Parallel Variance Debits FAQ
What are “parallel variance taxes” and why do they occur?
These are payroll taxes that were withheld from you by your previous payroll provider, but not yet paid to the proper tax agencies because they are not due until the end of the quarter. When switching to Toast Payroll mid-quarter, it becomes Toast’s responsibility to debit these taxes and remit them at quarter end to the appropriate agencies.
Toast Payroll processes variance tax debits approximately two weeks or 14 days after your go-live date.
What taxes are included in this debit?
The parallel variance debits include any taxes that need to be remitted to the agencies on a quarterly frequency. This includes FUTA, SUTA, local taxes, and applicable state withholding taxes with a quarterly payment frequency. Below is a current complete list of what will be included outside of FUTA/SUTA:
Paid Family and Medical Leave: ALL applicable states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington)
Alaska: Employee Unemployment
District of Columbia (DC): Employer Family Leave
New Jersey: Employee Family Leave Insurance, Employee Unemployment, SDI Withholding, Employer Disability, Employer Workforce Development
New Mexico: Employer Workers' Compensation Fee
Oregon: Employee Statewide Transit Tax, Employer Workers' Benefit Fund, Employee Workers' Benefit Fund, ER Tri-Met
Pennsylvania: Employee Unemployment
Pennsylvania Locals: ALL except Philadelphia
Rhode Island: Employee Disability
St. Louis: St. Louis Expense Tax
Washington: Employee Family Medical Leave Insurance, Employer Medical Leave Insurance, Employer Labor and Industries (L&I), CARES
How do I identify the amount that will be/has been debited?
You can run the Payroll Summary Report for the Parallel payroll(s) that were processed by Toast. Navigate to Payroll > Past Payrolls. Select View for the appropriate payroll and then select Payroll summary from the Reports tile.
The appropriate payrolls will always have the word Parallel in them.
In that report, you can add the FUTA + SUTA + applicable local taxes + applicable SIT taxes to find the amount we will have debited.
We will continue to do a separate debit for each parallel payroll, so this process should be done for each separate parallel/debit.
Are there limitations to the taxes Toast will file on my behalf?
Toast Payroll does not collect and/or pay any taxes that are paid at a frequency of "less than quarterly" (e.g. semi-weekly, monthly, etc.). If you pay taxes at a frequency less than quarterly, you are responsible for remitting those collected taxes to the applicable jurisdictions. Toast is not responsible for these taxes.
We can file any quarterly/annual returns for those taxes, but the tax payments will be marked as "prepaid" in our system. The customer is still responsible for paying them, however.
This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for advice.