Epic fail re: MA PFML

I'll take note of your experience with our phone support so we can submit proper feedback to the management team, Bettys.

QuickBooks is reliant on the updates that are sent from the state of Massachusetts. We'd like to have this opportunity to better help you in a timely and efficient manner in the future. I'd like to make it up to you in the Community space.

The Community is always here to listen with what you have to say. We also look forward to helping you out in the Community space, too. 

Thank you for your response.  There are many problems here.  First is that QB's product is not working correctly for this new MA required withholding.  I suspect it was not properly beta-tested.  But equally bad is that the phone support person had no understanding of what this was.  He first asked me which employee I was trying to pay with MA PFML! 

I wish I could make it better, @bettys.

As mentioned by my colleague, our information is dependent on the data shared by the state of Massachusetts.

But don't worry, you'll be notified via task on your Dashboard so you can be able to file your report. While waiting for the updates, you may want to consider manually reviewing the set up of your employee taxes for accurate tax calculation.

I've got you this helpful article to learn more about the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave tax: Massachusetts Paid Family Leave.

If there's anything else that I can help you with, please let me know in the comment section down below. I'm always around happy to lend a helping hand.

I am well aware of all of the information re: MA PFML.  All of the employees were correctly set up for this. QB Dashboard indicated that I could make the payment, but as I said in my first post, I received an error message.  And as for the discrepancy between what the MA tax website said I owed and QB said I owed, there should be no reason whatsoever for this.  MA PFML is a flat percentage rate and does not vary at all.  Your response was obviously a canned reply, and not at all useful or helpful.

I'm well aware of all of the workings of the MA PFML.  The QB dashboard indicated that I could file the report and make the payment, due to a glitch in QB's system, I could not.  I was able to do the filing directly with the MA tax website, however.  Furthermore, all of the employees were set up correctly.  And as for the discrepancy between what the MA tax website said we owed vs. what QB said we owed, MA PFML is a flat percentage rate and does not vary from month to month, so there should be no discrepancy whatsoever.  So sadly, your response was not at all helpful or useful.

I appreciate that you've performed the steps in filing your tax forms in QuickBooks, bettys. 

My colleagues sent a feedback to our engineers and I have notified them again. I sent them this thread as well as their reference.

 I'd also suggest contacting our Customer Support again so they can open a case about the error when filing MA PFML. Here's how to connect with us:

1. Go to the Help icon and click Contact us.
2. Enter that the error message you got when trying to file the MA PFML tax. 
3. Click Let's talk. 
4. You have a way to Chat or Call us. 

Thanks for your time and effort and we're closely looking into this issue. 

I believe I may have found a reason for the discrepancy that is going to occur when you file your first MA PFML quarterly report for Q4 2019 period via the Mass Tax Connect website. QuickBooks is incorrectly calculating the MA Paid Medical Leave payroll item at only 0.62%. Mass Tax Connect is calculating the MA Paid Medical Leave at exactly 0.61875%.  QuickBooks is also incorrectly calculating the MA Paid Family Leave payroll item at only 0.13%. Mass Tax Connect is calculating the MA Paid Family Leave at exactly 0.13125%. In other words, QuickBooks is incorrectly calculating at only two (2) decimal places and Mass Tax Connect is calculating at a full five (5) decimal places. And you can easily check this discrepancy by using the Calculator they provide on their website. I just ran our first payroll of the New Year last night for our small business and, as a result, I had to manually enter payroll adjustments for both payroll items on the Preview Paycheck window for each of our five employees. Intuit please correct this issue ASAP with a proper update that incorporates a full five (5) decimal places for each payroll item.

Hi @jcorbin,

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’ll take note of what you have found in filling the MA PFML incorrectly calculating due to decimal digits. I’ll send a report to our engineers concerning the comparison you have made.

This feedback you have created can benefit other customers having the same problem you encounter. This will also provide enhancement to our product and development for a better experience.

You can also visit our page for some articles you can use on running your business: Help articles for QuickBooks Online.

Keep me posted if you have any other related concerns. I’m here to help.

I just got off the phone with a representative from the MA Department of Revenue this morning. Apparently, there was an "issue" with their reporting system that has been recently "fixed." They are also reporting the system should now correctly calculate to 2 decimal places instead of 5 decimal places as the Paid Family and Medical Leave Contribution Calculator is currently showing on the Mass.gov website. They directed me to use our MassTaxConnect website account to contact them directly, via messaging system, should any discrepancies arise between when we owe them and what we actually withheld for our five employees for MA Paid Family Leave and MA Paid Medical Leave when we go to file our first (Q4 2019) report . I hope this feedback helps others with similar questions.

Thanks for sharing the information you've got from your state agency, jcorbin. 

Our Payroll Compliance Team will continue work with your state agency as we prioritize improving this experience for you and other users getting this issue.

You'll want to learn how you can wrap up this year’s payroll and prepare tax forms in QuickBooks Online (QBO): Year-end checklist for QBO Payroll.

Keep us posted if you have any other concerns. We're always here to help.

Please refer to the following QuickBooks Community thread for additional updated information:

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/employees-and-payroll/massachusetts-paid-family-le...

Total incompetence on the part of Quickbooks, everyone in Massachusetts is having multiple problems implementing this PFML.