subject: Small Business Taxes [print this page] I'm Peter Holtz with the Financial Performance Center. One question I get all the time is, "When do I pay and how much are estimated taxes for my business?" Business taxes can be a little bit confusing. There are certainly more ways to pay and more things you have to pay than your normal income tax as a W-2 employee.
First, you have payroll; quarterly, weekly, monthly depending on the size of your payroll. You have to pay them. Payroll taxes are very important. Compliance is important, the penalties are high, and you have potential personal liability.
You have to file with the Federal and the State. The Federal is form 941 and DE6. Those are quarterly requirements. Annually, you have to file a Federal 940 and the State DE7. This is for your FICA or Social Security, Unemployment, and Withholding.
If you have to pay estimated income tax, those go quarterly on the 15th. That's the same as if you just had a W-2, or just had other investments on your 1040.
You may have to pay sales tax monthly or file quarterly and pay estimates. If you have very small sales taxes, you can also pay it annually.
Prepayments are required with quarterly returns. There's a potential personal liability. The Board of Equalization takes compliance extremely seriously.
There are high penalties. The rules are complicated. Audits are frequent and their enforcement is brutal. BOE is one of the toughest groups to deal with out there.
There are County business personal property taxes required to be paid annually after the April filing due April 1st.
City business licenses - some annually, some monthly. It depends on the city.
