Congratulations—you’ve officially survived another tax season. Your forms are filed, the IRS hasn’t come knocking (yet), and the spreadsheets are (hopefully) closed. But before you shut the door on another reporting cycle, take time to finish strong and set yourself up for success the next time around.
Step 1: Correct and Resubmit Any Filing Errors
Filing isn’t the finish line—it’s the start of post-season quality control. The IRS may have received your forms, but that doesn’t guarantee acceptance.
Review and Resolve Rejected Forms
Start by reviewing your error reports. Most e-filing platforms—including eFileMyForms—provide clear, downloadable reports that show which forms were rejected and why. Common reasons for 1099 and 1042-S rejections include:
- Invalid or missing Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TINs)
- Mismatched recipient names
- Incorrect mailing addresses or ZIP codes
- Formatting errors in required fields
Make Corrections and Refile Promptly
Once errors are identified, correct the data and resubmit your forms to the IRS. The faster you act, the less likely these issues will escalate into B-Notices or penalties.
Investigate the Root Cause
Don’t just fix the problem—understand why it happened: Are vendors submitting inaccurate W-9s? Is manual data entry causing recurring mistakes? Are your templates outdated or misaligned with IRS format requirements? Identifying and addressing the source of errors now helps streamline future filings.
Step 2: Prepare for B-Notices (CP2100 / CP2100A)
After tax season, the IRS performs its own TIN matching process. If they find a mismatch between your submitted name/TIN combination and their records, they’ll send you a CP2100 or CP2100A notice—also known as a B-Notice. These notices typically arrive in two waves: once in late spring and again in the fall.
- Review the IRS notice carefully. It will list all recipients with mismatched name/TIN combinations. Cross-check this against your records to verify the issue.
- Notify affected recipients. You must send the appropriate B-Notice letter to each impacted individual or entity within 15 business days.
- Initiate or continue backup withholding. If the payee doesn’t respond with a corrected TIN, you must begin or continue withholding 24% from any future reportable payments.
- Document everything. Track the date of notice receipt, when B-Notices were sent, W-9 updates received, and any backup withholding actions taken.
Ignoring or mishandling B-Notices can result in IRS penalties and further scrutiny—so take them seriously.
Step 3: Conduct a Post-Tax Season Review
With the chaos of filing season behind you, now’s the perfect time to regroup and reflect. A structured post-tax season review can help your team identify pain points, refine workflows, and implement improvements that save time and reduce errors in the next filing cycle.
Bring together everyone who played a role in your information reporting process. That includes your finance team, HR, operations, accounting staff and any external partners or vendors who contributed to data collection or form submission.
Questions to Guide Your Review:
- What went smoothly, and where did we hit roadblocks?
- Were any tax filing deadlines missed or nearly missed?
- Which parts of the process felt unnecessarily manual or repetitive?
- Were there recurring issues with specific vendors or data sources?
Once you’ve gathered these insights, turn that feedback into an actionable improvement plan. Focus on low-effort, high-impact changes such as collecting W-9 forms earlier in the vendor onboarding process, centralizing payee contact and TIN data in a shared system or leveraging automated tools to reduce manual entry.
Step 4: Evaluate Your Tax Compliance Tools
If tax season felt harder than it should have, your tech stack might be part of the problem. This is the ideal time to assess whether your e-filing platform supported your team—or made things more complicated.
Ask yourself and your team:
- Was the platform user-friendly?
- Did it integrate smoothly with our accounting or ERP systems?
- How much time did we spend on manual data entry or corrections?
- Did support respond quickly when you ran into issues?
If your current solution falls short, you may want to consider switching to a more flexible and automated platform.
Step 5: Run a Stress Test
Before tax season ramps back up, run a test export of your recipient and payment data. Think of it as a dress rehearsal—designed to catch issues before deadlines hit.
What to look for:
- Are any key data fields missing or incorrectly formatted?
- Are TINs and addresses accurate and up to date?
- Is your data flowing correctly from your internal systems into your e-filing platform?
Year-Round Best Practices for Tax Compliance
Tax readiness isn’t just for Q1. Building tax compliance into your year-round operations can significantly reduce filing stress and help avoid penalties.
- Run quarterly TIN matching for any new or recently updated vendors. It’s much easier to fix discrepancies in real time than under deadline pressure.
- Store W-9s and related tax documents in a centralized, secure location that your team can easily access when needed.
- Update contact information whenever you process vendor payments. If someone’s moved or changed their business name, now’s the time to catch it—not in January.
- Keep a log of regulatory updates from the IRS and track any internal process changes, so you’re always working from the latest playbook.
Ready to make next tax season easier than ever? Discover how eFileMyForms can help.