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Fed -Ex just dropped off a box from Shari's Berries compliments of my client in Taiwan. That will certainly change the attitude in the office. http://products.berries.com/gifts/4-Dipped-Cookies-10-Sweet-Cherries--6-Fancy-Strawberries-30005053?sk=&ref=SSSorganicgglunkwn&prid=sbseogu&viewpos=9&trackingpgroup=SCP Yum yum!!!!

A stray 1099-MISC was the culprit. Thank you all!

I get the waitress who came in to pay with her tip $. $ all smelled like pizza. Even next morning when BK was taking to bank. At least she paid. I went home hungry for pizza.

I will evaluate it on a case by case basis. Off the top of my head I have 3 for sure that require redoing Forms 940,941,W -2/W-3 and the state quarterly reports. Thank god, I haven't efiled any W -2 s yet. Plus I have payroll catchup work for the current quarter. What a mess !

Or a 1099 Miscellaneous input screen........or an automobile mileage screen.......

Catherine, I had a return where I was having trouble removing an input screen and was coming back after I'd delete it. It turned out that the problem was a linked form that that main form was connected to, so when I'd delete it, the program would see the other form and add it back in. It might have been an asset on the depreciation screen that was linked to a schedule C or something like that. It can also be a state code up at the top where if a state form is linked to it, the same thing will happen. Look around in that input for something along those lines and I bet you'll find the source of your trouble.

When I think of TPR Survival kit, I think of several cases of good single malt.

I am, today, working on returns dropped off on February 3rd, 4th, and 5th - so we are a solid two weeks out. My clients, like LouD's know the score. Those that have pressing issues (vacations are not pressing issues, I do not care where they are going or for how long) we will push it through. I get very little negative feed back about our turn a round time. We will be at three weeks out by the end of next week. I am staring at a day coming up (February 11th) on the schedule of returns dropped off, that saw 22 returns come in. I will spend at least three days working on those. And that day is sandwiched between 11 and an 8 return drop off days (41 checked in over 3 days). I continually fight the urge to feel overwhelmed.

Good grief. He must think very highly of his advice, OR he is marketing to huge firms where several dozen accountants will use the same books for reference. Or both.

I got a box of 12 dark-chocolate-dipped strawberries last year; man oh MAN were they good!

If he took a 'loan' no 1099-R should have been issued, unless as stated above he terminated his employment with the company afterwards and did not repay the 'loan'. If he took an early hardship withdrawal from the 401K then the 1099R is most likely correct. Ask to review his paperwork on this.

If it was a loan, none is taxable.

I agree with cbslee. The tux is more like a uniform or costume not suitable for everyday wear and should just be treated as an expense. I have a DJ client who has three tuxedos (some weeks he has formal gigs Fri, Sat and Sun). I wrote them all off, write off new ones when he replaces them, and give him the expense for dry cleaning as well. Same with the fancy shirts and cumberbunds (often purchased in a color to match the bride's decor). I don't do this for regular suits and ties that he wears for less formal affairs because he could easily wear them elsewhere. I tell clients who want to write off their jeans and red t-shirts or waitstaff who want to take their black pants and white shirts because that's what their employer requires them to wear, NO. If you can wear it to the grocery store or tax office, no deal.

According to J K Lasser Profession Edition, Musician have been allowed to deduct the cost of Formal Wear According to The Tax Book, Musicians have been allowed to deduct costumes which were not suitable for everday wear.

Any clients dropping off there stuff today will wait two weeks...Is that normal? People/clients seem appalled/shocked when I tell them that. I try to prepare as quickly as I can, but with only a few hours each night after my full-time job, I can only get so many done each night. Hoping to make progress this weekend...stack of at least 30 return on my floor to be done.

Client is a professional musician, pianist for a well known local choral group. He had to purchase a new tux for performances. Lucky, he got a BOGO! So how does one depreciate a tux? He can use 179 but the total cost is $1029. I have to input some kind of life.

Yep, me too, two weeks. I imagine we are all pretty normal. Well, considering everything.

Any assets not specifically listed in the MACRS Class Life List is deemed to be 7 year property. The gym equipment that only lasts 2 or 3 years will be dealt with by disposing of it, when it wears out and is replaced. (Any remaining undepreciated basis will be written off on Form 4797.)

Dark chocolate rocks.

I tell my newer clients, I don't run a tax mill type of business here.

You can always amend a return. You just can't get refunds later than 3 years after 4/15 or the filing date, whichever is later.

