Small Business Counseling Program

The Small Business Center Network, along with the NC Department of Revenue, the  N.C. Small Business Commissioners Office, and the Small Business Technology Development Center is following up the popular Small Business Taxpayer Recovery Program with a similar effort to help small businesses recover from certain tax liability issues. The new initiative is called the Small Business Counseling Program because of its increased focus on confidential, one-on-one management and financial planning assistance and counseling for the participating businesses.

The Small Business Counseling Program will offer penalty and fee waivers, as well as payment plans to companies that have fallen behind on sales, withholding and other trust taxes. Businesses with 200 or fewer employees may qualify for the program and must agree to have a responsible corporate officer, responsible LLC member or manager, or responsible partnership partner attend small business counseling in North Carolina through the counseling services of the Small Business Center Network (SBCN) or the Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC).

For more than 25 years, the SBCN and SBTDC have helped thousands of owners improve their businesses.  The SBCN, operated through the North Carolina Community College System, provides potential and current small business owners with business counseling services, small business start-up and management training, and resource and referral services.  The SBTDC, the business advisory service of the University of North Carolina System, provides personalized management counseling designed to help small and mid-sized businesses with strategy, financing, marketing and performance improvement.

Both organizations will be available to assist participating small business taxpayers with financial analysis, business and operations planning and other business needs. All counseling services are free and confidential. To learn more about the SBCN, go to http://sbcn.nc.gov.  For more information on the SBTDC, visit www.sbtdc.org.

Small businesses that complete the required counseling and that file and pay all outstanding taxes may have their penalties and collection fees waived. Fees and penalties may be reinstated if program participants fail to file or pay future taxes on time.

There are limitations to the program relating to criminal investigations. Taxpayers interested in the program must not be facing criminal charges or be the subject of a criminal investigation by NCDOR at the time of application. Taxpayers may not receive the benefits of the program for tax periods associated with a prior criminal conviction. Taxpayers filing fraudulent returns are subject to criminal prosecution. In addition, taxpayers may not participate in this program if they have defaulted on payments while participating in the Small Business Taxpayer Recovery Program.

Interested business owners should contact the Department of Revenue at 1-877-252-4549 and visit the "Information for Businesses" section of www.dornc.com to learn more about eligibility and participation.

If you have questions about the program you can also check out the FAQs at http://www.dornc.com/business/counseling_faq.html or simply contact your local SBC.