IRS Quesion for small business owners & SB Accountants...

[PastorMikH]

I'm wondering if we have a moron working in the area of the IRS that handles our church stuff or this is normal.

Over the last year or two we had some frustrating things happen - almost monthly, never more than 2 months go by without something happening. We either a check (the most recent one for almost $10K) then a month later a letter DEMANDING we pay the $ back. Or we get a letter DEMANDING that we pay $500-$1000 because we are behind on our payroll taxes and the following penalties are tacked on. We check with the bank that handles this stuff, they say we are current and there is no problem. This gets a series of phone calls along with finally giving in and sending a check for the difference, then the next month we get a refund check in the mail because we paid that amount too much.

Is this level of incompetence at all levels or is this unique to the case worker handling the IRS accounts that we happen to be involved in?


I'm to the point that I told the Secretary/Treasurer of the Church today that we should start sending a thank you letter along with a giving reciept for their non-profit, non-refundable donation.

[xbarretx]

are you honeslty surprised though? it IS the IRS after all.

jsut send them a glass of antifreeze .. that susually shuts them up

[PastorMikH]

are you honeslty surprised though? it IS the IRS after all.

jsut send them a glass of antifreeze .. that susually shuts them up



On the bank stuff that you obviously just edited out :p we thought of that too, but after going around with this enough now, I'm convinced our bank is the one accurate. Also, the letters do tell us the dates of the "Supposed" problems.

[FAX]

I've always either owned or founded the business where I worked, Mr. PastorMikH, and I've never experienced, nor have I ever heard of this.

Personally, I think it's very strange.

FAX

[dtebbe]

This is pretty much par for the course. The IRS, especially the division that handles payroll taxes are just totally lost.

One tip I have for you is to get rid of the middle man and do your own payroll, and pay directly to the IRS electronically. We have had a lot fewer problems since we did that. We use Quickbooks enhanced do-it-yourself Payroll service, which is around $400/year. That price includes all the tax table updates, and also free Quickbooks software upgrades. We have had pretty much zero problems since we brought it all in house.

Once things get screwed up with the payroll tax division of the IRS it takes forever to get it straight. I have an LLC with no employees, and they send me a notice every quarter telling me I have not filed my 941. I respond every quarter and tell them that I don't have any payroll or employees, and then every quarter, like clockwork, the notice shows up.

Whatever you do make sure you stay on top of it and don't ever blow it off. Payroll taxes are the #1 thing that can destroy a business because that division of the IRS takes no prisoners.

DT

[PastorMikH]

I've always either owned or founded the business where I worked, Mr. PastorMikH, and I've never experienced, nor have I ever heard of this.

Personally, I think it's very strange.

FAX



Thanks Mr Fax. We never had any problems either until about 3 1/2 years ago. Since then, we've had to fight them on something for 5 of the 7 years they can go back on errors (we have proved them wrong every time). The checks/letters started a bit later and have gotten more frequent over the last year.

[FAX]

Thanks Mr Fax. We never had any problems either until about 3 1/2 years ago. Since then, we've had to fight them on something for 5 of the 7 years they can go back on errors (we have proved them wrong every time). The checks/letters started a bit later and have gotten more frequent over the last year.

These are payroll taxes, correct? Who does your payroll?

FAX

[PastorMikH]

This is pretty much par for the course. The IRS, especially the division that handles payroll taxes are just totally lost.

One tip I have for you is to get rid of the middle man and do your own payroll, and pay directly to the IRS electronically. We have had a lot fewer problems since we did that. We use Quickbooks enhanced do-it-yourself Payroll service, which is around $400/year. That price includes all the tax table updates, and also free Quickbooks software upgrades. We have had pretty much zero problems since we brought it all in house.

Once things get screwed up with the payroll tax division of the IRS it takes forever to get it straight. I have an LLC with no employees, and they send me a notice every quarter telling me I have not filed my 941. I respond every quarter and tell them that I don't have any payroll or employees, and then every quarter, like clockwork, the notice shows up.

Whatever you do make sure you stay on top of it and don't ever blow it off. Payroll taxes are the #1 thing that can destroy a business because that division of the IRS takes no prisoners.

DT


Thanks. We are staying on top of it. We have a file drawer that is filling up. We start a fresh file on every problem copying all paper correspondence and keep a journal on the folder of when contacts were made, who we talked to - with their ID# and everything.


We are already paying for the payroll service stuff for year end tax forms. We will have to give that some thought for the payroll payments as well. The bank thing has been set up for years and this is the first church I've had to deal with payroll withholding so is't a newer area to me that we've left the way we have always done it.

[PastorMikH]

These are payroll taxes, correct? Who does your payroll?

FAX


We take care of payroll in house with Quickbooks then take the payroll tax check quickbooks calculates to the local bank and they take care of sending it to the IRS. I am thinking that Dtebbe's idea may be a good one to consider.

[Simplex3]

It took those numbnuts 2 years to figure out that I couldn't file paperwork for a business I didn't own any more. Basically they couldn't find the guy I sold it to, so they decided to start coming after me instead.

The IRS can suck it.

http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer

[FAX]

We take care of payroll in house with Quickbooks then take the payroll tax check quickbooks calculates to the local bank and they take care of sending it to the IRS. I am thinking that Dtebbe's idea may be a good one to consider.

Um, I might have a different suggestion under the circumstances, Mr. PastorMikH. If it's really a problem, I'd go the other direction and use a payroll service. All you do is send them the payroll information each period and they are responsible for cutting the checks (or making direct deposits), filing all the paperwork, etc. It is very cost-effective in my experience. But, the real bonus is that, should the IRS have an inquiry or a problem, they are responsible for any problems with the filings. Since your records are accurate anyhow, it sounds like it would save you some time and hassle.

FAX

[Simplex3]

As a last ditch effort you can always try contacting your Congressman and start copying his office in on all your correspondence with the IRS.

[dtebbe]

We take care of payroll in house with Quickbooks then take the payroll tax check quickbooks calculates to the local bank and they take care of sending it to the IRS. I am thinking that Dtebbe's idea may be a good one to consider.

You are 99% the way there. There is no charge to pay direct, just goto:
https://www.eftps.com/eftps/enrollments/newTaxpayer.do

DT

[xbarretx]

On the bank stuff that you obviously just edited out :p we thought of that too, but after going around with this enough now, I'm convinced our bank is the one accurate. Also, the letters do tell us the dates of the "Supposed" problems.

yeah :huh: i edited it b/c i figured i was stating the obvious and you would laugh me off the thread ;)

sounds to me like the IRS is "reaching" on this one.