Congratulations! You've met the Jan. 31 deadline for distributing W-2 forms - showing wages paid and taxes withheld for the year - to your employees, and you've filed copies with the Social Security Administration and your State Tax Department. With all that paperwork behind you, you might be thinking that it's time to take a well-deserved break.

By all means, pat yourself on the back, but don't rest on your laurels for too long - if you're among the 87 percent of small business owners operating on a Dec. 31 tax year, you only have until April 16, 2001 to file your 2000 federal income tax return. (If your fiscal year ends on the last day of any month other than December, your return is due by the 15th day of the fourth month after the close of your fiscal year. Should the due date for filing happen to fall on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, you can file on the next business day.)

Not only do you need to figure out which tax forms to file and when to file them so as to avoid interest and penalties, you'll also want to make every effort to reduce your taxes by taking deductions where you can. Small business tax laws are complicated, and even if you don't tackle the challenge of preparing your returns yourself, you should at least understand the basic rules and regulations - you'll save your company a lot of money if you do.

Fortunately, there is a multitude of tax information available on the Internet. The following sources are particularly helpful because they have distilled complicated tax laws into everyday English that we all can understand:

Internal Revenue Service. When you access this site (www.irs.gov/index.html), click on "Tax Info for Business," and then go to "Small Business Corner." Follow "Operating Your Business" to "Tax Topics for Business," and you'll learn how to register for the Small Business Tax Education Program (STEP), which covers record keeping and accounting, completing federal business and employment tax returns, meeting other federal tax obligations, and rights and responsibilities of small business owners. The program also provides general information on the advantages and disadvantages of the various types of business entities (sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations).

Quicken.com. The Small Business page (www.quicken.com/small_business/) offers a wealth of information on every aspect of starting and running a small business. Click on "Manage Your Finances" and visit the Quicken Learning Center for tax-planning strategies, rates and rules charts, tax-preparation advice, a comprehensive guide to the 2000 tax law changes for small businesses, plus a free download of TurboTax Home & Business.

Small Business Taxes & Management. This site (www.smbiz.com) provides tax and management advice, including a daily tax tip, tax news affecting entrepreneurial companies, a handy To Do list, forms and worksheets, and an extensive set of links to sites of interest to small business owners, from venture capital firms to online brokers to small business sites designed especially for women.