What’s Due On January 31st For Small Business Owners?

January is one of the BIGGEST and most stressful tax deadline months all year. If you are a business owner, there are critical accounting processes and tax forms that you need to complete. You have to do it to avoid unnecessary penalties and to make sure you are ready for tax time. Wouldn’t it be heavenly if your financial partners could provide you an easy to follow checklist so you know what needs to be done and when?

Your wish is our command ~ check out this January 31st federal tax deadlines checklist with forms and helpful resources to learn more. You even have access to a 1-hour webinar on How to Prepare Form 1099-MISC for your independent contractors.

Form W2s – You must provide each employee with a Form W-2 AND send copies to the Social Security Administration.

Form 1099-MISC – You must provide it to each independent contractors you paid $600 or more during the year AND send copies to the Internal Revenue Service.

Form 941 – Employer’s FOURTH Quarterly Federal Tax Return.

This may require filing and payment depending on your deposit schedule.

Form 940 – Employer’s ANNUAL Federal Unemployment Tax Return.

This may require filing and payment depending on your deposit schedule. Also, check with your state regarding a Credit Reduction.

The deadline for these tax forms is usually the same in every state, but you will want to check directly with your state tax agencies for this information.

You may be thinking, “weren’t these forms due later in the year, like February and March?” And the answer used to be YES, but as of 2016 tax year, the IRS changed the deadline to 1/31 and is using the earlier filing date to help fight fraud and identity theft. The IRS says, “Having these W2s and 1099s earlier will make it easier to verify the legitimacy of tax returns and properly issue refunds to taxpayers eligible to receive them.”

Now you may be thinking, “can I just ignore this?” NO, and here’s why:
Small businesses will be assessed penalties for not filing their forms, which has always been the case for payroll tax forms, but now the IRS has increased the penalties for not filing 1099-MISC forms as well. Here are IRS current penalties.

So now it’s time to call your accountant, payroll company, or both, and make sure you will be complying with these deadlines. And if you will be preparing 1099-MISC forms for your independent contractors, we have provided a BONUS 1-hour webinar on this process.

Now get to it, the clock is ticking!