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Real Payroll Disasters: What Two Industry Veterans Have Seen and What You Need to Know

Faith, Hope and Payroll Podcast

Eric Jones and Dave Franzonello of Workforce PayHub pull back the curtain on the real payroll disasters they've seen across their combined careers—including a $200,000 fraud scheme, a near-miss $109,000 payroll breach triggered by a compromised email account, and a household payroll misclassification that quietly accumulated $40,000 in penalties. They break down exactly how to identify payroll fraud before it hits your account, what most business owners get dangerously wrong about household employees and ITINs, and why bending even one payroll rule almost always costs more than following it. In This Episode: * How payroll fraud actually works from the inside—including the exact red flags (Google Voice numbers, missing referrals, businesses "new to payroll but not new to employees") that should stop a transaction before it starts * Why a two-factor authentication system isn't bulletproof if a hacker can access your email first, and how a Workforce PayHub team member caught a fraudulent $109,000 payroll run before it processed * The household payroll misclassification that quietly accumulated $40,000 in penalties—and what every business owner needs to understand about Schedule H vs. 941 filings before adding a domestic worker to payroll * What ITINs are, why they don't authorize anyone to work legally in the U.S., and what the IRS says directly on its own website about EIN requirements every household employer must meet * Why taking a breath and being transparent is almost always the better move than reaching for a workaround when something in payroll goes wrong Chapters: * 00:00 Introduction * 00:30 Welcome & First Video Episode * 02:32 Payroll Fraud: The $200,000 Case * 10:15 Email Compromise: The $109,000 Near-Miss * 15:06 Household Payrolls: How $40,000 in Penalties Happens * 19:30 Mythbuster: Every Household Employer Needs an EIN * 22:24 ITINs, H-2A Workers, and Payroll Compliance * 32:53 Dave's Personal Payroll Oops * 35:51 Eric's Thursday Night Emergency * 40:32 Closing Thoughts: Take a Breath, Not a Shortcut Resources Mentioned: * Workforce PayHub * IRS – Employer Identification Number (EIN) * IRS – Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios