payroll accounting

Payroll is a liability. Every business incurs a number of accrued liabilities relating to its payroll. The largest of these liabilities is the obligation to pay employees for services rendered during the period. A payroll expense often is among the largest expenses of the business organization. Accrued payroll liabilities, however, seldom accumulate to large amounts because they are paid in full at frequent intervals.
Accounting for payrolls involves much more than merely recording the liability for accrued wages and salaries payable. Employers must compute numerous taxes which the government levies either upon employees or upon the employer. In fact, one might say that the total wages and salaries expense (or gross pay) represents only the "starting point" of payroll computations.