Use a positive number to increase or negative to decrease the amount. Use Income Subject to Tax to make the wage base adjustment.
6. You can use the Memo field to enter a note about the adjustment for future reference.
7. Tap Accounts Affected and then hit OK. 

Repeat the same steps for other employees if you need to. After that, run a Payroll Summary report to make sure everything looks right. For more information about the adjustment, check out this guide: Adjust payroll liabilities in QuickBooks Desktop.

In case you need help with other payroll tasks, click this link to go to our general payroll topic with article.

Feel welcome to message me if you still have questions about payroll. I'm always here to assist you. Take care and have a wonderful day ahead.

It looks like I still need to correct the amounts on the next Payroll Liabilities payment to correct all postings, adding the original National Paid Leave Credit amounts & subtracting the correct amounts, which should have zero effect on the liabilities being paid. Is that correct, or will that cause duplicate posting to the accounts?

Let me share a few information about the National Paid Leave Credit amount, P_S_.

As mentioned by @ShiellaGraceA, you can run the Payroll Summary report to know if postings are all correct.

Here's how:

1. Select Reports, then Employees and Payroll.
2. Select Payroll Summary.
3. Adjust the date range appropriately.

Please know that the dates in this report are by paycheck dates only, not pay period dates.

Also, going back to adding the National Paid Leave Credits and subtracting the correct amounts, I recommend reaching out to your accountant's advice for the proper ways on how to do it. They can also suggest other ways on how to enter it in QuickBooks.

For reference, you can check out these helpful articles in case you have any other concerns about payroll.

Keep in touch if you have any questions about National Paid Leave. I'll make sure to get back to you anytime as you wish. 

To be clear - I AM our accountant.  What I am telling you is NOT that I don't know what to do with the taxes, but that YOUR FUNCTIONALITY IS WRONG. 

In order for me to get my tax credits appropriately, I end up with an erroneous negative balance in the COVID-19 Expense account.   That isn't a bookkeeping question, it is a BUG IN THE SOFTWARE. 

Allow me to step in and help fix this issue for the Medicare Credit, secorpaint.

You need to choose the normal payroll tax liability account when you set up the National Paid Leave Medicare item instead of "COVID-19 Expenses". This will make it work.

Then, in the expense account box, use the general ledger COVID-19 expense account you've already set up. It makes the debit and credit wash through the normal payroll tax expense account and reducing it by the Medicare credit. 

When it's time to process payroll check, in the "Other Payroll Items" section, add the item "National Paid Leave - Medicare". The rate is the same amount shown next to "Medicare Company".

Your COVID expense account will be accurate once you've posted your 941 tax liability payment, recorded the wages, and Medicare credits.

If the same issue persists, I recommend contacting our QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Team. They can do a screen sharing session to check every detail on the items.

Here's how to contact us:

1. Go to your QuickBooks Home page, then click the Help menu at the top.
2. Choose QuickBooks Desktop Help from the drop-down.
3. Hit the Contact us icon.
4. Enter your concern, then select Continue.
5. Choose a way to connect with us:
   • Start messaging with a support expert.
   • Get a callback from an expert (availability may be limited).

You can also refer to this page for additional information: Contact Payroll Support.

Let me know how everything turns out by commenting below. I'll be around until you're able to fix the issue @secorpaint.

Hi MaryLandT

Thank you - this is the most useful response I've gotten in months. 

By the way, your instructions for setting up the Medicare Credit are still incorrect.  (https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/set-up-payroll/how-to-track-paid-leave-and-sick-ti...)

But can you clarify - when you say to use the normal Payroll tax expense account instead of the COVID-19 Expenses account, do you mean for the Liability Account associated with that payroll item, or the Expense account associated with that item.  Currently, your instructions say to use the Covid-19 Expenses account for both - so which one am I switching?  (Or am I switching both?)

When I do this, it adds the NPL-Medicare credit amount to the Company Paid Taxes (at bottom of Payroll screen) as an item in addition to the company medicare taxes already listed, which includes the NPL Medicare amount already. So it looks like we should have to reduce the standard company medicare amount by the NPL-medicare amount we're listing to actually receive a credit. Otherwise they cancel each other out & we still haven't reduced the company's medicare taxes.

secorpaint: I am not an accountant, but should we have just set up new G/L accts for NPL-MC & NPL-MC Credit, then Payroll Items for each one & used those?

I don't know enough about how this functionality feeds through to the 941 to know whether separating the accounts would be more useful. 

Of course, there are plenty of people having trouble with the 941, ANYWAY.

I haven't had to deal with this until this quarter, so I'm currently planning to print their version of the 941, and then fill out a blank one by hand to check it.