Page 144 - The UnCaptive Agent

TOOLS YOU’LL NEED AND WHEN YOU’LL NEED THEM 117

Social Security Number), which you can obtain over the
phone from the Internal Revenue Service. The Internal
Revenue Service website also offers helpful informa-
tion about how to file Federal Insurance Contributions
Act (FICA) and payroll reports. You will need this
information, along with information from the unem-
ployment security agency in your state, in order to file
state unemployment taxes and federal unemployment
taxes. Your choice here will be whether to try to file
these reports yourself or to rely upon your accountant
or outside accounting firm to do it for you. My strong
recommendation is that you find a professional to do
this for you: it can be extremely time-consuming, and
mistakes can be quite costly.
One thing you will need to be cognizant of, especially
with clerical employees, is the need to prove that you
comply with federal (and in some jurisdictions, state)
minimum wage laws. In general, all employees are sub-
ject to the minimum wage law unless they are exempt.
Exemptions are available for outside salespeople and for
certain administrative or management personnel. This
book is not intended to give you legal advice, and you
should seek guidelines from your attorney and your CPA.
Just be aware that you must guarantee that nonexempt
employees make at least the minimum wage for every
week that you employ them, and you are responsible
for paying these kinds of employee’s time-and-a-half
for all hours worked beyond forty in any workweek.

You Need to Buy Some Insurance!

What insurance do you need when you open your busi-
ness? As an insurance professional, you probably are
already aware of the different kinds of policies you need
to purchase. But I think it’s worthwhile to list them