Employment Taxes

Facing stiff penalties for failing to pay certain payroll taxes? Find a way out of the bind and protect your business with Wiggam Law.

Schedule a Consultation

Get back on track with your business tax obligations.

An employer’s tax responsibilities aren’t to be taken lightly. If you have difficulties collecting, reporting, and remitting payroll taxes, you can face penalties and interest from the IRS.

Wiggam Law’s employment tax attorneys help you resolve your payroll tax issues and save money.

Avoid the pitfalls of unpaid employment taxes.

As an employer, you have a duty to hold employment taxes in trust for your employees and report them to the IRS. If you can’t pay your payroll taxes and the IRS has assessed penalties and interest on your account, support from experienced tax attorneys can help you get back in good standing.

Prevent Property Seizures

Reduce Monetary Penalties

Protect Your Business

Schedule a Consultation

Employment Tax Attorney Services

An experienced tax attorney guides you to an appropriate resolution for your unique tax situation, no matter how challenging. Wiggam Law provides attentive, personalized tax law services to help you resolve a wide range of employment tax issues.

Employee Retention Tax Credit Services

Being audited for an Employee Retention Tax Credit claim can expose you to unexpected IRS back taxes. We can find the appropriate legal remedy to protect you and your business, such as an audit defense or appeal.

Get ERTC Help

Trust Fund Recovery Defense

We help you act quickly to stop the IRS from charging you personally for unpaid trust fund taxes. Our professional knowledge and skills leads you to a solution to your unique tax situation.

Get Trust Fund Recovery Help

Support for Failure to Deposit Penalties

Cash flow issues, mismanagement of funds, or even just misunderstanding deposit schedules can lead to costly Failure to Deposit penalties and interest for your business. Wiggam Law can help you find the most appropriate solution to resolve your Failure to Deposit penalties.

Support for Payroll Tax Issues

For small business owners and self-employed individuals, IRS payroll tax enforcement can move faster than you may expect. Wiggam Law’s expertise helps you resolve your payroll tax issues quickly and avoid enforcement actions that may put your business at risk.

Schedule a Consultation

Understanding Your Employment Tax Obligations

As an employer, there are payroll taxes that you are required to pay, including:

Social Security
Medicare
Federal and State Unemployment

Social Security and Medicare taxes are split equally between employers and employees, while the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) is paid solely by the employer.

FICA Tax and Form 941

Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes fund the federal Social Security and Medicare programs. FICA subtracts 15.3% of an individual’s wages, half of which is paid by the employee and the other half by the employer. As an employer, you are required to file Form 941 on a quarterly basis to report income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. It is used to report withholding and the shared taxes that are split 50/50 between employee and employer.

Employee Wage and Tax Reporting

Employees are required to accurately complete wage and tax reporting forms. If you fail to complete the proper forms or miss the required deadlines, monetary penalties are filed. Businesses are required to send Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement to all employees. Independent contractors must receive Form 1099 by January 31 of the following year.

Federal Unemployment Taxes and Form 940

Paid entirely by the employer, Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) is reported annually using Form 940. If a business has one or more employees or pays $1,500 or more to employees in a quarter, it is required to pay Federal Unemployment taxes. Most employers pay both federal and state unemployment taxes.

State Unemployment Taxes

Employers typically pay state unemployment tax in every state where they have employees. In most cases, payments are due quarterly, but the rates and wage bases vary by location. In Georgia, employers pay a specified rate on a quarterly basis. You are only required to pay taxes on the first $9,500 of earnings for each employee.

Need help resolving an employment tax issue? Get help from our tax experts.

Schedule a Consultation

Employment Tax Relief FAQ

When a business cannot pay payroll taxes, the IRS sends notice and applies monetary penalties to the account. If the taxes still cannot be paid, the IRS can place a lien on the employer’s assets, seize those assets, or close the business. Sometimes considered tax evasion, unpaid payroll taxes is one of the most serious matters to have with the IRS. The IRS may even attempt to contact you via phone by first sending IRS Letter 5857.

Businesses that violate employment tax laws may be subject to:

Monetary Penalties
Interest on Back Taxes
Liens Against Property
Civil and Criminal Sanctions
Prison Sentences

Since the IRS makes the process more difficult for employers with unpaid payroll taxes, it is best to have professional representation to counsel and negotiate on your behalf. The tax lawyers at Wiggam Law understand how to communicate with the IRS, making the process less complicated, while at the same time saving the employer money.

It’s common for an employer to withhold the correct amounts in payroll taxes, and then for whatever reason, fail to send payment to the IRS. Failure to deposit penalties are determined by the number of days past the due date. The penalties increase with the number of days. Here are the penalties per number of days:

One to Five Days Late Results in a 2% Penalty
Six to 15 Days Late results in a 5% Penalty
16 Days Late or Within 10 Days of the First IRS Notice Results in a 10% Penalty
10 Days After the First IRS Notice Results in a Maximum Penalty of 15%

If you have Failure to Deposit penalties, Wiggam Law tax attorneys can help decrease the penalties for your situation.

An employer is responsible to willfully withhold and pay payroll taxes. The IRS states that “any person required to collect, truthfully account for, and pay over any tax imposed by” the Internal Revenue Code who willfully fails to do so, will, “in addition to other penalties provided by law, be liable to a penalty equal to the total amount of the tax … not collected … and paid over.”

However, if a corporation fails to do so, the responsibility to pay the taxes can be pinned on any responsible individual within a company, making that person personally liable for their employer’s unpaid taxes. This IRS assesses the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty against those individuals in these situations. The IRS uses Form 4180 interviews to determine responsibility for these taxes.

While payroll back taxes is one of the most serious issues you can have with the IRS, there are still options to negotiate payroll tax resolution.

As with all tax debt circumstances, the IRS starts the collection process by sending a letter to assess your penalties and demand immediate payment. If you fail to respond or refuse to take action, you could face consequences, such as tax liens, wage garnishments, bank levies, property seizure, and jail time.

Employers do have options to negotiate payroll tax resolution with the IRS, including:

The tax lawyers at Wiggam Law are experienced at guiding employers through the best strategy for your unique situation.

Typically, the IRS does not file criminal charges for unpaid payroll taxes, unless the employer owes significant sums of money and rationally disregards the IRS’ request. However, if convicted, the sentence can often be five years in prison.

Wiggam Law employment tax attorneys are able to represent you no matter how much you owe in unpaid payroll taxes.

Still have questions about payroll taxes and penalties?
Talk to our experts and get the answers.

Schedule a Consult

Employment Tax Success Stories

$505,634 Saved

Our clients, a mother and daughter, were both being assessed a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty of $505,634 as the IRS claimed they were a responsible party for unpaid payroll taxes for a hospital that previously employed them as CEO and CFO, respectively. We successfully argued that the clients should not be personally liable for the non-payment of trust fund liabilities for the hospital. The IRS agreed with our position and determined that our clients should not be held personally liable, saving them both the full amount of $505,634.

$445,643 Saved

We disputed an IRS assessment against our client, a church, resulting in a reduction of the liability from $474,909 to $38,266. The IRS also removed some late payroll tax filing penalties, saving our client an additional $9,000.

$93,821 Saved

Our client, a manufacturing company, owed $123,371 in federal payroll taxes. A Federal Tax Lien would have closed down the company’s line of credit, severely damaging the business. We worked with the IRS, resulting in an abatement of $29,550 in penalties.

$359,078 Saved

Our client was suffering after their former employee embezzled the company’s payroll funds. Between the IRS and Georgia, our client owed a substantial amount. Our Penalty Abatement Requests saved our client $359,078 across their combined federal and state liabilities.