I’m finally organized on tax stuff — or as organized as I get, anyway — and I’m still in tax hell.
First of all, my accountant from last year failed to mention that, as an S-Corp, I should be filing quarterly forms to pay Medicare/Social Security directly. Not a word, just sent me home with estimated tax vouchers. Which I dutifully used to pay all the taxes I owed — personal and FICA.
I am SO glad I’m not relying on her anymore.And she’s still screwing up my taxes. Impressive.
I called the IRS in a panic and was offered a solution of just reporting all my pay in the 4th quarter. Apparently it’s what a lot of S-Corps do. It means that I’ll pay one month’s penalty, rather than having interest accruing steadily for the past 9 months.
(Not doing that this year, though. I want to send off the FICA taxes each quarter and just be done with ’em. No more of this end-of-the-year panic.)
Problem is, the form was going to get filed without payment. Since I snet off my Estimated Tax vouchers with all the taxes, all the payments were under my SSN instead of my corporation’s ID. Which means my corporation hadn’t actually paid FICA taxes.
There was probably some form I could fill out and hoop I could jump through, but I was done with this panic BS. So I sucked it up and put it on the card. Which means I also incurred a fun $55 fee for the privilege of paying with credit.
I’d have paid with a check but, alas, we don’t yet have $2,976 in our emergency fund yet. (Actually, as of a week ago, it’s sitting around $200. As in, a week ago I finally started an emergency fund with $200 in it. It’s a start.)
So. Our credit card now has LOTS of airline miles for us but also a $2,976 charge. Oh, plus $55.
My hope was that we could get our tax returns filed and our refund safely in the bank in time for this next credit card payment.
But that would have been too easy.
Instead, I found that I was missing a 1099 from one of my side projects. All the work was completed in 2010, but some of my payment came in January/February. The problem is, I’m not sure how many of the months were included in those checks.
So the company is currently “looking into it” — which apparently takes 6 days and counting. I’m writing a polite-but-nagging note today to see where we’re at.
Until I get those numbers, I can’t send in my returns, which means I can’t be done with this tax BS — and that we’ll probably have to float part of the $2,976 (plus $55!) on our card for a month.
Oh, did I mention our projections (mine and the aforementioned crappy accountant) for state tax were off? The aforementioned crappy accountant was wrong to begin with. So, when one of my side projects went *poof* in July, I reworked the estimate. So we underpaid by $479. Whee.
On the bright side, this whole incident got me to finally ask my boss for his old copy of Quickbooks so I can keep better track of my finances and expenses this year.
On the darker side, F*&# TAX SEASON!
Bareheadedwoman says
I have overpaid, forcibly paid the highest single no deduction rate i could for decades now. I'm more than sure that I've probably paid at least a third more than what I could have whittled away with the tax code but if I pay the protection money up front, the goons don't show up asking why not. I'm stressed just reading about your stress. So sorry for you.
There is something very wrong with a system that generates as much stress and headache and FEAR with so little (it's a Code not a law). Don't have to know what's wrong to know that something is…and it is. just. wrong. Almost makes one nostalgic for the good old days when the king's man showed up at the door and you only had to decide whether to give him your only cow or your daughter. Amounts to the same.
Catseye says
Abby, I'm so sorry that you have to deal with the tax mess along with everything else you've been going through lately. I hope things start to turn around for you soon.
Diana says
So sorry to hear about this but know that you are not alone….in an effort to try and build an emergency savings I'm foregoing a tax person and trying it myself this year (gulp). wish me luck!
Petunia 100 says
Sounds like you are paying yourself as an employee but didn't file quarterly payroll tax returns? Quickbooks can generate those. You also need to register with EFTPS and get yourself a PIN number, so that you can make federal payroll tax deposits.
You need to file form W-3 with the SSA too. The deadline is coming up, Wednesday Feb 29. You don't want to be late with that, the penalty is 10% of the reported payroll. You can file online, just go to ssa.gov and click on the "Business Services Online" tab.
Your state may have payroll reporting requirements (and taxes!) too.