MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • LOGIN
  • SIGN UP FREE

CFO Daily News

MENUMENU
  • FREE RESOURCES
        • Accounts Payable
          Finally! The trick to securing greater T&E compliance
          Benefits
          Rooting out folks who don’t belong on your health plan: A 6-point dependent audit checklist
          IT
          3 costly misconceptions about biz email compromise
          Credit and Collections
          Collecting via email: 4 must-make moves in your subject line
          Accounts Payable
          5 Tough-to-spot signs that an invoice is fake
  • PREMIUM CONTENT
        • Staff management
          120 Proven Communications Tips for Today’s CFO
        • Payroll
          Handling Nonexempt Employee Pay: Stay Compliant and Avoid DOL Audits
          Accounts Payable
          T&E Best Practices: Complete Guide to Ensure Compliance
          Payroll
          Payroll Best Practices: 4 Ways to Save Time and Money
        • Staff management
          Email Best Practices: A 6-Question Quiz
          Staff management
          Innovative Communications Strategies: An Email Case Study
          Staff management
          A 5-part Framework for Successful Workplace Communications
        • SEE MORE
          PREMIUM RESOURCES
  • CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Payroll
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Finance Technology
  • More
    • Employment Law
    • Strategy
    • Policy and Culture
    • Fraud
    • Payments and Transactions
    • Budgeting and Forecasting
    • Banking
    • Staff Management
    • Cost Control
    • Supply Chain
    • IT

IRS sets its sights on Finance in new e-filing push

Jennifer Azara
by Jennifer Azara
July 19, 2013
  • Payroll
3 minute read
  • SHARE ON

Unless you’re already filing all your company’s tax and information returns electronically, get ready to feel a little nudge from IRS.

The Taxman just released its progress report on its lofty goal of having 80% of major tax returns e-filed.

And it’s getting closer – the Service predicts it will hit almost 73% in 2013.

Close … but apparently not close enough.  Since its large jump from 2010 to 2011, increases have only logged around two percentage points a year.

And while individual tax returns represent the bulk of e-file potential, IRS just acknowledged it won’t be able to reach its goal without the help of business taxpayers.

That’s where you and your finance staffers come in. Specifically IRS identified two major areas where there’s serious room for improvement that land square on Finance’s plate:

  • employment tax returns, and
  • information returns, specifically 1099s.

Which means that both Payroll and A/P could soon be feeling new heat to prune the paper from its processes. Here’s what you need to know.

IRS’s new plan of attack

In all fairness, businesses did step up significantly in 2013 as far as their e-file efforts – corporate returns were up 14% this year. But they still lag way behind individual return filers.

That’s why IRS is turning a focus on the two types of corporate returns where it can make up the most ground.

The first one: Employment tax returns. Currently, the largest e‐file gap remains in the employment return family, primarily Forms 940 and 941 (Forms 94x).

So how does IRS plan to get more of your peers to e-file these key returns? The Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee is recommending an incentive program for employers.

Specifically, it wants to expand the definition of the first time abatement (FTA) to include the “Promotion of Electronic Filing.”

If IRS takes that advice, your company would be able to e-file the 94x series without worrying that an error on the part of you or your finance staffers would slap you with penalties the first time you try it.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated.

The second area the Taxman will likely take action on is to increase the number of 1099s filed electronically.

Specifically, the form you likely file the most —  the 1099-MISC — currently falls well below IRS’s 80% goal at 64% projected for 2013. Almost 25 million are still filed in paper form.

Again, the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee has a proposed plan of action. This one is a multi-pronged approach.

It wants IRS to work with both withholding agents and service providers to remove any current barriers to facilitate electronic filing as the preferred filing method by:

  1. implementing electronic filing of Form 1099‐MISC via the IRS website, or
  2. expanding awareness and access to free or cost‐effective electronic filing solutions.

No word on which route IRS will take, but it knows it has to do something fast.

Of course this effort you’ll likely feel if you’re a smaller business since mandatory e-filing kicked in for companies with more than 250 information returns years ago.

The good news is, there’s no talk of any new mandates coming down the pike. For now, IRS seems to want to take a kinder, gentler, more taxpayer friendly approach.

Stay tuned. We’ll keep you posted on all e-file initiatives.

 Info: The Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee report.

 

Jennifer Azara
Jennifer Azara
Jennifer, a member of the CFO Daily News staff, has covered business and finance for more than 22 years. She has written for CFOs, credit and collections professionals and accounts payable practitioners and has spoken at industry conferences on sales and use tax compliance.

Keep Up To Date with the Latest Finance News

With CFO Daily News arriving in your inbox, you will never miss critical stories on accounting, benefits, payroll & employment law strategies.

Sign up for a free CFO Daily News membership and get our newsletter!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
CFO Daily News Logo
  • ABOUT CFO DAILY NEWS
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
  • WRITE FOR US
  • CONTACT
  • Accounting
  • Benefits
  • Payroll
  • Policy and Culture
  • Employment Law
  • Fraud
  • Finance Technology
  • Accounts Payable
  • Credit and Collections
  • Strategy
  • Payments and Transactions
  • Budgeting and Forecasting
  • Banking
  • Staff Management
  • Cost Control
  • Supply Chain
  • IT

CFO Daily News, part of the SuccessFuel Network, provides the latest Finance and employment law news for Finance professionals in the trenches of small-to-medium-sized businesses. Rather than simply regurgitating the day’s headlines, CFO Daily News delivers actionable insights, helping Finance execs understand what Finance trends mean to their business.

Privacy Policy Terms of Service
Copyright © 2021 SuccessFuel

WELCOME BACK!

Enter your username and password below to log in

Forget Your Username or Password?

Reset Password

Lost your password? Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.

Log In

preloader