How to Help Your Boss with Tax Issues (3 Ways)
This article is to help employees of companies with owners who are overwhelmed. This especially applies if you work for a struggling business that is having trouble keeping enough cash flow.
Some of the signs of a struggling company may be:
- Payroll is often slow, or late
- Multiple IRS or state tax notices arrive
- The business owner often complains about expenses
- There is a reduction in shifts or working hours
In most of these cases, the business also has fallen behind in its payroll taxes or sales taxes.
Related Article: Top 3 Problems of Business Owners (and How to Cure Them)
Not having enough cash flow is the basic problem. But even if you cannot help with increasing the business’s cash, this is what you can do to help the business owner. These 3 simple things will also help you to be a most valuable person to the business.
1) Offer Help
The business’s resources (time and money) are tight. So, talk to the business owner and ask, how can you help? Business owners usually have to be the problem solvers. They don’t always expect the people around them to also be problem solvers.
Help the business owner by asking: “How can you help?”
2) Handle the Administrative Details
The business owner may not be very good at managing documents, including financial documents such as bank statements. If you can step in and say:
“Hey boss, it seems like we’re having some problems with this.”
- Can I help you contact the attorney?
- Can I help you talk to them?
- Can I help you pull documents together?
That is a huge problem solver for the business owner. Remember, this is the person who usually won’t ask for help. Why? Because they’re always expected to be the only problem solvers.
3) Keep the Boss Updated
Employees often fail to realize how important it is to give status updates.
Part of the business owner’s worry is having to figure out how to handle the task. You have already helped by Offering Help and by Handling the Administrative Details.
Another huge worry for your boss is simply knowing whether that task or project is getting done. A simple status report, say a quick phone call with the boss once a week, will help to eliminate his or her discomfort with delegating the task.
Follow these three steps, and you be considered the MVP problem solver.