In the United States, there are more than 32 billion businesses.
With all of these businesses, it’s important to make sure that they are regulated and all follow some kind of guidelines.
If you’re a business, you need to operate within the law. We take a look at some of the key business regulations that you’ll need to follow.
1. Tax Regulations
As a business, it’s important to know what taxes you’ll have to pay. Regardless if you have 100 or 1,000 employees, you’ll need to make sure that you have tax information for them.
Make sure you review the requirements for federal tax, social security, Medicare, and the unemployment taxes.
You will probably want to hire an accountant for your business to make sure that you aren’t breaking any laws and that you are following all of the regulations.
You will have to pay federal taxes and depending on what state your business is in, a state tax as well.
2. Health Care Laws
You’ll also need to know about what some of the healthcare laws are.
The health care laws change all the time, but they are important to keep track of. The Affordable Care Act has been one of the most recent laws. Until its repealed and a new law is passed by Congress, this is the one that you should follow.
Make sure that you follow this law and meet all of the requirements for providing health care to your employees.
3. Advertising Regulations
One of the important parts of running a business is making sure you have a good marketing and advertising campaign.
However, there are some rules that apply to advertising, and you need to make sure you follow them.
When you make claims in your ads and campaigns, you need to make sure that you aren’t lying or being purposefully deceptive.
You can use testimonials and other consumer’s input into your advertising, but there are rules surrounding how you can do that as well.
If you don’t follow these rules, you could end up having to pay some fines and fees, which will defeat your reason for advertising.
Advertising is important, and one of the first ways you can start is by customizing and designing your own website. Small business websites can help direct traffic to your site and bring attention to your brand.
4. Reporting Pay Data
If you have more than 100 employees, you’ll have to report how much you pay them. You’ll even have to break it down by ethnicity/race, their job category, and gender. This is so the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission can make sure everyone is being treated fairly.
You’ll have to submit this report, which is called an EEO-1 form, to the Commission by the end of May each year.
If you have more than 50 employees as a federal contractor, you’ll also have to report how much your employees make.
5. Privacy Laws
When you have employees’ sensitive and personal information, you’ll want to make sure that you protect that information at all costs.
To make sure that companies actually protect them, there are some rules about how employers can handle, save, store, and secure this data.
If businesses do decide to leak sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, addresses, names, health conditions, bank numbers, personal history, or credit card information, then employees may be able to sue them.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) helps to stop companies or businesses from giving out patients’ medical and health data.
While employees have a right to privacy, the business still has a right to monitor their employees’ operations while at work.
If you are going to monitor your employees though, you need to make sure you are transparent about it.
6. Environmental Regulations
With global warming on the rise and issues with the environment, there are some environmental regulations you need to follow.
The laws will vary depending on what type of business you are running. If you are running a business that is promoting food or anything that you’re deeming organic, then you will need to be eco-friendly.
The EPA Small Business Gateway is a great place to start to see if your business is compliant with environmental regulations. You may also need to contact your state agency as well.
7. Sales Tax
If you are a business that is selling goods, you’ll need to collect a sales tax from the customers. Next, you’ll have to submit those taxes to the state’s revenue department.
Depending on what state your business operates in, you may not even have a sales tax.
The rules can get a bit tricky if you have a business operating in multiple states, but you should make sure you do your research on the rules.
8. Online Businesses
Online businesses have a little bit of a different regulations than brick and mortar stores.
You may know to charge a sales tax for a brick and mortar store, but when you have an online business, the rules can get a little bit blurry.
If your business has a physical presence in a state, according to the FTC, you’ll be responsible for local sales tax. Make sure you check with the state’s revenue agency and read the FTC guidelines.
9. Intellectual Property
If you create a product under your intellectual property, you’ll want to make sure you get a patent with it to protect it.
You can also patent your name, logos, and symbols as well.
To learn about the rules with this, you’ll need to go through the process with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Make Sure You Follow These Important Business Regulations
These are some of the most important business regulations that you need to make sure your business complies with.
If you don’t, you may face legal and financial repercussions.
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