If you are like most small business owners in California, you dread January because that means you have to start thinking about year-end administration. To help you, we have prepared this list of common tasks a small business owner needs to do in January. This list is daunting and complex but you do not have to go it alone! Many local business owners use Cromwell Tax & Bookkeeping to perform one or all of these tasks for them. They find the price affordable, are not stressed out in January, and can spend their time growing their business and becoming more profitable.
- Complete your Bookkeeping for the year
- Post all transactions and reconcile all Bank Accounts, Credit Card Accounts and PayPal accounts
- Store your receipts for at least 3 years (paper or electronically)
- Look at your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet reports
- Run a year-over-year comparison report of your financials and investigate any variances you were not expecting
- Pay your Estimated Taxes on-time
- Sole Proprietors: Q4 2015 Estimated Tax is due January 15 2016
- S Corps: The 2015 CA tax was due December 15, 2015
- LLC Fee: The 2015 LLC fee was due June 15th 2015 (that is not a typo)
- Be sure to include your Taxpayer ID # and the year/quarter you want the payment applied
- Issue 1099s to all eligible vendors
- The basic rules are, if the vendor provided a service to you, they are not corporations and you paid them more than $600, you will need to issue a 1099
- See our blog from December 2nd (below) for more information
- Calculate your FUTA Credit -- Federal Unemployment taxes
- California employers have more FUTA tax due than employers in other states since we are a "credit reduction state". We will not go into the details here, but you will need to calculate this extra tax and get this sent in with your Form 940 filing
- File Payroll Reports
- File all your quarterly payroll reports for Fed and State (941, DE9, DE9C)
- File your annual payroll reports (W2s/W3s and Form 940)
- File and Pay Sales Tax
- Quarterly and Annual Calendar-Year Sales Tax is due at the end of the month (Fiscal Year filers may have different dates)
- Update your Payroll Rates before you run the first paychecks for 2016
- UI and ETT - Each employer has a different UI and ETT rate and it can change with the turn of the year. You will receive a letter from the EDD or you can look online at the EDD E-Services website
- SDI rates - For 2016, the rate is unchanged at 0.9%
