Payroll Glossary - B
T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Back Pay Award: A cash award made to an employee that generally results from legal action to remedy a violation of federal or state wage-hour or employment discrimination laws.
Backup Withholding: Income tax withholding required from nonemployee compensation when the payee fails to furnish the payer with a taxpayer identification number or the payer is notified by the IRS that the payee's TIN is incorrect.
Balance: The value of an account, as determined by calculating the difference between the debits and credits in the account.
Balance Sheet: A financial statement that presents a business's financial position in terms of its assets, liabilities, and equity as of a certain date.
Basic Pilot Program: An automated confirmation system through which employers can match information provided by new employees on Form I-9 against existing information contained in the Social Security Administration's and Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. data bases to verify the employee's employment eligibility.
Base Period: When dealing with unemployment compensation, it generally consists of the first four quarters of the last five completed quarters immediately preceding the claimant's benefit year.
Base Period Wages: Wages earned during the base period. The amount is generally one of several criteria used in determining a claimant's eligibility for unemployment compensation.
Batch Processing: Processing data as a group, either to increase controls or processing efficiency.
BCIS: Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
Behavioral Control: The right of a business to direct and control the details and means by which a worker performs the work to be done.
Benefit Ratio: In the context of unemployment compensation, it is a type of experience rating system that bases an employer's unemployment tax rate on the ratio of the employer's benefit charges to its taxable payroll for a specific period of time.
Benefit Wage Ratio: In the context of unemployment compensation, it is a type of experience rating system that bases an employer's unemployment tax rate on the ratio of the employer's benefit wages to its taxable payroll for a specific period of time.
Benefit Wages: In the context of unemployment compensation, an amount charged to an employer's account when a former employee receives unemployment benefits. The amount is determined by the base period wages paid by that employer to the claimant.
Benefit Year: In the context of unemployment compensation, the 52-week period beginning on the first day a claim for benefits is filed.
BLS: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Bona Fide: Refers to actions taken in good faith, without pretense or fraud.
BSO: Business Services Online
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS): A federal government agency, part of the Homeland Security Department, to which the employment eligibility functions of the Immigration and Naturalization Service have been transferred.
Business Services Online (BSO): Suite of electronic employer wage reporting options available through the Social Security Administration's Web site.
Business Standard Mileage Rate: A cents-per-mile figure issued annually by the IRS. Reimbursements for employee transportation expenses incurred while using their vehicles for business are not included in income up to the business standard mileage rate.