Payroll Processors Fume as Congress Fiddles on Tax-Cut Plan

Payroll processors are warning that a two-month payroll tax-cut extension passed by the U.S. Senate would be difficult to implement.

Payroll companies can react quickly to a yearlong extension for the first paycheck of 2012 or adjust the second paycheck to correct problems, said Pete Isberg, president of the National Payroll Reporting Consortium, an industry group. Payroll providers underscore that they don’t like a second consecutive year of December tax law changes or the Senate-backed two-month extension of the tax cut that could create unprecedented complications.