I am two weeks out as well doing it full-time - most of my clients are used to that turn around time each year

We are running about 7-10 days out (and this is our full time job, )

Can i expense them this year or do i have to capitalize? :pop:

To the extent that the S Corp has paid for or reimbursed the S Corp owner for his health insurance premiums, the rules go back to the way they were for 2013. Box 1 Wages, not subject to social security and medicare deductible as S E Health Insurance on line 29 page 1 Form 1040, until the rules are changed again ?

Instructions for 5329, line 2 - for the exception # 05 : Qualified retirement plan distributions up to the amount you paid for unreimbursed medical expenses during the year minus 10% (or 7.5% if you or your spouse were born before January 2, 1950) of your adjusted gross income (AGI) for the year. Yes, $16,000 you entered on line 2 was after this limitation. Yes, the part that is subject to the penalty is $9,000. Correct. If the loan from a 401(k) exceeds 50% of the nonforfeitable balance in the retirement account, the loan can create taxable income under §1.72(p)-1. You can see some of that discussion in my post #10 from >this topic. See this page at IRS re: statutory maximums of loans and here is a whole Q&A section from Cornell Univ Law School online library on the topic of loans treated as distributions.

Something does not seem to fit.... Loans are not taxable unless NOT repaid. Loans do not generate 1099-R. 1099-R being issued indicates a distribution and not a loan. Sumpin jus ain rite...

I'm on my way...Save some..

Did he by any chance terminate his employment with the company that the retirement plan was with? Generally, if the participant is no longer employed, the loan is treated as a distribution.

From the shareholder's instructions for Schedule K-1, on the IRS website: The line numbers in the summarized reporting information on page 2 of Schedule K-1 are references to forms in use for calendar year 2014. If you file your tax return on a calendar year basis, but the corporation files a return for a fiscal year, report the amounts on your tax return for the year in which the corporation's fiscal year ends. For example, if the corporation's tax year ends in February 2015, report the amounts on your 2015 tax return. Does this answer your question?

There is absolutely no limit to the creative ways people can mess up their lives. Not much we can or should do about it unless we want to get drawn into the craziness.

Biggest problem I ran into was TP did not think he would exceed the 1900 number. Then bang in December he goes over by 130.00. Now he gets to pay all that tax plus lady get wacked by additional wages on w-2. Ain't this a wonderful mess. Kinda reminds me of the investment income going over by $5 and losing all the EIC $.

Here is a decent article from Forbes written by Tony Nitti discussing this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/2015/02/18/in-last-minute-move-irs-spares-small-employers-big-obamacare-penalties-for-2014/ Today, the IRS issued Notice 2015-17, which provides that if an employer had fewer than 50 employees, they will not be subject to the penalty in 2014 or from January 1 through June 30, 2015. In addition, offending S corporations who reimburse premiums of more than 2% shareholders will not be subject to the penalty before January 1, 2016.

Any depreciable asset that does not have a designated class life is 7 year property.

