The responsibility of running a business can be challenging for the owner and anyone else that supports the operation that is being run. Due to the requirements of keeping up with things that need to be done, business owners must take special care in making plans and carrying them out. Even though some of these responsibilities can be complex and time-consuming to complete, the owner must be diligent about getting critical things done on time.
Here are three legal matters that business owners can’t forget:
- Collecting Tax Information – Don’t File Taxes Late
Whatever business you have decided to run, you may find yourself with insurmountable duties that can easily become overwhelming. For instance, if you are running a computer repair business, you may have a long list of customers that are loyal to you. Anytime that they have a computer repair problem, they are at your door with their computer requesting your repair services.
Fortunately, this kind of loyalty is an excellent way to build up a good business and it is also an operation that can be taxing at times. In fact, if you are not careful, you may even neglect preparing your tax information before tax season. When this occurs, you may have to catch up quickly with the right information to file or you may be penalized with a stiff penalty for being late with your business taxes. Either way, you cannot forget to collect tax information for the year and file them accurately and on time before the tax deadline of April 15th of each year.
By making preparations early, you can avoid these tax penalties and any other issues that occur as a result of filing your taxes late with the IRS.
- Responding to Customer Complaints That Lead to Lawsuits
As mentioned before, it is relatively easy to get so busy that you forget to take care of certain legal matters for the business. You might delay a response to a customer’s complaint after an accident on your property, or other things that require a speedy response from you as the owner.
In some cases, the legal matter may be due to a subpoena that you received and you need to make sure that you follow through with what needed to be done by a specific date and time. Unfortunately, if are so busy working on core duties for your business, you may pay dearly in the long run for delaying a response to the court. This is especially the case for those of you who may need to hire an attorney to represent your interest in the complaint. Having an LLC registered agent can be a lifesaver when you are dealing with the service of process notifications.
- Purchasing the Right Types of Business Insurance
From the start-up of a new business, the laws of different states require certain insurance coverages to protect the company’s interest as well as consumers that they will be transacting different financial activities with for set periods of time. Some of the insurance coverage that is needed will protect the company in specific kinds of situations. You may need the following business insurance coverages to cover to take care of all of the needs of your business.
- Life Insurance / Key Executive Insurance – protection and a benefit that attracts high-quality employees
- Workers’ Compensation Insurance – for your employees. Almost every state in the U.S. requires Workers’ Comp insurance
- Property Insurance – to make sure this insurance is adequate, commercial business is highly recommended to protect the company for a wide range, including the physical assets of the business
- General Liability Insurance – protects your company from claims filed against it for a variety of circumstances, including claims of negligence, accidents and so forth
- Professional Liability Insurance – “Errors and Omissions” coverage
Though you may have a lot of core business activities to run your company efficiently, it is important that you pay close attention to other related things that need to be done, especially addressing legal matters that can impact the business financially. If you delay handling these things or do not address them at all, you may compromise the security of the business at any point in time.
