Establishing a Pay Period

A major consideration in selecting a pay period is the availability of tax withholding tables. The IRS has published tables that make it easy to withhold the proper amount of taxes for designated payroll periods. Adopting one of these pay periods can make dealing with payroll issues a lot easier.

Regular payroll periods are daily, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. A miscellaneous payroll period is any payroll period other than a regular one (for example, a payroll period of ten days). Sundays and holidays are included in computing the number of days in a payroll period. The timing of your payments to the government of taxes you've collected is determined by the payroll period that you select.

Part-time and temporary employees. Compute withholding for part-time workers who regularly work less than five days per week on a miscellaneous (daily) basis, even if you pay the worker weekly or on some other regular basis. However, an employee who works five or six days a week and is ordinarily paid at regular weekly intervals is considered to have a weekly payroll period.