Ah, tax season – it doesn't exactly have anyone singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," but it is absolutely essential to your company's success.
The IRS has increased its scrutiny and penalties for businesses that make mistakes when filing payroll taxes, so it's crucial your forms are filled out accurately and thoroughly.
April 15 is right around the corner, so hopefully you've already filed your payroll taxes. But before you push tax-related business completely out of your mind, take a moment to reflect on the experience and identify areas of improvement that could make your next tax season less stressful.
Looking back
Do any of these challenges sound familiar?
Underestimating the time required to file
We can all fancy ourselves tax experts – until it's time to get down to business. It's easy to underestimate how much work filing payroll taxes involves. This can lead to last-minute rushes, sidelined responsibilities and a whole lot of stress.
Scrambling to find information
Wouldn't it be great if all the payroll information and data you needed was stored all in a single place? Unfortunately, most payroll and HR professionals find themselves pulling information from disparate databases, software programs and filing cabinets to find the all figures they need to file.
Realizing you made a mistake
It's a common scenario: You spend the day filling out tax paperwork. You're sitting down for a quiet dinner when you suddenly realize you made a mistake in one section. It's not a pleasant feeling, especially when you have to start over or fix your mistakes as the deadline draws closer.
Looking ahead
The challenges above are enough to make anyone sweat (or cry), but there is a simple solution: using a human capital management (HCM) suite with a built-in payroll system. A single HR technology solution that includes payroll processing functionality can help you reduce stress during tax season and make filing easier.
Organizing workflows
Payroll technology helps you organize well ahead of the filing deadline by breaking the project into small tasks. You can then create a plan and act on it a day at a time without sacrificing the attention required for all your other important HR duties. Payroll management software can also point you in the direction of the information that you need when you need it, thus minimizing the time spent searching for necessary payroll data.
Decreasing chance of errors
IRS penalties are scary stuff, so don't let avoidable mistakes cost your company. Using payroll technology decreases the chance of errors by removing unnecessary data entry from the filing process. It also reduces the time required to produce necessary forms, such as W2s, 1099s, 1095/1096, etc. so you minimize the chance of missing a critical deadline.
Reducing costs
There can be hefty administrative costs associated with filing payroll taxes. Make the best use of your resources with payroll software equipped to optimize tax filing and keep costs low.
Tax season is not a fun and pleasant time for anyone, but by outsourcing the process to a payroll provider, you can reduce stress, improve efficiencies and maybe, just maybe, dread this time of year a little less come 2019.