What setup includes.
An employer identification number if the firm does not have one, the deposit schedule the provider will follow, and the forms that provider files. Form 944 is one annual path for a small employer. Many firms are on a quarterly form instead. We read the one you are already on. We do not switch it for decoration.
New hire reporting, the state unemployment account, and the choice of provider are setup. The payday itself, the direct deposit, and the tax deposit are the provider's job once that setup is done.
We do not become the payday. We do not stand in for the firm if an examiner calls about a deposit.
Why the trust account stays out of it.
Wages are firm money. Client funds are not a payroll reserve. A payroll run that clears the trust bank is the same class of error as a partner draw that cleared it.
If that has already happened, name the month. We will not fold it into fee income to make the trust total look calm.
Staff who are paid from earned fees still get paid from the operating bank after the fee has moved. The order matters.
Reasonable pay for owners who work in the firm.
An owner who works in the firm and takes only a draw can leave the wage question unasked until the return. We name the question. We do not invent a salary on a public page.
The provider needs a wage amount the firm will stand behind. That amount is a decision, not a default in the software. A Tax CFO is in the room for that decision. A bookkeeper can run the form after the number exists.
Steven Palmieri is a Tax CFO, the Entrepreneur's CFO, and the wage decision sits with the books and the return rather than in a separate speech.
What to send.
The provider's name, the last quarter that was filed, and whether any payroll cleared the trust bank. A firm with no provider yet should say so in that same note. Setup starts with that blank.
Form 8949 on this page is a capital-gain schedule, not a payroll form. It is here so a return stays in view while we talk about setup. Your own payroll forms stay off this site until we agree how they travel.
Bring the last quarter that was filed, the deposit schedule the provider follows, and one sentence on whether any wage cleared the trust bank. If the firm has no provider yet, that sentence is the start of setup, not a reason to delay the trust tie.
Firms that work under a state trust rule can read that rule on the state page. This page stays with the habit that is the same in every state.
Name the provider.
The provider name is enough.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.