Finally found an article on Accounting Today's website : This looks like a delaying action in the hopes that Congress will deal with this problem. Delaying implementation really doesn't solve anything except that we won't have taxpayers paying a $ 100 a day penalty for 2014. On the other hand look at all the gyrations everyone has gone thru to clean up S Corp owners health insurance. Are we going to go back and amend thousands of Form 941s, 940s, W -2s , W - 3s not to mention state quarterlys. What a frgging mess ! Treasury Delays Enforcement of Standalone Health Reimbursement Arrangement B inShare1 Washington, D.C. (February 18, 2015) By Michael Cohn The Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would delay enforcement of an Affordable Care Act prohibition relating to standalone health reimbursement arrangements until July 1. A standalone HRA is an employer-provided benefit that offers participants a spending account to reimburse them for qualified medical expenses. However, in light of the ACA’s ban against health plans with an annual dollar limit on essential benefits, standalone HRAs have been deemed impermissible. Notice 2015-17, released Wednesday by the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service, provides transition relief from the assessment of excise tax under Section 4980D of the Tax Code for small employers (in particular, employers who are not applicable large employers) who reimburse or pay a premium for an individual health insurance policy for an employee. Notice 2015-17 also addresses the treatment for federal tax and for market reform purposes of arrangements reimbursing premiums of 2 percent-shareholder employees of S corporations. Finally, Notice 2015-17 addresses application of the market reforms to certain employer arrangements to fund Medicare premium payments or to provide a TRICARE-related health reimbursement arrangement. Business groups such as the National Association for the Self-Employed and the National Association of Home Builders applauded the move. “The announcement today by the Treasury Department that it has offered a short-term delay in the enforcement of a prohibition on Health Reimbursement Arrangements is welcome news for our community, but a long-term, legislative solution is still urgently needed,” said Katie Vlietstra, vice president for government relations and public affairs for the National Association for the Self-Employed. “America’s smallest employers need the stability of a permanent fix in order to continue to utilize this critical tool to help provide health care coverage to their employees.” The National Association of Home Builders also issued a statement in support of the delay. “While today’s announcement by the Treasury Department is a step forward in helping small businesses to provide affordable health coverage to their employees, a short-term delay isn’t good enough,” said NAHB chairman Tom Woods, a home builder from Blue Springs, Mo. “Congressional action is needed to make this change permanent.” NAHB CEO Jerry Howard discussed the issue of standalone HRAs in a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Feb. 5. In addition, NAHB is calling on Congress to advance legislation based on the bipartisan bill introduced by Reps. Charles Boustany, R-La., and Mike Thompson, D-Calif., in the waning days of the 113th Congress that would reverse the IRS regulation preventing small businesses from providing employees with standalone HRAs. “We look forward to working with Reps. Boustany and Thompson to re-introduce legislation that will require the IRS to reverse its regulation preventing small businesses from providing standalone HRAs so that they can provide better health coverage to their employees at lower costs,” said Woods. The NASE also backs the legislation. “We support Congressmen Boustany and Thompson’s plans to re-introduce their bipartisan legislation focused on offering a permanent correction to this issue,” said Vlietstra. “This bipartisan legislation would order the IRS to reverse its regulation preventing small businesses from providing standalone HRAs so that they can support their employees and help them obtain affordable health care. Their legislation, combined with the momentum by Senate Republicans and Democrats to address this issue, will help millions of small business owners and should be passed by Congress as soon as possible. HRAs have long-been used to help small business owners provide some level of financial support for their employees. As an unintended consequence of the Affordable Care Act, the prohibition placed upon the use of HRAs is detrimental to small businesses and their employees across the country. Although we welcome this temporary, first step, we look forward to working with members on both sides of the aisle in Congress on a more permanent solution to this situation.” Small business owners could have faced fines of up to $100 per day per employee for helping their employees purchase health insurance, according to Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who proposed an amendment to fix this problem during a Senate Finance Committee mark-up last month. He said Wednesday that he is pursuing a permanent fix. “I’ve heard from several Iowa small business owners who feared they could be subject to thousands of dollars in penalties simply because they helped their employee pay for health insurance in 2014,” Grassley said in a statement. “For these and other affected businesses, the penalty relief is welcome news, but ultimately it only delays the inevitable. Small businesses are still prohibited from reimbursing their employees to purchase health insurance. It’s just a matter of when they have to come into compliance with the law. Small businesses and their employees still will be hurt going forward. Congress has to fix this problem. This is the kind of problem that Obamacare created because it was poorly considered and rushed into law

If clothing is adaptable to street wear for everyday use, then it isn't deductible. If it can't be, then it would be deducted like a uniform would be. Either way, I wouldn't consider it a depreciable item. I found an interesting article that appears to be written by an organization for a professional musician forum, and deals with this and cites some cases and has specific examples. It's obviously nothing official but is interesting because of how the clothing is to be considered: http://www.polyphonic.org/article/is-concert-clothing-tax-deductible/

If you pay cash wages of $1,900 or more to any one household employee, you generally must withhold 6.2% of Social Security and 1.45% of Medicare taxes (for a total of 7.65%) from all cash wages you pay to that employee. You also must pay your share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, which is also 7.65% of cash wages. (Cash wages include wages you pay by check, money order, etc.) Unless you prefer to pay your employee's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes from your own funds, you should withhold 7.65% from each payment of cash wages made. If you pay your employee's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes from your own funds, the amounts you pay for your employee count as wages for purposes of the employees' income tax. However, do not count them as Social Security and Medicare wages or as wages for federal unemployment tax.

Well, that is exactly what I did and then someone in the office questioned it and I looked at the instructions. That is interesting that the instructions do not mention it. BTW, there is a neat website for doing gross ups. http://www.benefitmall.com/Tools-and-Resources/Payroll/Payroll-Calculators You just have to be careful that no state info is included by using a non-tax state - TX, FL, etc

Would it kill you, UPS guy, to air out for 30 seconds before you come in here?