Blog & Newsroom

Are your business interactions with the government, from seeking out financing opportunities to learning about new regulations, burdensome and frustrating?

The Internal Revenue Service assessed 38.6 million penalties to taxpayers in 2011, totaling almost $31 billion, but will reward taxpayers with a history of compliant behavior with a one-time penalty amnesty. 

The Internal Revenue Service released updated income-tax withholding tables for employers to implement in 2013.

Should there be a separate limit on personal residence indebtedness for co-owners that are unmarried? According to the Tax Court, that answer is a resounding no.

• Employers looking to participate in programs such as group rating, group-retrospective rating or other rating plans will have the opportunity to make those selections sooner.
• An average employer will enjoy a one-time premium credit, as the BWC will cover the August payroll report (covering the January to June 2015 premium) as well as the prospective premium for the first two months (July and August).
• The BWC asks that businesses report or “true-up” their actual payroll for the prior policy year. This begins in August 2016.

• Overall base rate reduction of 2% for private employers and 4% for public employers.
• Opportunities for more flexible payment options (up to 12 installments).
• Better opportunities for BWC to provide quotes online or via the phone.
• Fewer costs from employers who either don’t pay premiums in a timely fashion or have workers injured without coverage being mutualized among employers in good standing.
• Increased ability for BWC to detect employer non-compliance and fraud.

As the tax year comes to an end, business owners are looking for additional ways to decrease their tax liability.  Fortunately for those companies that use trucks and vans, there are still generous depreciation rules that are available for newly purchased “heavy” vehicles.  In order to maximize depreciation write offs, these vehicles much be purchased and placed in service by the end of 2014.  

Form 1099-K, which deals with merchant payment card reporting, has provoked many questions since its inception last year.

Nearly 26 million K-1 tax forms were filed by partnerships last year alone, and there is no telling the cost associated to printing and mailing those forms to each partner. The IRS has now issued a new rule that not only cuts these expenses, but also makes it simpler for partnerships to provide this information to their partners: electronic sending.

Another victory claimed by small-business representatives recently, as the IRS told the National Federation of Independent Business it would not require retailers and others to explain how and why their business income differs from their credit-card receipts, which Congress now is requiring card companies to report separately to the IRS.

Starting this month, the IRS has launched a major audit initiative focusing on the underpayment of employment taxes by employers. As part of its Employment Tax National Research Project (NRP), the IRS will randomly select 2,000 employers to audit each year for the next three years.