Kelly Bullis: Doing business in Nevada

Every once in a while I discover something new. Now don’t get too excited. My wife will be the first to tell you that I’m not perfect. In fact, there are a lot of things I don’t know. Such as, “Who is going to win the election for Dog Catcher in Kalamazoo?” But … and I say, BUT, as a local CPA, I can become outright embarrassed when I discover something I think I should have already known.What? What is it? Well, let me tell you, it’s not all that earth-shattering, but some folks seem to think it is important.I just got back from a Continuing Professional Education class on human resource issues. One of the things I was told is that when Nevada employers hire a new employee, they must notify the state of Nevada within 20 days. I was shocked! How could I have missed this?When I got back to my office, I went hunting for information on this. I went to the nvdetr.org website. Looked around and couldn’t find anything initially. Not giving up easily, I kept clicking on almost every link on their website. I finally found it! When I went to the Employment Security Division section, then clicked on “Employer Services”, then “Unemployment Insurance Taxes”, then “New Hire Reporting Information” it showed up as one of the very tiny items on a list under General Services.Why do I point out how hard it is to find this? Maybe because, as an employer in Nevada, I would think that if the Government wants me to do something, they would make it easier to find and highlight it in order to make sure I do what I’m supposed to.As it turns out, federal law requires all employers to report certain information on newly hired employees to a designated state agency. The “designated state agency” for Nevada is the Nevada Employment Security Division of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (also lovingly known as DETR). Far be it from me to be breaking any federal law. But I have to admit, I don’t recall ever knowing about this law, and I read a lot of federal law-related periodicals, etc. What’s the point Kelly?! It’s actually simple. How many “laws” are there that we don’t even know about that we are breaking? As employers, we are inundated with requirements, paperwork, regulations, etc., and at every turn, we keep discovering more that we didn’t know about. I’m hoping that our upcoming Legislature realizes that if we are going to grow our economy, we have to make life much easier to do business in Nevada. To find something as simple as the requirement by law to do something buried in an obscure location on a website is, in my opinion, ridiculous! Look at Utah. They have one central location that makes it easy to set up and run a business in their state. Why can’t we at least copy Utah? That’s my challenge to this upcoming legislature. Fix the process in Nevada to be as simple and easy to understand and comply with as our “salty” neighbor to the east.Did you hear? “Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.”• Kelly Bullis is a Certified Public Accountant in Carson City. Contact him at 882-4459. On the web at BullisAndCo.com Also on Facebook.