Learning how to navigate the tax advantages of running your ownbusiness can be an education–but at least you stand to gain fromthe lessons. Understanding your responsibilities to Uncle Sam onceyou start hiring is another thing altogether. Fortunately, thegovernment wants to make it easy; hence the Simplified Tax and WageReporting System (STAWRS). Think of it as painting by numbers, onlywith taxes.

STAWRS–a joint effort of the SBA, the Department of Labor, theTreasury Department, the IRS, the Office of Management and Budget,and the Social Security Administration–was established to reduceemployers’ tax- and wage-reporting burden through improving thecurrent reporting processes. In other words, STAWRS allows you tosignificantly cut the risk of over- and underwithholdingemployees’ taxes and social-security contributions. An entiresection of the site is dedicated to startups and what newbusinesses need to know about their tax obligations.

STAWRS’ “One-Stop Guide for Businesses” (http://www.tax.gov/ ) providesgeneral tax information, includes a flowchart depicting basicbusiness events that require tax and wage reporting, offers a listsummarizing your basic responsibilities as an employer and refersto other tax-related publications that contain more detailedinformation. Much of the information in this guide refers to thefederal tax requirements; however, the site also includes links totax- and wage-reporting requirements for each state.