Washington State Stops Certifying Paper Tax Returns

Washington State notified all registered 3rd party payroll preparers late Wednesday, July 1, 2009 that they will no longer certify paper tax returns prepared by third parties, effective immediately. The "certification" process in the past guaranteed that paper tax returns prepared by enrolled third party preparers, such as HomeWork Solutions, would be processed by the state without risk of 'wrong form' penalties when the optical scanning process failed.

This clearly poses problems for ALL payroll providers in Washington State, as the notice was posted AFTER the Second Quarter closed.

HomeWork Solutions will provide ALL Washington State clients with online filing/reporting instructions for their state household employment taxes. Clients who have already been mailed paper reports will be notified via email of this change. Effective immediately, HomeWork Solutions will only prepare online filing instructions and calculations for clients. If you desire to report via paper form, you may contact the state at taxforms@esd.wa.gov, provide your State Unemployment Account number, and request that a paper form be generated and mailed to you. Upon receipt, you will need to hand complete with employee SSN, name, wage, and tax amounts and mail to the state with a check.

We regret the inconvenience and request your patience as we deal with this change beyond our mutual control.