The Maine State Agency that oversees the collection and reporting of State income taxes deducted from payroll checks is:
Maine Revenue Services
Withholding Tax Division
State Office Bldg.
P.O. Box 1061
Augusta, ME 04332-1061
(207) 626-8475
[http://www.state.me.us/revenue/]
Maine requires that you use Maine form “W-4ME, Employee’s Maine Withholding Allowance Certificate” instead of a Federal W-4 Form for Maine State Income Tax Withholding.
Not all states allow salary reductions made under Section 125 cafeteria plans or 401(k) to be treated in the same manner as the IRS code allows. In Maine cafeteria plans are not taxable for income tax calculation; not taxable for unemployment insurance purposes. 401(k) plan deferrals are not taxable for income taxes; taxable for unemployment purposes. [http://www.state.me.us/revenue/]
In Maine supplemental wages are taxed at a 5% flat rate.
You must file your Maine State W-2s by magnetic media if you are required to file your federal W-2s by magnetic media.
The Maine State Unemployment Insurance Agency is:
Bureau of Employment Security
Division of Unemployment Compensation
P.O. Box 309
20 Union St.
Augusta, ME 04332-0309
(207) 287-3176
[http://www.state.me.us/labor/uitax/uctax.html]
The State of Maine taxable wage base for unemployment purposes is wages up to $12,000.00.
Maine requires Magnetic media reporting of quarterly wage reporting if the employer has at least 250 employees that they are reporting that quarter.
Unemployment records must be retained in Maine for a minimum period of four years. This information generally includes: name; social security number; dates of hire, rehire and termination; wages by period; payroll pay periods and pay dates; date and circumstances of termination.
The Maine State Agency charged with enforcing the state wage and hour laws is:
Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Standards
Wage and Hour Division
45 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0045
(207) 624-6400
[http://www.maine.gov/labor/labor_laws/wagehour.html]
The minimum wage in Maine is $6.25 per hour.
The general provision in Maine concerning paying overtime in a non-FLSA covered employer is one and one half times regular rate after 40-hour week.
Maine State new hire reporting requirements are that every employer must report every new hire and rehire. The employer must report the federally required elements of:
Employee’s name Employee’s address Employee’s date of birth. Employee’s UBI or UI number. Employee’s social security number Employer’s name Employers address Employer’s Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN)
This information must be reported within 7 days of the hiring or rehiring.
The information can be sent as a W4 or equivalent by mail, fax or electronically.
There is a written warning penalty then a $200 per month penalty for a late report in Maine.
The Maine new hire-reporting agency can be reached at 207-287-2886 or on the web at [http://state.me.us/dhs/bfi/dser/New_Hire.htm].
Maine does allow compulsory direct deposit but the employee’s choice of financial institution must meet federal Regulation E regarding choice of financial institutions.
Maine requires the following information on an employee’s pay stub:
Gross and Net Earnings pay period dates hours worked itemized deductions
Maine requires that employee be paid in intervals of not more than 16 days; less frequently for FLSA-exempt employees.
Maine requires that the lag time between the end of the pay period and the payment of wages to the employee not exceed eight days.
Maine payroll law requires that involuntarily terminated employees must be paid their final pay earlier of next regular payday or 14 days after demand for payment and that voluntarily terminated employees must be paid their final pay earlier of next regular payday or 14 days after demand for payment or by mail if employee requests it.
There is no provision in Maine law concerning paying deceased employees.
Escheat laws in Maine require that unclaimed wages be paid over to the state after one year.
The employer is further required in Maine to keep a record of the wages abandoned and turned over to the state for a period of 10 years.
Maine payroll law mandates no more than 50% of minimum wage may be used as a tip credit.
In Maine the payroll laws covering mandatory rest or meal breaks are only that all employees must have 30 minutes rest after six hours of work.
Maine statute requires that wage and hour records be kept for a period of not less than three years. These records will normally consist of at least the information required under FLSA.
The Maine agency charged with enforcing Child Support Orders and laws is:
Division of Support Enforcement
Department of Human Services
11 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
(207) 287-2826
[http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/index.shtml]
Maine has the following provisions for child support deductions:
When to start Withholding? Immediately after receipt of order. When to send Payment? Within 7 days of Payday. When to send Termination Notice? Within 15 days of termination. Maximum Administrative Fee? $2 per transaction. Withholding Limits? Federal Rules under CCPA.
Please note that this article is not updated for changes that can and will happen from time to time.
Monthly Archives: October 2011
So you want to be a song writer. You’ve got all these tunes in your head and can write just about anything as long as there’s a tape recorder around to capture it. But then your publisher says he wants a lead sheet, or worse, a full blown score of your masterpiece. What do you do?
Play Music to the rescue.
If there’s a simpler piece of software to use nobody is talking about it. Play Music, by Notation Technologies, makes creating sheet music a breeze. If you have just a basic knowledge of music notation, then this software will do the rest so that your score has the professional look of store bought sheet music.
