Virginia Tax Amnesty Creates Unnecessary Headaches
Sigh! I blogged about the Get Square Virginia initiative last month.
May I observe that Virginia is ZEALOUSLY attempting to collect back taxes?
Many household employers go in and out of employment. They may have a nanny for a few years, switch to daycare or preschool, have another child and start all over again. This sounds pretty normal, right?
Well, if you withheld VA income taxes, closed your account, and a few years later rehire an employee and reactivate your account, Get Square Virginia will come after you for the quarterly back tax returns for the period when your account was inactive. Really!
Employers, you are caught between an irresistible force (a desperate need to collect tax revenue) and the immoveable object (the VA Department of Taxation). The path of least resistance is to go online and file all the required returns showing ZERO wages paid and ZERO tax due. Alternatively, you can write an emphatic letter stating that your account was inactive and you had no employment from x date to y date. You can send the letter the VA Department of Taxation sent you way back when acknowledging that your account was closed as documentation if you can still find it.
Speaking reason to either the collections staff or the regular VA Department of Taxation folks doesn't work. The collections staff just wants the tax returns, the regular employer service staff say the matter is outside their hands and has to be addressed with collections. They UNDERSTAND the problem, they are simply powerless to fix it.
For anyone keeping score, we now have Virginia, New Jersey, and the Internal Revenue Service all asking household employers for tax documents they were never required to file in the first place. Time to pull out the Bayer!
May I observe that Virginia is ZEALOUSLY attempting to collect back taxes?
Many household employers go in and out of employment. They may have a nanny for a few years, switch to daycare or preschool, have another child and start all over again. This sounds pretty normal, right?
Well, if you withheld VA income taxes, closed your account, and a few years later rehire an employee and reactivate your account, Get Square Virginia will come after you for the quarterly back tax returns for the period when your account was inactive. Really!
Employers, you are caught between an irresistible force (a desperate need to collect tax revenue) and the immoveable object (the VA Department of Taxation). The path of least resistance is to go online and file all the required returns showing ZERO wages paid and ZERO tax due. Alternatively, you can write an emphatic letter stating that your account was inactive and you had no employment from x date to y date. You can send the letter the VA Department of Taxation sent you way back when acknowledging that your account was closed as documentation if you can still find it.
Speaking reason to either the collections staff or the regular VA Department of Taxation folks doesn't work. The collections staff just wants the tax returns, the regular employer service staff say the matter is outside their hands and has to be addressed with collections. They UNDERSTAND the problem, they are simply powerless to fix it.
For anyone keeping score, we now have Virginia, New Jersey, and the Internal Revenue Service all asking household employers for tax documents they were never required to file in the first place. Time to pull out the Bayer!
posted by Kathleen Webb at
9:14 AM
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