Now, more than ever before, businesses can enjoy the benefits of filing and paying their federal taxes electronically. Whether you rely on a tax professional or handle your own taxes, the IRS offers you convenient programs to make filing and payment easier.

Spend less time and worry on taxes and more time running your business. Use e-file and the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) to your benefit.

You can use your American Express® Card, Discover® Card, MasterCard® card, or Visa® card to pay the balance due shown on Form 940, Form 941, or Form 944. To pay by credit card, call toll-free or visit the website of either service provider listed below and follow the instructions. A convenience fee will be charged by the service provider based on the amount you are paying. Fees vary between the providers. You will be told what the fee is during the transaction and you will have the option to either continue or cancel the transaction. You can also find out what the fee will be by calling the provider's toll-free automated customer service number or by visiting the provider's website shown below. You may not use a credit card to pay taxes that are required to be deposited.

You can provide Formulario W-4(SP), Certificado de Exención de la Retención del Empleado, in place of Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, to your Spanish-speaking employees. For more information, see Publication 579SP, Cómo Preparar la Declaración de Impuesto Federal. You can also provide Formulario W-5(SP), Certificado del Pago por Adelantado del Crédito por Ingreso del Trabajo, in place of Form W-5, Earned Income Credit Advance Payment Certificate. For nonemployees, Formulario W-9(SP), Solicitud y Certificación del Número de Identificación del Contribuyente, may be used in place of Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification.

You may be required to file information returns to report certain types of payments made during the year. For example, you must file Form 1099-MISC, Miscellaneous Income, to report payments of $600 or more to persons not treated as employees (for example, independent contractors) for services performed for your trade or business. For details about filing Forms 1099 and for information about required electronic or magnetic media filing, see the 2008 General Instructions for Forms 1099, 1098, 5498, and W-2G for general information and the separate, specific instructions for each information return that you file (for example, 2008 Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC). Do not use Forms 1099 to report wages and other compensation that you paid to employees; report these on Form W-2. See the Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 for details about filing Form W-2 and for information about required electronic filing. If you file 250 or more Forms 1099, you must file them electronically or on magnetic media. If you file 250 or more Forms W-2, you must file them electronically. SSA will not accept Forms W-2 and W-3 filed on magnetic media.

After December 1, 2008, you cannot file
Forms 1099 using magnetic media.

Certain small employers may have to file Form 944 rather than Form 941 to report their employment taxes. For more information, see the Instructions for Form 944.

Nonpayroll federal income tax withholding must be reported on Form 945, Annual Return of Withheld Federal Income Tax. Form 945 is an annual tax return and the return for 2007 is due January 31, 2008. Separate deposits are required for payroll (Form 941 or Form 944) and nonpayroll (Form 945) withholding. Nonpayroll items include:

For details on depositing and reporting nonpayroll income tax withholding, see the Instructions for Form 945.

All income tax withholding reported on Forms 1099 or Form W-2G must also be reported on Form 945. All income tax withholding reported on Form W-2 must be reported on Form 941, Form 943, Form 944, or Schedule H (Form 1040).

Keep all records of employment taxes for at least 4 years. These should be available for IRS review. Your records should include:

To notify the IRS of a new business mailing address or business location, file Form 8822, Change of Address. Do not mail Form 8822 with your employment tax return. For information on how to change your address for deposit coupons, see Making deposits with FTD coupons in section 11.

You can use certain private delivery services designated by the IRS to mail tax returns and payments. The list includes only the following:

Your private delivery service can tell you how to get written proof of the mailing date.

Private delivery services cannot deliver items to P.O. boxes. You must use the U.S. Postal Service to mail any item to an IRS P.O. box address.

You can order employer tax products and information returns online at www.irs.gov/businesses. To order 2007 and 2008 forms, select “Online Ordering for Information Returns and Employer Returns.” You may also order employer tax products and information returns by calling 1-800-829-3676.

Instead of ordering paper Forms W-2 and W-3, consider filing them electronically using the Social Security Administration's (SSA) free e-file service. Visit SSA's Employer W-2 Filing Instructions & Information website at www.socialsecurity.gov/employer, select “Electronically File Your W-2s,” and provide registration information. You will be able to create and file “fill-in” versions of Forms W-2 with SSA and can print out completed copies of Forms W-2 for filing with state and local governments, for distribution to your employees, and for your records. Form W-3 will be created for you based on your Forms W-2.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS whose employees assist taxpayers who are experiencing economic harm, who are seeking help in resolving tax problems that have not been resolved through normal channels, or who believe that an IRS system or procedure is not working as it should.

