Friday, January 25, 2008
How I hate the govt part N
Just spent 40 minutes on hold to register my business with the Social Security registration so I could file my annual W2s. Turns out that the registration webpage is wrong and I should not register first over the phone. It should all be done online, so there's an hour lost.
After about a week, I can expect to get an ID mailed to my home address (?!?!? why not business address???) at which point I can actually file my company's W2 information. At least when I got a Federal Tax Payer ID, they read off my assigned number to me over the phone (an official form showed up a week later).
Quick summary - if you think filing a 1040 is a gigantic time suck (which I still have to do, cept this year it'll be more complicated), keep in mind I've lost at least a couple weeks in 2007 filing my business's state/federal taxes between all the registrations (one for Fed unemployment, one for Federal withholding, one for federal deposit online, one for a federal ID, one for Fed W2 statements, one for a state ID, one for a state unemployment ID, one for online state payments) and payments (about 1/2 day each month for calculating deposits - each employee has different rules because of Fed classifications - and I don't just mean different formulas), and a 1/2 day every quarter to file reports. That's not counting the time lost to read the hundreds of pages of tax regulations which apply and the day I lost to city taxes (had to go downtown). Sure next year should be shorter, so maybe I'll only lose 1.5 weeks.
Update
I'm still trying to send in the fax as the number I was given by the website appears to be inoperable. Back on hold with SS. Wheee.... A half day already gone just trying to register so I can give the government the information it requires me to by force.
Update2
Got ahold of a different lady who listened to me complain about taking all day to try and register. 2 minutes later - I was signed up, which is how long I thought it should've taken. Now I just have an hour of accounting work ahead of me to actually fill out the reports....
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After about a week, I can expect to get an ID mailed to my home address (?!?!? why not business address???) at which point I can actually file my company's W2 information. At least when I got a Federal Tax Payer ID, they read off my assigned number to me over the phone (an official form showed up a week later).
Quick summary - if you think filing a 1040 is a gigantic time suck (which I still have to do, cept this year it'll be more complicated), keep in mind I've lost at least a couple weeks in 2007 filing my business's state/federal taxes between all the registrations (one for Fed unemployment, one for Federal withholding, one for federal deposit online, one for a federal ID, one for Fed W2 statements, one for a state ID, one for a state unemployment ID, one for online state payments) and payments (about 1/2 day each month for calculating deposits - each employee has different rules because of Fed classifications - and I don't just mean different formulas), and a 1/2 day every quarter to file reports. That's not counting the time lost to read the hundreds of pages of tax regulations which apply and the day I lost to city taxes (had to go downtown). Sure next year should be shorter, so maybe I'll only lose 1.5 weeks.
Update
I'm still trying to send in the fax as the number I was given by the website appears to be inoperable. Back on hold with SS. Wheee.... A half day already gone just trying to register so I can give the government the information it requires me to by force.
Update2
Got ahold of a different lady who listened to me complain about taking all day to try and register. 2 minutes later - I was signed up, which is how long I thought it should've taken. Now I just have an hour of accounting work ahead of me to actually fill out the reports....
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