Year-End Moves Newark Small Business Owners Should Make Before December 31

For a small business owner in Newark, Ohio, the last two months of the year are the only time left to change what 2026 looks like on paper. After December 31, the year can only be reported. Five things are worth doing now, while they are still decisions rather than paperwork.

Collect W-9s from contractors now

If you paid an independent contractor this year, you will likely owe them a Form 1099-NEC in January. The form needs their legal name, address and taxpayer identification number, and the way you get those is a Form W-9. The IRS instructions for the requester of Form W-9 describe it as the form used to request a U.S. person's taxpayer identification number for exactly this kind of information return.

Two things changed or matter more this year. First, the current Form 1099-NEC instructions set the reporting threshold at $2,000 for tax years beginning after 2025, so check your contractor totals against the new figure. Second, payments you made by credit card or through a third party payment network are reported on Form 1099-K by the payment company, not on your 1099-NEC, so your books need to show how each contractor was paid.

The 1099-NEC is due to the contractor and to the IRS by January 31, which in 2027 falls on a Sunday, so the deadline moves to Monday, February 1, 2027. Chasing a missing W-9 in late January is the hard version of this job. Asking in November is the easy one. And if a contractor will not give you a taxpayer identification number at all, the IRS backup withholding rules require you to withhold 24 percent from future payments, which is a conversation better had now than in January.

Reconcile bank and card accounts before the year closes

Every number that follows in this article comes out of your books, and books are only as good as their last reconciliation. Match every business checking, savings and credit card account to its statement, along with any payment processor that deposits in batches.

Doing it before December 31 rather than after has a practical payoff. If October and November are reconciled now, December is one month of work in January instead of three. And a reconciliation is where you find the things that move your tax picture: a deposit recorded twice, an owner draw coded as an expense, personal spending on a business card, a vendor bill paid but never entered. Find those now and you can still act on what the corrected numbers show.

Review payroll setup and how you pay yourself

Before the last payroll of the year, confirm that each employee's address, withholding elections and state and local withholding are set up correctly. Whatever is wrong in payroll in December is wrong on the W-2s, which are due to employees and to the Social Security Administration by February 1, 2027, according to the IRS Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3.

Then look at your own pay, because the rules depend on how your business is set up. If you own an S corporation and work in it, the IRS page on S corporation compensation says the corporation must pay you reasonable compensation for your services before non-wage distributions may be made to you. If most of what you took this year was distributions and very little was wages, that is worth a conversation before the final payroll, not after.

If you are a sole proprietor or a partner, what you take out is a draw, not a wage. The point to check is that it is recorded as a draw, because a draw recorded as an expense makes the business look less profitable than it is, and every estimate built on that number inherits the error.

Plan the January 15 estimated payment now

The fourth estimated tax payment for 2026 is due January 15, 2027, per the IRS 2026 Form 1040-ES. Ohio's fourth quarter estimated payment is due the same day, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation.

The same Form 1040-ES sets out the safe harbor. You avoid an underpayment penalty if your withholding and timely estimates cover at least 90 percent of your 2026 tax or 100 percent of your 2025 tax, rising to 110 percent if your 2025 adjusted gross income was more than $150,000 ($75,000 if married filing separately). It also says you can skip the January payment if you file your 2026 return by February 1, 2027 and pay the entire balance due with it, though few owners have their books closed that early.

Sizing the January payment in November rather than the second week of January gives you time to set the cash aside, and to decide which safe harbor you are aiming for before you pick a number.

Why the timing of a large equipment purchase matters

If you are weighing a vehicle, machine or computer system, the date matters more than most owners expect. Under IRS Publication 946, depreciation starts when property is placed in service, meaning ready and available for its specific use. Ordering it in December is not enough. If it arrives in January, or sits uninstalled until then, it belongs to next year.

For property placed in service in 2026, Publication 946 lists the Section 179 deduction limit at $2,560,000, reduced once the cost of qualifying property placed in service during the year exceeds $4,090,000. It also says the 100 percent special depreciation allowance has been reinstated for certain qualified property acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025. For smaller purchases, the IRS tangible property regulations page describes a de minimis safe harbor of $2,500 per invoice or item for a business without an applicable financial statement.

None of that means you should buy something to save tax. A deduction only saves a portion of what you spend, and whether taking it this year or spreading it out works better depends on this year's income against the next. That is a question with an answer in November, and no answer after December 31.

A short list before December 31

• Request a W-9 from every contractor you paid in 2026 who has not given you one.
• Reconcile every bank, card and processor account through the most recent statement.
• Check employee details and your own pay before the final payroll.
• Estimate the January 15 payment, federal and Ohio, and set the cash aside.
• If a large purchase is coming, confirm it can be placed in service by December 31, and ask whether it should be.

We complete monthly reconciliations as part of our bookkeeping service, run payroll alongside it, and handle tax advisory in house with an Enrolled Agent, so these questions get answered from your own numbers. If you want to work through any of them before the year closes, call Solutions Bookkeeping Plus at (614) 900-5753 or send a message. The consultation is free, and November is the right time to have it.