'Tis the Season and Happy New Year

holiday_fire It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week, Christmas is in a month and then there’s the new year. Are you prepared for this holiday season? Have you thought about how you’re going to manage sales tax compliance in these shortened months?

In looking ahead over the next nine weeks, there is so much to accomplish in so little time. It’s critical to plan your December compliance that gets filed in January 2016.

I am not sure if you have looked at the January calendar lately, but it doesn’t look pretty. With January 1^st falling on a Friday, the first business day of the month does not start until January 4^th. And don’t forget MLK day is January 18^th where jurisdictions and banks are closed. This should make for a challenging year-end compliance month. Essentially, 7 to 10 business day to get everything to complete for the major deadline on the 20^th.

Here are a few tips to help you plan:

Review the calendar to know when you will be getting your data to start your process. You may want to check with your data source to make sure when the data will be ready.
Plan for early due dates. If your data is not available in time, create a contingency plan on how you will file these early returns.
Gather prior period data for annual reconciliations in HI, MI and RI.
Gather prior period data for new prepayment calculations.
Plan payments around MLK day (January 18^th).
Plan for weekend work if necessary or no time off until later in the month.

My advice is to think about it now, plan and get some rest over Christmas and then bring on the new year.