You might not knowingly want to break the law, but many businesses find themselves falling foul of the many laws companies need to follow every year. The majority of the crimes are what are commonly referred to as white-collar crimes and, in most cases, are done unintentionally.
But if you don’t want to find yourself raising everything you’ve worked so hard for, these are some common crimes business owners commit.
Not Paying Federal Payroll Tax
This mostly happens in new startups with little or no cash flow initially. Not making federal employee tax deposits will typically land you with a fine and interest, and for some people, it’s worth not making those deposits to have the cash flow to hand to use as needed, and the fines and interest they pay is worth it to give their finances a boost in the beginning.
Not Declaring Sales
This is something that used to be really common in local convenience stores; however, if caught, it can cost much more in litigation fees and finances.
If you’re tempted to underreport sales to save on paying more on taxes or don’t charge sales tax, you are intentionally breaking the law by choosing to do this. While it might save you around 8% off your pricing structure to not charge sales tax, the consequences could cost you much more.
Not Providing a Safe Workplace
For both employees and customers or visitors to your place of work, If you fail to abide by OSHA regulations about keeping everyone safe and well on your premises, whether they are working for you or not, then you can expect to land in legal hot water. Everyone should be able to go to their place of employment and expect not to have their life put at risk from any type of threat. The same goes for visitors or customers to your locations, too. Failing to meet your legal responsibilities this way can significantly damage your business.
Playing Music
Unlike the two options above, where you, as the business owner, have made conscious choices to commit felonies, playing music in your establishment isn’t something you owls think is illegal. However, copyright laws mean you need a license to play music in public places inside a shared workplace, an office, or other private working areas. You can find providers so you can legally play music in your workplace to reduce the risk of being found breaking license laws regarding playing music on the premises.
Not Paying Legal Wages
This means employing people who don’t have social security numbers or taxpayer-identification numbers or not paying employees what they are legally entitled to, i.e., not paying the correct rate, making illegal deductions, or not playing overtime on salaried employees.
Breaking the law as a business owner can risk your business and reputation. While some are simple mistakes or oversights, they can still impact our business, and those times when you might be considering not doing something you legally need to be, maybe think twice to make sure everything is legal and above board.
