By Alice Magos, Online Advice Columnist

Dear Alice,

I simply don't have time to keep up to date with current changes in legal and tax rules that might affect my small business. Your Toolkit website is a big help if I know what I need to look up, but what can I do about those changes I don't know about? Those are the ones that'll come back to bite me for sure.

Busy Body

Dear Busy,

I feel your pain! A big part of my job is to keep our web site up to date on virtually everything potentially affecting our users' small businesses . . . and that is a huge universe of details.

One of the resources I have come to rely on is the SSA/IRS Reporter, a very good quarterly electronic newsletter for employers, produced by the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS.) The SSA/IRS Reporter also includes timely information from the Department of Labor (DOL), Department of Justice (DOJ), Health and Human Services (HHS), and often other government agencies as well. This newsletter has been published, in both English and Spanish, for quite some time and it seems to improve with every issue.

The quarterly Reporter communicates info to businesses with employees that are subject to employment taxes and business tax and legal compliance issues, with an emphasis on educating. The Reporter carries general information about best payroll and employment tax practices and SSA products and services, such as changes in forms for reporting employee wages, W-2 Online, SSA filing procedures, the importance of electronic filing and the very helpful Business Services Online area.

The Spring 2009 issue contains, for example, information on the recently enacted economic stimulus package will impact on small businesses.

You can receive this newsletter directly by starting your free subscription at IRS.gov. SSA also has a separate newsletter that you can receive by going to this site. This site is also an extremely helpful source of information on all existing and newly instituted rules as well as tools for SSA requirements.

Congratulations to you for worrying about unknown pitfalls that, as you point out, can and often do come back to bite you. This kind of awareness is essential motivation to keep yourself up to date. . .and a good tool for doing just that is reading our Toolkit news columns every few days. Our news team is always on the lookout for changes and if you miss a column or two, our monthly newsletter always hits the most important articles for you. And if you have any more questions, be sure to Ask Alice!