I received an inquiry from a client recently about the availability of user documentation for the printing of 2024 end-of-calendar-year paper tax forms, including the 1099-NEC forms that are due to be filed to the recipients and the IRS by Friday, January 31, 2025. That's right, "paper" form printing and filing was the basis of the question. As we learned last year when the paper filing threshold dropped from 250 for each tax form to 10 tax forms in aggregate (i.e., 1099-NEC plus 1099-Misc plus W2), one should no longer be contemplating the printing and mailing of paper forms, including the copies that are to be mailed to recipients. Needless to say, only the very smallest of companies will be filing paper forms in 2025 and e-filing has become the new normal.
We have once again partnered with Yearli to provide a cost-effective, secure and reliable means of e-filing with the federal and state governments. Another added benefit to the users of our software is that all recipients will receive both a hard-copy and an electronic copy of the individual forms. Therefore, there is no need for you to get involved in stuffing envelopes and applying postage as this mundane task is included in your subscription to Yearli.
Although the IRS and Social Security Administration have filing deadlines that may differ from the various state deadlines when the forms are to be delivered (or postmarked) to a recipient, this is another thing you don't need to worry about with Yearli. They know the filing deadlines for each state so that you do not need to be involved in making sure the filing gets done on time and potential late-filing penalties.
The shift from paper filing to e-filing marks the end of an era, of sorts. For more than 30 years, SYMPAQ has provided various Accounts Payable and Payroll tax forms for our clients to print and mail. These have traditionally included the 1099 and 1096 forms for AP, and W2 and W3 forms for in-house payroll. There was a time when we had to code the individual forms from scratch, and then update the forms programmatically each year when changes to the output requirements were made by the IRS. For example, in 2020, the 1099-NEC was reintroduced for reporting wages paid to non-employees thus creating another tax form to be maintained in our software. In past years, our developers would painstakingly spend hours coding the forms and our quality assurance team would test the forms to make certain that the alignment of the text in the boxes on the forms was spot-on. With the most recent End-of-Year update, we have once again - and likely for the final time - embedded the forms for the users of our software to print hard-copies on demand. Although it is true you can continue to file paper forms as long as the total combined forms is 10 or fewer, why bother when it is much easier and more eco-friendly to adopt paperless filing no matter how few forms you must file? It's time for filers of tax forms to turn the page on paper (pun intended), and file electronically. It is both easier and more efficient for our users, and for us as a DCAA-compliant cost accounting software developer.