Employment Tax: Your Client's Legal Obligations & the Risks of Noncompliance - 2019

Originally presented on: April 9, 2019

Failing to pay employment taxes or file employment tax returns can lead to serious legal problems for your clients, including the imposition of significant civil penalties, personal liability, and criminal prosecution. Yet many businesses - not realizing the significant risks of noncompliance - do not comply. In a recent study, the IRS estimated the net employment tax gap (employment taxes not collected) in the U.S. to be over $79 billion! Now the IRS and Department of Justice are cracking down. In this program, we will discuss your clients’ employment tax-related obligations and provide strategies for you to identify and help your clients out of employment tax-related jams.

•  An employer’s employment tax-related legal obligations including properly distinguishing between employees and independent contractors, recordkeeping requirements, and filing and payment requirements;
•  The risks of noncompliance with the employment tax laws including the imposition of significant civil penalties and criminal prosecution;
•  The Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice’s recent initiatives to reduce the employment tax gap; and
•  Strategies to assist clients who are not in compliance with their employment tax obligations, both before and after the government shows up.

Speakers:
Sara G. Neill, Capes, Sokol, Goodman & Sarachan, PC, St. Louis
Michelle F. Schwerin, Capes, Sokol, Goodman & Sarachan, PC, St. Louis

Note: This program was originally produced as a webinar and is available on demand in streaming audio with streaming video PowerPoint. This material qualifies for self-study credit only. Pursuant to Regulation 15.04.5, a lawyer may receive up to six hours of self-study credit in a reporting year. Self-study programs do not qualify for ethics or elimination of bias credit.