You can contact the TAS by calling the TAS toll-free case intake line at 1-877-777-4778 or TTY/TDD 1-800-829-4059 to see if you are eligible for assistance. You can also call or write to your local taxpayer advocate, whose phone number and address are listed in your local telephone directory and in Publication 1546, Taxpayer Advocate Service - Your Voice at the IRS. You can file Form 911, Request for Taxpayer Advocate Service Assistance (And Application for Taxpayer Assistance Order), or ask an IRS employee to complete it on your behalf. For more information, go to www.irs.gov/advocate.

Generally, your filing address for Forms 940, 941, 943, 944, and 945 depends on the location of your residence or principal place of business and whether or not you included a payment with your return. There are separate filing addresses for these returns if you are a tax-exempt organization or government entity. If you are located in the United States and do not include a payment with your return, you should file at either the Cincinnati or Ogden Service Centers. File Form CT-1 (for railroad retirement taxes) at the Cincinnati Service Center. See the separate instructions for Form 940, 941, 943, 944, 945, or CT-1 for the filing addresses.

The Internal Revenue Service is a proud partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Photographs of missing children selected by the Center may appear in this publication on pages that would otherwise be blank. You can help bring these children home by looking at the photographs and calling 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) if you recognize a child.

Federal Government employers.   The information in this guide applies to federal agencies except for the rules requiring deposit of federal taxes only at Federal Reserve banks or through the FedTax option of the Government On-Line Accounting Link Systems (GOALS). See the Treasury Financial Manual (I TFM 3-4000) for more information.

State and local government employers.   Payments to employees for services in the employ of state and local government employers are generally subject to federal income tax withholding but not federal unemployment (FUTA) tax. Most elected and appointed public officials of state or local governments are employees under common law rules. See chapter 3 of Publication 963, Federal-State Reference Guide. In addition, wages, with certain exceptions, are subject to social security and Medicare taxes. See section 15 of this guide for more information on the exceptions.

  If an election worker is employed in another capacity with the same government entity, see Revenue Ruling 2000-6 on page 512 of Internal Revenue Bulletin 2000-6 at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb00-06.pdf.

  You can get information on reporting and social security coverage from your local IRS office. If you have any questions about coverage under a section 218 (Social Security Act) agreement, contact the appropriate state official. To find your State Social Security Administrator, visit the National Conference of State Social Security Administrators website at www.ncsssa.org.

Disregarded entities and qualified subchapter S subsidiaries.   Under Notice 99-6, employment taxes for employees of a qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub) or an entity disregarded as an entity separate from the owner under Regulations section 301.7701-2(c)(2) may be reported and paid either:

  If the second method is chosen, the owner retains responsibility for the employment tax obligations of the disregarded entity on wages paid before January 1, 2009. You can find Notice 99-6 on page 12 of Internal Revenue Bulletin 1999-3 at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb99-03.pdf.

  The IRS has published final regulations (T.D. 9356) under which QSubs and eligible single-owner disregarded entities are treated as separate entities for employment tax purposes. Under T.D. 9356, disregarded entities, and the owners of such entities may continue to use the first method permitted for wages paid before January 1, 2009. A taxpayer may switch to the second method for wages paid after August 15, 2007, and before January 1, 2009, without seeking permission of the Commissioner. Taxpayers who switch from the first method to the second method for wages paid before January 1, 2009, may consider wages paid by the owner to employees of the disregarded entity during the calendar year of the switch as having been paid by the disregarded entity for purposes of determining whether wages paid to the disregarded entity's employees have reached the compensation bases for social security and FUTA taxes.

  You can find T.D. 9356 on page 675 of Internal Revenue Bulletin 2007-39 at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb07-39.pdf.

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Employee status under common law.   Generally, a worker who performs services for you is your employee if you have the right to control what will be done and how it will be done. This is so even when you give the employee freedom of action. What matters is that you have the right to control the details of how the services are performed. See Publication 15-A for more information on how to determine whether an individual providing services is an independent contractor or an employee.

  Generally, people in business for themselves are not employees. For example, doctors, lawyers, veterinarians, construction contractors, and others in an independent trade in which they offer their services to the public are usually not employees. However, if the business is incorporated, corporate officers who work in the business are employees.

  If an employer-employee relationship exists, it does not matter what it is called. The employee may be called an agent or independent contractor. It also does not matter how payments are measured or paid, what they are called, or if the employee works full or part time.

Statutory employees.   If someone who works for you is not an employee under the common law rules discussed above, do not withhold federal income tax from his or her pay, unless backup withholding applies. Although the following persons may not be common law employees, they may be considered employees by statute for social security, Medicare, and FUTA tax purposes under certain conditions.

