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#tax-compliance

Tax Compliance

Stay compliant with tax regulations and filing requirements

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Indoor Playground Bookkeeping: Why Party Deposits, Memberships, and Cafe Sales Each Need Their Own Ledger

Party deposits are a contract liability under ASC 606, not income — a $100 deposit stays in deferred revenue until party day, annual memberships spread over twelve months, and cafe sales carry food costs and separate sales-tax rules. How indoor playgrounds should split their books by revenue stream, handle breakage and state escheatment on unused passes, and track seven weekly KPIs from deferred-revenue balances to cafe attach rate.

mike

bookkeepingsmall-businessrevenue-recognition

Florida's 2026 Sales Tax Holidays: New Dates, Item Caps, and a Retailer Compliance Checklist

Florida's 2026 omnibus tax bill (H7031E) moved the back-to-school sales tax holiday to July 20–August 20, added a September 1–December 31 hunting, fishing and camping holiday with no price cap on hunting supplies, and permanently exempted propane tanks of 20 lbs or less. This guide lists every item cap and location exclusion, explains the university-contractor and home-hardening refund programs, and gives Florida retailers a register-programming and bookkeeping checklist to stay audit-ready.

mike

sales-taxtax-complianceretail

Indiana's 2026 Tax Amnesty Window Closes September 9: How to Clear Old Back Taxes Without Penalties or Interest

Indiana's Tax Amnesty 2026 runs July 15 through September 9, 2026 and waives all penalties, interest, and collection fees on DOR-administered taxes for periods ending before January 1, 2024, provided you pay in full or open a payment plan that is paid off by June 7, 2027. This guide covers the eligibility checklist (including the 2005/2015 prior-participant bar), the four-step INTIME process, five mistakes that void the waiver, and how to record the forgiven amounts in your books.

mike

taxtax-compliancetax-deadlines

North Carolina Raised Its Sports Betting Tax to 23%: What Betting-Adjacent Small Businesses Must Track Now

North Carolina's 2026 budget raised the sportsbook tax from 18% to 23% of gross wagering revenue, added a 6% prediction-market tax effective January 1, 2027, and requires operators to report every bettor who wins more than $2,000 a year. Here is what bars, affiliates, vendors, employers, and bettors in the state need to record, reconcile, and calendar.

mike

gamblingtaxtax-compliance

Quebec Just Cut Your Small Business Tax Rate to 2.2%: What Incorporated Owners Must Do Before Year-End

Quebec's Information Bulletin 2026-3 cuts the provincial small business rate from 3.2% to 2.2% for taxation years beginning after April 29, 2026, lowering the combined rate on the first $500,000 of active business income to 11.2% and saving a qualifying CCPC up to $5,000 a year. Calendar-year corporations wait until 2027, the 5,500 remunerated-hours test still applies, and a matching increase in non-eligible dividend tax changes the salary-versus-dividend math.

mike

taxsmall-businesstax-planning

Stay Bonuses That Actually Keep People: How to Structure Retention Agreements Without Overpaying or Under-Withholding

A stay bonus agreement pays a key employee to remain through a fixed date, usually 10% to 30% of base salary as a lump sum or milestone installments. This guide covers when a retention bonus beats a raise, how to size it against replacement cost, the terms a written agreement needs (forfeiture carve-outs, clawback limits, who pays in a sale), and the payroll rules that apply, including the IRS flat 22% supplemental-wage withholding, FICA, and state supplemental rates.

mike

compensationpayrollwithholding

Statutory Employees: The W-2 Workers Who File Like a Business

Statutory employees are the IRS hybrid class between contractors and employees — commission drivers, full-time life insurance agents, home workers, and traveling salespeople under IRC section 3121(d)(3). Employers withhold Social Security and Medicare but no income tax, issue a W-2 with Box 13 checked, and the worker deducts expenses on Schedule C without owing self-employment tax. Covers the four qualifying categories, the three FICA conditions, and the misclassification errors that trigger back taxes and penalties.

mike

payrolltax-compliancew-2-wages

California Cities Can Now Pull Your Airbnb Data: An STR Host's Guide to SB 346 and Transient Occupancy Tax Compliance

Since January 1, 2026, California's SB 346 lets any city or county with a conforming ordinance require Airbnb, Vrbo and other platforms to report each short-term rental's address, assessor parcel number and listing URL as often as monthly, backed by fines of up to $10,000 per day. Covers which cities already enforce (Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Diego), how transient occupancy tax works and who owes it, what back assessments with 10–25% penalties look like, and a plain-text bookkeeping setup that books TOT to a liability account, records platform-remitted tax, and reconciles channel by channel.

mike

airbnbreal-estateproperty-management

When Your Payroll Provider Fails to Deposit Your Taxes: Why the IRS Still Comes After You

If a payroll company withdraws your tax money and never deposits it, the employer still owes the full tax plus penalties. A payroll service provider or reporting agent assumes no liability, a Section 3504 agent shares it, and only an IRS-certified CPEO is solely liable for its work-site employees. This guide covers the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty that reaches owners personally, seven warning signs of a failing provider, and the monthly EFTPS verification habit that catches a missed deposit at a 2% penalty instead of 10%.

mike

payrolltax-compliancewithholding

AWS Marketplace Seller Bookkeeping: Reconcile Gross Revenue, Listing Fees, Taxes, Refunds, and Delayed Disbursements by Offer

How AWS Marketplace sellers can keep deposits from masquerading as revenue — book gross billings at the transaction level, record listing fees separately, classify the three tax-share scenarios, reverse refunds against the original offer, and reconcile net disbursements to the bank using clearing accounts, offer IDs, and bank trace IDs.

mike

bookkeepingreconciliationsaas

Form 4868 for Sole Proprietors in 2026: More Time to File, Not More Time to Pay

Form 4868 gives a sole proprietor an automatic six-month extension to file Form 1040 and Schedule C — moving the 2025 return deadline from April 15 to October 15, 2026 — but the tax itself was still due in April. How to estimate total liability including self-employment tax, request the extension electronically or through a designated payment, and limit the 5%-per-month failure-to-file penalty.

mike

tax-filingtax-deadlinessole-proprietorship
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