The Affordable Care Act remains a top compliance concern facing the payroll tax environment for a majority of US organizations, according to The Hackett Group’s 2014 Payroll & Tax Compliance Study released by Ceridian. Sixty-eight percent of respondents surveyed indicated that the ACA is the most challenging compliance issue facing senior payroll professionals.

“There is no question that the Affordable Care Act will have an impact on payroll,” said Felicia Cheek, senior director of The Hackett Group’s global time-to-pay practice advisory. “Payroll leaders need to be engaged in the planning process at the start and be prepared to work across functional lines to ensure compliance. They need to insert themselves into conversations so they can be more strategic in their decision-making and impact on the organization.”

Less than 40 percent of study participants reported their time and attendance technology is integrated with payroll, resulting in more than 60 percent of companies likely without technology that can handle compliance with the ACA, whose employer mandate makes the need for real-time data that represents time, attendance and payroll simultaneously even more crucial.

Sixty-nine percent of respondents indicate that their current human capital management system does not send immediate and electronic notification to appropriate parties when their part-time employees have worked more than 30 hours per week, putting some organizations at risk of non-compliance. And 24 percent of respondents indicate their time reporting system does not show average hours worked on a weekly basis, an important “look back” period necessary to determine benefits eligibility.

Seventy percent of respondents indicated that their payroll leaders have limited to no involvement in the decision making process related to the Affordable Care Act.

The survey included 50 US-based companies that, on average, employ 23,000 employees serviced by payroll in the United States. The survey was completed in May of this year.