  See Publication 15-A for details on statutory employees.

Statutory nonemployees.   Direct sellers, qualified real estate agents, and certain companion sitters are, by law, considered nonemployees. They are generally treated as self-employed for all federal tax purposes, including income and employment taxes. See Publication 15-A for details.

Treating employees as nonemployees.   You will generally be liable for social security and Medicare taxes and withheld income tax if you do not deduct and withhold these taxes because you treated an employee as a nonemployee. See Internal Revenue Code section 3509 for details. Also see Special additions to tax liability under Prior Period Adjustments in section 13.

Relief provisions.   If you have a reasonable basis for not treating a worker as an employee, you may be relieved from having to pay employment taxes for that worker. To get this relief, you must file all required federal tax returns, including information returns, on a basis consistent with your treatment of the worker. You (or your predecessor) must not have treated any worker holding a substantially similar position as an employee for any periods beginning after 1977.

IRS help.   If you want the IRS to determine whether a worker is an employee, file Form SS-8, Determination of Worker Status for Purposes of Federal Employment Taxes and Income Tax Withholding.

Child employed by parents.   Payments for the services of a child under age 18 who works for his or her parent in a trade or business are not subject to social security and Medicare taxes if the trade or business is a sole proprietorship or a partnership in which each partner is a parent of the child. If these payments are for work other than in a trade or business, such as domestic work in the parent's private home, they are not subject to social security and Medicare taxes until the child reaches age 21. However, see Covered services of a child or spouse later. Payments for the services of a child under age 21 who works for his or her parent, whether or not in a trade or business, are not subject to federal unemployment (FUTA) tax. Although not subject to FUTA tax, the wages of a child may be subject to income tax withholding.

One spouse employed by another.   The wages for the services of an individual who works for his or her spouse in a trade or business are subject to income tax withholding and social security and Medicare taxes, but not to FUTA tax. However, the payments for services of one spouse employed by another in other than a trade or business, such as domestic service in a private home, are not subject to social security, Medicare, and FUTA taxes.

Covered services of a child or spouse.   The wages for the services of a child or spouse are subject to income tax withholding as well as social security, Medicare, and FUTA taxes if he or she works for:

Parent employed by child.   The payments for the services of a parent employed by his or her child in a trade or business are subject to income tax withholding and social security and Medicare taxes. Social security and Medicare taxes do not apply to payments made to a parent for services not in a trade or business, but they apply to domestic services if:

  Payments made to a parent employed by his or her child are not subject to FUTA tax, regardless of the type of services provided.

Applying for a social security card.   Any employee who is legally eligible to work in the United States and does not have a social security card can get one by completing Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card, and submitting the necessary documentation. You can get this form at SSA offices, by calling 1-800-772-1213, or from the SSA website at www.socialsecurity.gov/online/ss-5.html. The employee must complete and sign Form SS-5; it cannot be filed by the employer.

Applying for a social security number.   If you file Form W-2 on paper and your employee applied for an SSN but does not have one when you must file Form W-2, enter “Applied For” on the form. If you are filing electronically, enter all zeros (000-00-000) in the social security number field. When the employee receives the SSN, file Copy A of Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, with the SSA to show the employee's SSN. Furnish copies B, C, and 2 of Form W-2c to the employee. Up to five Forms W-2c for each Form W-3c may now be filed per session over the Internet, with no limit on the number of sessions. For more information, visit the SSA's Employer W-2 Filing Instructions & Information webpage at www.socialsecurity.gov/employer. Advise your employee to correct the SSN on his or her original Form W-2.

Correctly record the employee's name.   Record the name and number of each employee as they are shown on the employee's social security card. If the employee's name is not correct as shown on the card (for example, because of marriage or divorce), the employee should request a corrected card from the SSA. Continue to report the employee's wages under the old name until the employee shows you an updated social security card with the new name.

IRS individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs) for aliens.   Do not accept an ITIN in place of an SSN for employee identification or for work. An ITIN is only available to resident and nonresident aliens who are not eligible for U.S. employment and need identification for other tax purposes. You can identify an ITIN because it is a 9-digit number, beginning with the number “9” with either a “7” or “8” as the fourth digit and is formatted like an SSN (for example, 9NN-7N-NNNN).

  

An individual with an ITIN who later becomes eligible to work in the United States must obtain an SSN.

Verification of social security numbers.   The SSA offers employers and authorized reporting agents three methods for verifying employee SSNs.

  Some verification methods require registration. For more information, call 1-800-772-6270.