 Internal Revenue Service IRS Tax News, National Small Business Week. Dang IRS, always call it a small like that. The IRS thinks they're so big. I'd be big too if I fed myself on everyone else's lunch money. I'll have you know IRS, my small business tax dollars are what pay for your big bureaucratic budget. Oh yeah, says the IRS. You want a first-hand look at what else your small business tax dollars pay for? Like the prisons? No. Then make sure to give us your money on a quarterly basis as per our arrangement. Or else we'll have to set up a mandatory meeting behind the gym. Where what, you're gonna beat me up? Oh no, something far worse. We call it an audit. Wow, that does sound scary. Yes, you don't want to have to meet us behind the gym for an audit. I suppose not. So make sure to pay up small business. Well, I guess I don't really need my lunch money. I was planning on going on a diet anyways. Yeah, that's what I'll tell everyone. We're going on a family diet people. But poor little Tim is already so skinny. IR 2022-103, May 5th, 2022 Washington. The Internal Revenue Service today urged small businesses to take advantage of the accuracy, speed and convenience of filing their payroll tax returns and making tax payments electronically during the National Small Business Week. It's almost over small businesses. Keep your head down. Just keep on rolling. That spotlight from the IRS is almost off of you so you can go out and start foraging again. So hang in there. During National Small Business Week, May 1st to 7th, the IRS is highlighting tax benefits and resources tied to the theme for this year's celebration, quote, building a better America through entrepreneurship, end quote. Filing and paying taxes electronically helps entrepreneurs leave more time for what they really want to do, build their businesses. Yes, that's what we want. Just leave us alone. Leave us alone. What are payroll taxes? Also known as employment taxes, payroll taxes include federal income tax withheld from employee wages, as well as both the employer and employee portions of the Social Security and Medicare taxes. In addition, payroll taxes include the federal unemployment tax, also known as FUTA, F-U-T-A, which most employers need to pay but is not withheld from employee wages. So when we're talking about the payroll taxes, clearly if someone is designated as an employee as opposed to a contractor, we are required to do withholdings from the employees, which are basically the payroll taxes. We've got the employer portion, the employee portion of the payroll taxes, meaning we're going to withhold from them on the federal tax side of things, their federal income tax. And then their Social Security and their Medicare, which gets confusing because we also have to match their Social Security and Medicare. So we're going to pay our half of Social Security and Medicare, which is basically our payroll taxes, which we're paying over and above the actual expenses of the payroll taxes. And then we've got the federal unemployment tax. And then you can deal with state taxes and withholdings, which are not the IRS's concern, typically here, except for, well, that's it. So in some cases, backup withholding applies to payments made to non-employees, usually because the recipient failed to provide the correct taxpayer identification number, the TIN, to the business making the payments. The TIN can be either a Social Security number, employer identification number, or individual taxpayer identification number. For more information about backup withholdings, see tax topic number 307. There's a link to that here. Why E-File? Because you told us to IRS? Dang dang it. That's the best answer I've ever heard, Gump. You're going to be the best small business ever. All of the returns reported in these taxes can either be filed electronically or on paper, though the number of payroll tax returns E-Filed has grown steadily in recent years. More than doubling in the last decade alone, more than 40% of them are still filed on paper, which is annoying the IRS because you know how they like the E-File stuff. They want everything electronic. Paper filers are missing out on all the advantages of the electronic filing. E-File saves time for the IRS and us, and it's secure and accurate. So that's probably one of the things that people have been kind of questioning about having the online kind of returns. So everything seems to be going online. So hopefully it's going to be secure. And you would think it would be more accurate because you might have some software capacity to help you out with any math errors and things like that. So plus the IRS acknowledges receipt of an electronically filed return within 24 hours. That doesn't happen with paper filing, especially with the short staffing they're experiencing over there. So the paper filing could take longer. So it's much easier to make a mistake on paper. So that's definitely true. Software is helpful. With electronic filing, any mistake is often discovered and fixed quickly. With paper filing, it may take weeks or even months to discover and correct mistakes. How to E-File? Employers have two options. Do it themselves or have a tax pro do it for them. So payroll taxes are complicated, so you probably want to have some payroll kind of system in place. Unfortunately, the employees are one of the biggest sources where you could have kind of problems and lawsuits and whatnot. So you'd like to have the payroll records as accurate as possible. So those choosing to do it themselves will need to purchase IRS approved software. Alternatively, the authorized IRS E-File providers, there's a link to that here. Locator service and online database can help any employer find a suitable tax professional. So you want to make sure you're finding a good payroll provider, someone that's been there. It's going to be around and that you can trust because, again, it's kind of an important part. And it's not an easy thing to kind of switch up, like especially mid-year to try to switch to another payroll provider because of all the withholdings and whatnot. And the reporting requirements and the caps on wages and stuff gets confusing. So for more information about both options, visit IRS.gov forward slash employment E-File. There's a link to that here. Pay taxes electronically. Those some employers, especially those with small payrolls, can choose to pay their taxes when they file their payroll tax returns. Most need to deposit them regularly with Treasury Department instead. So we want regular payments on the payroll taxes, says the IRS. Federal tax deposits must be made by electronic fund transfer, that's the EFT system. The fastest and easiest way to do that is through the electronic federal tax payment system, otherwise known as the EFTPS. There's a link to that here. It's a free service available from the Treasury Department. Payments can be made either online or by phone. Any business or individual can also use the EFTPS to pay other federal taxes, including quarterly estimated taxes. Enrollment is required to enroll or for more information. Visit the EFTPS.gov.gov.gov or call 800-555-4477 or TDD 800-733-4829. More information about the tax rules that apply to employers can be found in Publication 15. That's the Circular E Employers Tax Guide. There's a link to that here. It's available on IRS.gov, IRS.gov, IRS.gov, be for victory over tax questions. And there's a link to that and all this other stuff that I said there was a link to. There is a link indeed here to them too, and there'll be a link to this in the description.