Hello everyone!
Yes, it’s that time of year and Mike & I have some things we’d like to advise you about…
Time and time again we get irate employees who call here saying that we’ve screwed up their taxes by deducting the wrong amount–and surprisingly enough it even happens with tax professionals. *shrug* They all claim we’ve over deducted and that we, personally, owe them money. Each and every time it has turned out that we’ve deducted exactly right. They–or their tax professional–have neglected to add tips to their gross figures, or used the wrong box from the W2. If you get an employee who corners you with this… Before you have them call us, please ask them to reread the instructions, okay? Those instructions appear right on the W2. We have no problems researching legitimate mistakes and will always admit to them when we’re wrong. But most employees think we purposely singled them out just to screw them. *grin*
One other problem is validity of information within Pulse. It’s a little after the fact now since we’ve already processed all W2s. But you should stress to your employees that they make sure to review the information on their checks. Their checks must always have their legal name , correct address, and correct SS#s–no nick names, or spelling issues, or mistaking first name for last name. This puts pressure on whoever inputs data at the stores because we upload Pulse data directly into Peachtree, and it’s this data that we use to create W2s. The government will kick out ALL documents that don’t match their records. And that can be a lengthy problem to fix. *frown* A good way to prevent problems is to input an employee’s legal name into Pulse directly from their social security card, which you probably should have a copy of for their employee file. *wink* If it’s merely an address change, there isn’t any current system in place that checks every piece of each employee’s info to what we already have in the system. So, make sure your managers send us an email with the change so we know to look for it, okay?
We’re finished with W2s and are close to being complete on 1099s. The next step is to begin the year-end process. Once that is complete, I’ll be sending statements off to your CPAs. For those of you who currently use Greg Delk as your CPA, I wanted to make you aware that we switched to a new CPA to complete our 2010 taxes. Her name is Michele Beck, and she works out of Keller, Texas. If you’re in Ms. Beck’s services, drop us a line. We’ll get you her information. My advice would be to talk to her on the phone and see if your personalities mesh. And if you tell her you’re working with us, there might even be a discount for you.
Let us know if you have any questions!
