At this time of year, many tax agencies stop accepting electronic submissions in order to perform critical maintenance. Here are some of the agency shutdown schedules we wanted to pass along to you:

• Social Security Administration: In preparation for 2009 W-2/W-3 submissions, SSA and Intuit will be performing maintenance from 12/3/2009 through 12/17/2009. You may prepare and submit your W-2/W-3 forms to the SSA after 12/17/2009.
• Internal Revenue Service: The IRS will perform annual maintenance from 12/14/2009 through 1/4/2010. No new enrollments or tax returns will be accepted during that time. You can print out and mail returns to the IRS during that time, or wait until after 1/4/2010 to submit forms electronically.
• Both Maryland (12/16/2009 — 1/10/2010) and Georgia (ongoing) will be doing system maintenance at year end, and some of that maintenance includes changing the way they process electronic filings and payments. To ensure that your future filings are problem-free, it’s important to keep your QuickBooks software up to date. Download and install Payroll Updates when they’re released by selecting the Employees menu in QuickBooks and then selecting Get Payroll Updates.

Employers trying to send new enrollments or tax filings during a scheduled outage will receive a message reminding them of the outage and letting them know when they may re-file.