This Podcast Is Episode Number 452, And It's About Last-Minute Reminders Before The New Year Countdown It’s been another excellent year for Fast Easy Accounting. We appreciate your support for those of you who have been with us through all these years; without our contractor clients, template customers, construction accounting academy students, email subscribers, podcast listeners, blog readers, and social media followers, we wouldn’t get to where we are today.   As we look back on our 2021, I hope your fondest memories will include the time you’ve spent with all the things you love and are passionate about. And because we love what we do and we are passionate about serving our contractor friends - for us, this year was all about empowering your contracting business by continually providing you with outstanding products, high-quality services, and dependable resources for your bookkeeping and accounting needs.   Year-End Review: Time flies when everyone is busy. Start now - review your records for the following items: Missing Federal Tax ID’s and requesting the W-9. Have all your employees verify their pay stubs for the correct address. Check Apartment numbers and zip codes. Have any of the neighborhoods been annexed into the city? Year-End Accounting Clean Up Your Tax Accountant will be sending your booklet with what they want for records.  What are the loose odds and ends missing for this year? Do you have a formal Accounting System? Do you need to clean up the Accounting beyond the last couple of months?  Do you have bank statements?  Can you find all your receipts? Tax Accountants do “workarounds” to file your annual taxes. At some point, the Tax Accountant may refuse to clean up and deal with the Lack of Good Records or Messy Records. As the economy improves, tax accountants will have more clients who want their taxes done.  Helpful Reminders: Be mindful of the paperwork that must be stamped on or before December 31st (today). Payroll – Did you take any personal payroll (S-Corp)? If not, it may impact your personal deductions.  IRA - 401K - Making those final payments before midnight on December 31. (Do not wait until 11:59 PM) Some plans allow you to make payments until April 15th (double-check the dates– do not assume) Income – Getting one last customer invoice and receiving the payment - last-minute purchases to count on 2021 taxes (expenses or larger item which qualifies for depreciation) Do not expect to be able to file your annual taxes on January 1st (tomorrow). Visit  for the official 2022 Filing Season Start Date. Prepare W-2s and pass them out as soon as possible - remember to keep a copy. W-2’s and 1099’s have a deadline of January 31st to be mailed out to your employees and 1099 contractors. Be proactive and send out W-9’s as soon as possible, thereby asking for a Federal Tax ID or Social Security Number now. Think about your company tax filing status. I recommend changing from a Sole Prop to an S-Corp. Setting up an S-Corp is done with the Secretary of State in your state. Note, a few states only accept forms from a third-party service.  If you are currently an LLC, I recommend becoming an S-Corp. If not, change your tax filing status to be treated as an S-Corp. The form needed from the IRS is Form 2553. Unlike many State Agencies, the IRS does not charge to file their forms. You are asking the IRS to change how your company is treated. Why is this important? Because the IRS will only accept the form for the current year in January – February (pushing the deadline to March 15th is risky), the approval will be for the next year (starting in January 2023) instead of January 2022. Late Penalties to State and Federal Government Agencies are increasing, and they are looking back at filing dates of past returns for additional...