Where’s my honorary CPA degree?

January: Federal employment withholding return. State employment withholding return. Federal unemployment taxes. State unemployment taxes. State wage reporting. Worker’s comp annual audit. W-2 forms. 1099-MISC forms. State sales tax return. Royalty statements. Annual insurance premiums for house and worker’s comp. Annual inventory count. And most of this needs to be done between January 1 and January 15.

Really, the 1040 in April isn’t so bad.

Much of this could be massively simplified. The various federal and state agencies already share information; a single unified return could take the place of at least 7 separate forms. I have seen two bright spots of hope: (1) Many employment-related returns can now be done on the web. (2) I saw a note on a tax form a few days ago that asked the public to suggest ways to simplify the form. I think that was in real life. I don’t think I’m far enough into this stretch to be dreaming about it yet.