Terri recently sat down with Suzanne Kearns of Intuit Quickbooks to discuss what options small-business owners have available to them when they find themselves behind in their taxes owed to the IRS. Here are some highlights from Terri’s interview:

Small Business Center: What are some of the reasons that small-business owners fall behind in their taxes owed to the IRS?

Terri Brunsdon: One example is that a business suffers an economic slump and, instead of paying taxes, it pays vendors. The biggest issue I encounter is a business’s failure to remit payroll tax withholdings. Because payroll withholdings are fiduciary taxes (meaning it has been collected from employees on behalf of the IRS), the IRS will hold the business owners, accountant, and any other responsible parties personally liable for the tax.

What power does the IRS have over business owners to force them to pay overdue taxes?

If a business fails to pay its taxes, the IRS can levy and lien its assets. To levy means the IRS seizes financial assets, usually cash in bank accounts or payments from customers. On the other hand, a lien is public notice that the IRS has a priority claim on the business’s assets that must be satisfied before they may be sold. A lien also affects the credit rating of the business. If the unpaid tax is fiduciary, the IRS can levy or lien the assets of the owners and any other responsible party.

To learn more about Terri’s advice to small-business owners, read the full interview from Intuit Quickbooks.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a formal notice that officially delays the employer shared responsibility provisions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as the employer mandate, for a year and postpones the information reporting requirements.

The announcement gives larger employers an additional year to comply with the health care reform law. The requirements will instead begin in January 2015 for employers with 50 or more full-time employees (or the equivalent in full- and part-time employees) to offer quality affordable health insurance to employees or face a $2,000 fine per employee if the employee receives a premium tax credit for purchasing individual coverage on one of the upcoming health insurance exchanges.

Source: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/IRS-Formalizes-Employer-Mandate-Delay-Providing-Health-Insurance-67392-1.html

The Internal Revenue Service is losing billions of dollars to fraudsters every year from stolen Employer Identification Numbers, according to a new government report, even though it has some processes in place to authenticate individuals who apply for an EIN. (more…)

A former Internal Revenue Service employee has pleaded guilty to stealing identities from an IRS Service Center in Fresno, Calif., and using them to claim more than $1,745,000 in fraudulent tax refunds and obtain more than $175,000 in refunds from the IRS.

Source: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Former-IRS-Employee-Pleads-Guilty-Claiming-Fraudulent-Tax-Refunds-69347-1.html