You Failed To Pay Your Payroll Taxes So Now What?

It happens all the time. Business owners must make the decision every Friday. It’s payday–do you pay the 941 payroll taxes or pay the net payroll? You decide you have no choice, you must stay alive to fight another day. Since your cash flow is off, revenues are down, retained earnings are non-existent and there is not enough cash to cover all your needs.

So, do you do the required right thing and make certain the 941 payroll taxes are paid, or do you what so many business owners do, skip the voluntary weekly payment and instead pay the net payroll and the phone bill, the utility bill, the insurance bill… You have to have phones, you tell yourself. You have to have power, you can’t let the insurance lapse… and onward we go, skipping the mandatory 941 payroll payments, promising yourself you’ll make it up later in the month when you get the big check you are expecting. The check may come but paying the 941′s never happens. Soon enough, it’s out of control, too big to make up, and your cash flow is still weak anyway. You keep paying net using the trust fund money as well as the corporate contribution… trouble is brewing.

The arrears are infrequently brought current until the taxman writes, warning you they will lien then levy and eventually close you down and liquidate your assets leaving you personally liable for the remainder due and attaching your personal property. Not a pretty picture and it happens all too often. You ask your accountant what you should do and he says to pay the tax, you have no choice, or shut down. So now what? You owe a ton of cash, the numbers are rapidly growing and yet you still believe your core business is solid and you want to ride it out until you turn things around. This is an admirable attitude, but what to do with the threatening IRS and their liens and levies?

There are strategies that can successfully handle this issue, leaving you with a small percentage of the debt to repay and a fresh new start, a seamless transition, and a huge relief. In fact, such strategies typically include and resolve other issues as well, all in one fell swoop. We’re not talking about bankruptcy, which is usually not necessary and most always not a successful strategy anyway. I have a plan that follows the code precisely and produces the desired results. This plan has been developed over years of experience, supported by the development of key documentation that has evolved over many applications, many reviews over many years, and it works very well.