BUSINESS COMPLIANCE RECOVERY

Recovery is the beginning. Not the destination. Every business that goes through a compliance recovery engagement faces a choice on the other side. Return to the same informal systems that allowed the gap to open in the first place... or build the infrastructure that makes a future gap unlikely. The Fixer Firm does not just get you back into compliance. We build the framework that keeps you there. What a Compliance-Stable Business Looks Like A compliance-stable business has a

You call them independent contractors. You pay them with a 1099. You do not withhold taxes. You do not pay the employer side of FICA. The IRS and most state labor agencies may disagree with how you have classified them. Worker misclassification is one of the most common and most expensive compliance errors a business can make. And it is frequently discovered not during a routine audit... but during an unemployment claim, a workers' compensation dispute, or a Department of Lab

A compliance audit is not the same as a tax audit. A tax audit examines your reported income and deductions. A compliance audit examines whether your business has met every legal and regulatory obligation it is subject to. Employment law. Payroll tax deposits. Business license renewals. State filings. Workers' compensation coverage. Sales tax registrations. The scope is broader. And in many industries, the consequences of a compliance audit finding are more immediately damagi

It is easy to miss. A renewal notice goes to an old address. The calendar reminder never got set. The person responsible for it left the company. And now your business license has lapsed. Or your professional license. Or the occupational permit that the municipality requires to operate. The consequences range from fines to forced closure depending on your industry and jurisdiction. And in some regulated industries, operating without a current license creates personal liabilit

Sales tax is one of the most overlooked compliance obligations in small business... and one of the most aggressively enforced. States depend on sales tax revenue. They audit businesses specifically for it. And the penalties for non-collection, non-filing, or non-remittance are not gentle. In many states, the responsible party for uncollected or unremitted sales tax can be held personally liable... the same way they can be held liable for payroll tax trust fund violations. The

When a business does not file a required return, the IRS does not simply wait. Using income information reported by third parties... 1099s, W-2s, bank interest reports... the IRS constructs a Substitute for Return on your behalf. They file it under the most unfavorable assumptions available. No business deductions. No credits. No context. Just gross income taxed at the highest applicable rate. The resulting liability is almost always dramatically higher than what an accurate

When someone says your business needs to be in good standing, they are talking about something very specific. Good standing means your business entity has met every obligation required by its state of formation and any states where it operates. Annual reports filed. Fees paid. Registered agent current. Tax filings submitted. No outstanding notices of suspension or administrative action. It sounds like a bureaucratic checkbox. The consequences of losing it are anything but. Wh

State compliance does not get the same headlines as IRS enforcement. But states have their own arsenal... and they use it. Unfiled state income tax returns, sales tax returns, or franchise tax reports trigger their own penalty structures, their own notices, and their own collection mechanisms. In some states, continued non-compliance results in administrative dissolution of your business entity... meaning the state effectively shuts down your legal right to operate. Administr

Payroll tax deposits are not optional and they are not forgiving. When a business misses a payroll tax deposit, the IRS does not send a gentle reminder. They send a penalty notice. The Failure to Deposit penalty starts at 2 percent of the unpaid amount for deposits one to five days late... and climbs to 15 percent for amounts still unpaid more than ten days after the first IRS notice. Miss enough deposits and the IRS begins pursuing the business owner personally through the T

It did not happen all at once. A payroll tax deposit got missed. Then another. A state filing slipped through the cracks during a rough quarter. The annual report did not get filed because nobody was watching the calendar. And now your business is carrying a compliance burden that feels bigger than the business itself. Falling out of compliance is not a character flaw. It is what happens when operations outpace infrastructure. The recovery, though, requires intention. Non-Com