Play Music handles all the things that you will need in order to create a musical score. It can print every type of note there is from 32nd notes to whole notes. You can put together music in any time signature such as 3/4. 4/4 and even odd time signatures.
But Play Music goes way beyond the basics to all the subtleties of music. You can designate places to retard and accelerate the tempo. You can designate areas to play softer and louder. You can tie notes together. You can set up scores for multiple instruments including piano, violin, brass, just about anything, even voice.
Yes, the music software comes equipped with the ability to print lyrics, each of which can be placed under the corresponding note where they need to be sung, just like in the song books we all love to sing to during the holidays.
But, if all that isn’t enough, Play Music goes even farther.
Suppose you have a song that you’ve recorded on a MIDI recording device and you want to transfer that music to sheet music. No problem. Just copy your MIDI file to a disk, take it over to your computer and copy the disk file into the Play Music software. The software will then read the MIDI file and translate it into the corresponding sheet music, exactly as you played it. So if the music looks a little off, that’s because your timing is off. Yes, this software is that exact. And, if you have the ability to hook up your MIDI device to your computer then you can do a straight transfer directly to the Play Music software.
Play Music can also read standard MIDI files that you download off the Internet. This way you can play some of your favorite songs without having to buy the sheet music for it, just as long as the MIDI download itself is done legally. And if you have sheet music that you want to store as a MIDI file, Play Music can do the reverse process as well.
Considering the small price tag that comes with this software, it is probably one of the best bargains you’re going to find on the Internet. It isn’t as powerful as something like Passport, which costs five times as much, but for most people, Play Music will be all they’ll ever need to print sheet music that is good enough for any occasion.
Choosing a domain is the first step before you make your business online. It is a nick name of your company. Domain name is a combination of characters separated by dots(.).The name must be unique in the Internet namespace. Every domain is associated with an (Internet Protocol) IP address. When an IP is assigned to some domain, the domain name is called a hostname. You type name in the address bar of the browser and it is converted to an IP by Domain Name System (DNS). DNS server holds the information of all the computers on the Internet. It maintains a registry containing names with related IP addresses. IPs are difficult to remember and type, that’s why names are used but the real communication between a client (your computer) and server (computer on the Internet) happens using a unique IP. Every server has a unique IP.
Domain name is part of Universal Resource Locator (URL) you type in the address bar of browser. For example, www. hostbreak. com is a URL and name is hostbreak.com. Its real signature is www. hostbreak. com at the dot in the end. The name is resolved from left to right. Dot (.) is called Internet root domain and then comes the com that means hostbreak is a nick name of a commercial company. After com, the nick name of the company is hostbreak and it is hosted on a server with the label name www. So dot, com, hostbreak, www is resolved by DNS server. Dot is the root domain. Com is called the top level domain (TLD) and hostbreak is second level domain. www is the label name. There could be 127 levels of domains. Once the browser finds IP from DNS server related to a name, it sends HTTP request to the server to send HTML page back.
A domain is registered by companies called registrars. These companies provide web interface to search a name. You must be very much creative in choosing a name. The name should be short, meaningful, clear and search engine friendly. When you visit any hosting company, you see a box to search for a domain name. You enter name in the search box, your information is sent to whois and if domain is available then you see a message “The domain name is available” with a form to enter your information. The registrar needs your administrative contact, technical contact and billing contact. Hosting company needs your name, address, phone and other contact information. Hosting company such as HostBreak contacts registrar on your behalf and registrar provides two or more name servers as a service. Once you are registered, you get all information related to your domain in your email box. Most small companies pay annual fee to renew a name and large companies pay for 8-10 years once. The reason is that it is your web presence. You do not want to lose your customers at any cost. If somehow you forget to pay annual fee, you can lose the name. Your website will go down and you lose customers. Hosting companies send an email to your contact address about the renewal. They wait for you for a week and they may call you to renew your name but if you do not pay annual renewal fee, you lose your name.
Most of the people are unaware of the sub domains. Sub domain is a division of your main domain. For example, the famous www is a sub domain. Sub domains do not need to be registered to the domain registrar. You request hosting company to create sub domain for you. For example, if you want to provide downloads online then you may create downloads.yourcompany.com. Some domains are known as false domain names. These are directories after the domain name. Some companies offer domains like provider.com/yourcompany. Yourcompany is a directory and you should avoid this kind of domain names. You can search for expired domains. Some companies do not pay on time and their time ended and domain expires. If a domain is expired then you can use that domain for you. You can also buy a domain for resale. Some companies and individuals invest in domains and resale these domains in millions of dollars.
Once you register a name, you must populate it in all kinds of communication. You should add domain in email signatures, brochures, newsletters, all the web pages and all other forms of communication. Your domain name should be word a of mouth.
