19 Ways to Survive in a Tough Economy. Lynn Spry

duration, and applicability but it encouraged business owners to file and pay the tax they owed with either reduced or eliminated penalties and interest.

Beware, some amnesty programs don’t just offer a benefit, they also punish those that don’t take advantage of the opportunity to resolve their tax bill. In 2005, the state of California offered an amnesty program that ran from February to March of 2005. The program covered California corporate franchise tax, personal income tax, sales tax, and use taxes for pre-2003 periods. If a taxpayer participated in the program, the individual or business would have amnesty — no criminal or financial penalties would be incurred. The company could simply pay the tax owed and nothing more. However, taxpayers who did not participate in the program and who owed tax would be penalized. If they did not take advantage of the program, file their missing taxes, and pay off their debt, they could now be fined even more heavily than they were before. Missing the amnesty program could now result in a 40 percent accuracy-related penalty, doubling the sales tax penalties plus an automatic 50 percent penalty surcharge on interest!^[3]

      Whichever course you choose, be sure to handle unresolved tax issues as quickly as possible. Since the government is entitled to this money, it can take extreme measures to get its funds. As a business owner, you don’t want to check your accounts one day to find that your assets have been seized and all the cash has been suddenly removed from your bank account. The impact this could have on a business would be devastating. Without money in the bank, chances are your business would be unable to purchase more products, pay your bills, or even pay your employees. Most businesses can resolve their back tax issues. Taking control and resolving it with the IRS is a much better, safer option than ignoring it and allowing the government to simply choose when and how to handle the problem. The sooner these problems are solved the better.

      Lifesaver: While resolving back tax issues, make sure to keep filing and paying your current taxes on time. This will both ensure that you don’t incur additional fines and will give you more credibility when you start paying down your older bills. In some cases, the tax agency may even be willing to remove your most recent fines since you have been staying current with your tax debts.

      3.2c Canadian tax consequences

      In Canada, if you haven’t filed or paid your employees’ payroll taxes — that is, money that comes out of the employees’ paychecks to pay income tax, Canadian Pension Plan (CPP), and Employment Insurance (EI) — and have only been paying the employees their after-tax salaries, you may end up paying a penalty.

      It won’t take long before Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) sends you a letter indicating that the payroll taxes have not been filed. This may seem like an easy letter to ignore; however, if you choose to ignore your taxes and not file, you will have a big problem.

      CRA may assess a penalty of 10 percent of the required amount you failed to deduct for income tax, CPP, and EI. If you fail to file again in a calendar year, CRA may apply a 20 percent penalty, especially if you knowingly made the decision to not deduct the payroll taxes. You could also be fined $1,000 to $25,000 or be imprisoned for up to a year.

      3.2d Relief for penalties and interest on taxes in Canada

      If you realize that your business is already behind on taxes, there are ways to resolve a back tax issue without losing control of the situation. The best way to start is to work with a reputable accountant immediately to determine your business’s debt and options. Allowing a professional accountant to examine the situation may result in better options than if you try to resolve the situation alone. Although you will have to pay for your accountant’s time, the recommendations he or she provides may save you more money than what you spent.

You may be able to have your penalties and interest waived or cancelled in the following situations:^[4]

      • Extraordinary circumstance, which means something out of your control prevented you from paying your taxes on time (e.g., flood, fire, postal strike, serious accident or illness, or death in the immediate family).

      • Inability to pay or a financial hardship. In this case, if accumulated interest causes prolonged financial hardship to the point that basic necessities cannot be provided such as medical help, food, transportation, or shelter.

      • Actions by the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA), such as processing delays that prevent a taxpayer being informed in a timely manner about an amount owing, errors in information given to the public that caused errors in the taxes filed, incorrect information provided to tax payers, errors in processing, delays in providing information, or delays in completing an audit.

      If you fall into any of these categories, you may be able to get relief. You or your accountant can write to the CRA and ask that your penalties and interest be waived or cancelled. In some circumstances you may still have to pay the interest, but the CRA will reduce the amount.

      3.3 Prevent tax problems in the future

      The easiest way to prevent tax problems in the future is to always file and pay your taxes on time. If you are like many small-business owners, the management overhead of a business is often very time-consuming. Mundane tasks, such as paying taxes, can easily be forgotten when the business is busy. To ensure that you are staying on top of your taxes, set up a regular schedule for payments. If possible, outsource the work to a bookkeeper or an accounting service. Although the cost of these services may seem expensive, these vendors typically guarantee on-time, accurate filings. Since the cost of late payments is so significant, if you think you could be late even once throughout the year, you may save more money by hiring an outside vendor than you would by trying to file all of your taxes yourself.

      Lifesaver: Although tax agencies still accept paper forms, many tax offices now allow businesses to pay taxes online. Some agencies even have automated forms that calculate the tax due. Filing online also ensures that you will never have to worry about the mail being lost or experiencing a delay due to office processing. The day you submit is the day your taxes are filed.

      4. Follow Regulations and Rules

      In almost every business, there are government, state or provincial, and local regulations that you must adhere to. Failure to follow these rules can result in anything from small, manageable fines, to suddenly having your business closed down. Unfortunately, as each area has different rules, it is often difficult to determine just what obligations your business has. Further, if your business completes sales in more than one state or province, you will need to be familiar with the laws of all the states or provinces where you do business.

Of course, the laws are not simple. The details surrounding legal decisions can seem unreasonably specific in many cases. Let’s say for example that you are the owner of a mobile vending business doing business in Arizona and you want to determine if soda is taxable. The state of Arizona actually has a specific guideline about what types of foods are taxable by mobile vendors. Further, when you look into this guideline you would find that soda can be either taxable or nontaxable depending on how it is sold. If it is being sold by a mobile vendor in a cup or open container (e.g., a fountain soda), the drink is fully taxable as the soda is considered food for consumption on the premises. If the soda is prepackaged (e.g., in a can or bottle), then it is considered a nontaxable product, which means it is not considered food for consumption on the premises. As if that weren’t specific enough, there is an additional ruling added to this guideline that food items sold in any venue that charges admission (e.g., bowling alleys, sports venues) are taxable.^[5] Subtle distinctions like these, if applicable, can be important