Tax season is quickly approaching, and business owners will need to get organized a little earlier this year. Recent legislative actions, made an in effort to cut down on both tax fraud and identity theft, have changed the upcoming W-2 and 1099-MISC filing deadlines. For 2016 forms, there is now a single due date of January 31st for both the government and recipient copies, as opposed to the previous year's two due date system of January 31st and February 28th.

To help you prepare for the upcoming tax season, we've summarized the changes, and provided 4 tips for compliance.

Summary of the new 2016 W-2 and 1099 filing due dates:

• W-2s must be given to employees by January 31, 2017.
• W-2 forms (and form W-3 if not filing electronically) must be received by the Social Security Administration by January 31, 2017—a month earlier than prior years.
• 1099-MISC forms for the 2016 tax year must be given to your vendors by January 31, 2017.
• 1099-MISC forms (and form 1096 if not filing electronically) must be submitted to the IRS by January 31, 2017—a month earlier than prior years.
• These changes apply to both paper-filed and electronically-filed forms.

Generally, a form 1099-MISC must be provided to:

• Non-employees who have done work for your company, to whom you've paid at least $600 for the year in total for services, rents, commission, or royalties;
• Services performed by someone who is not your employee (cleaning and maintenance services, IT support, etc.);
• Fees paid to any attorney;
• Medical and healthcare payments;
• And/or payments made for prizes and awards.

4 tips to help you comply with the new filing deadline:

1. Review your year-to-date non-employee vendor payment activity, to ensure that you have identified any potential vendors whom you may need to issue form 1099-MISC.
2. Obtain a completed W-9 form before issuing any payments to vendors. This will help ensure that you have all of your vendors' information when it comes time to prepare year-end 1099's, and avoid the stress of scrambling for information at the last minute.
3. Confirm the current mailing addresses of all employees.
4. Confirm that you have social security numbers on file for all employees.

The IRS has increased the penalties for failing to file the correct forms by their due date; intentional disregard for the filing requirements; failure to furnish W-2's to employees; and failure to furnish 1099-MISC forms to vendors or subcontractors—to avoid penalties, start preparing now! 

Several other filing deadlines have been updated this year—click here to view a full list of 2016 filing due dates.

If you have any questions about the new deadlines, or need assistance with filing, don't hesitate to reach out to me at todd.doe@crrcpa.com, or 781.279.7788.