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I am SO grateful for all of you. May you all have a wonderful holiday; one to look back on for years as a pinnacle in your family's times together.

For Small Businesses: IRS Raises Tangible Property Expensing Threshold to $2,500; Simplifies Filing and Recordkeeping IR-2015-133, Nov. 24, 2015 WASHINGTON —The Internal Revenue Service today simplified the paperwork and recordkeeping requirements for small businesses by raising from $500 to $2,500 the safe harbor threshold for deducting certain capital items. The change affects businesses that do not maintain an applicable financial statement (audited financial statement). It applies to amounts spent to acquire, produce or improve tangible property that would normally qualify as a capital item. The new $2,500 threshold applies to any such item substantiated by an invoice. As a result, small businesses will be able to immediately deduct many expenditures that would otherwise need to be spread over a period of years through annual depreciation deductions. “We received many thoughtful comments from taxpayers, their representatives and the professional tax community, said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “This important step simplifies taxes for small businesses, easing the recordkeeping and paperwork burden on small business owners and their tax preparers.“ Responding to a February comment request, the IRS received more than 150 letters from businesses and their representatives suggesting an increase in the threshold. Commenters noted that the existing $500 threshold was too low to effectively reduce administrative burden on small business. Moreover, the cost of many commonly expensed items such as tablet-style personal computers, smart phones, and machinery and equipment parts typically surpass the $500 threshold. As before, businesses can still claim otherwise deductible repair and maintenance costs, even if they exceed the $2,500 threshold. The new $2,500 threshold takes effect starting with tax year 2016. In addition, the IRS will provide audit protection to eligible businesses by not challenging use of the new $2,500 threshold in tax years prior to 2016. For taxpayers with an applicable financial statement, the de minimis or small-dollar threshold remains $5,000. Further details on this change can be found in Notice 2015-82, posted today on IRS.gov.

@Margaret CPA in OH - most computers these days have un-zipping capability built in. But we all have *those* clients who cannot figure out anything even slightly outside the norm.

Margaret, here is a simple solution for your password that will make it stronger and not be too complicated. Use TR2014XXXX. T=Tax R=Return 2014=tax year XXXX= last four digits of SSN. YOu can add an exclamation point or whatever to toughen it up even more, if you like. Just a thought.

That last sentence caught me by surprise.

Check with your web site. It may include a simple portal. (My CCH SiteBuilder web site comes with FileShare included.) Or, your tax software. I've heard people talk of that, too. Or, your ISP. There are some free and low-cost options out there.

KC.....That was super funny...My wife and I are still aching from laughter on that one.......Thanks!

They are part of the new format from Eric's last update. He just keeps making it better and better. I hope a lot of us use the 'donate' button to give him an extra 'thanksgiving' gift.

Eric, Are you talking about phishing emails directly from their accounts or emails that look like they might be from their account, but if you hover over the account, it's totally incorrect. I ask because I have had people receive emails that they think are from me, but are not from my account and have my business name backward or completely screwed up. I've had an IT guy check my computer and I run Malwarebytes and AVG constantly. I get this crap from my friends and clients, but normally I can see that it's a spoof. I'm still trying to figure out if my email account has been hacked or if it is from an old AOL hack. I've changed my passwords a lot, but my brother just chewed me out because of one that he received months ago. I guess he's not smart enough to know my name. How do you stop these things, besides a strong password? Thanks!

Way too soon to make any judgments about the program. Patience.... Patience.... Patience....

This getting old is maintenance, maintenance, maintenance! But, it's better than the alternative....

And WHY is this a tax issue?! I am definitely raising my fees re ACA.

An extra twist in MA -- coverage counts for federal purposes if you have even ONE day of coverage. But in MA, coverage must be for 15 days in a month or it is considered NOT covered. So I get to ask two separate sets of questions of anyone who does not have 100% coverage. At least this year, more people won't be blind-sided by the existence of the questions. I hope?!

Had some ACA updates Monday night in a 2 CE tax class. With exceptions of course like anything from the government, the company issues the forms only if they are an ALE (Applicable Large Employer, and the number of employees is different for purposes of issuing forms and for paying penalties!!) and self-insure their plan. For my small biz clients, the form will come from the insurance companies and not them. Everyone who had insurance for even a month (the forms are to be month-by-month) will get a form. Most of my clients will have forms from insurance companies and a very few from of mine will have the 1095-As. It sounds like an employee of an ALE would get two forms: B from the insurance company and C from employer with information about offering program. What a nightmare.

The way the instructions for the 1095 series forms read ==== the insurance provider should supply the forms /// unless certain circumstances occur in which case the "sponsor" of the program will. In a nutshell, small employers providing coverage will have the insurance companies send the 1095 forms. As I understand the instructions --- this basically means EVERYONE will have some sort of 1095 series form to give us (we the practitioners) to show coverage (maybe more than one form too; as they need to show coverage for all year, etc.). Is NOT the government grand for so clear cut instructions and their desire to make the "practitioners" life easier? (just in case it is not clear /s for this line).

Signature Flow by CPAperless costs a couple of bucks per client. NO huge monthly fees; use it when you want. Sends securely, e-signatures are accepted by the IRS, comes back to you automatically once signed. Signature Flow info

We raised our fees $20-25 last year, mostly to cover the ACA reporting. (Yea, a lot of people only needed a check in the box that they had health insurance all year, but it took us tons of hours in classes to learn the rules and how to handle them.) Some of our increase was due to the fact that some clients haven't had an increase in years. After reading these responses, I have no problem going up a bit more again this coming season. Today a client called who has an $800 return--multiple Sch Cs, Sch Es, K-1s. He said that his return seems to have gotten "simpler" over the years and wondered why we were still charging so much. Clearly this client does not place value on our services so Good Bye! Not one of the clients who experienced our increase last year complained.

This reminds me of the true story of an elderly aunt of mine. All her life she said her final instructions should include a particular piece of music she wanted played at her funeral. Most of us laughed it off as just one of her many eccentricities. But sure enough, as they wheeled the casket out of the church, the organ struck up one of the loudest renditions of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah that I've ever heard. She would have been pleased to have flowers with that card attached.

There is much confusion about "data breach" and "e-mail hacking." Two totally different and unrelated issues. Yet everyone treats them as the same. I continue to use e-mail regularly. My largest problem is clients not checking their e-mail more than once a week.

True, but my state (MA) still holds *me* responsible should a data breach be traced to email I sent. Heck, it holds me responsible if it comes from an email sent TO me by a client that I did not (1) delete from my system - including attachments, and (2) email the client back, separately (no "reply") telling THEM to delete the email and attachments from their system. First important step: stay out of looney-tune-central MA. Wish I could follow my own advice on that one...

I use Gruntworx organize (beautifully indexed pdf file) and trade (excel and csv files for trade data import - when there are more than a dozen or so to enter). I tried the populate but found it took just as long to double-check the entries (which are good but NOT perfect) as it took to just enter the info myself. Scan with *at least* 300dpi resolution; more if you can stand the extra scanning time (both my scanners bog *way* down bumping up to 400dpi but between 200 and 300 there is no noticeable extra time) and you will get less of the 6/8/3 problems. Although having documents not printed in 4-point font helps, too, and we have no control over that.