Leaderboard

This isn't really big news, but it came up in another thread so I thought I should explain this feature a little bit. I've added a couple "reactions" to the list. So now, in addition to Like, Thanks, Haha, Confused, and Sad, we also have Thumbs Down and Angry. There is a point system going on behind the scenes associated with this feature, and those points are what determine who shows up on the Leaderboard. Like, Thanks, and Haha all contribute +1 points to a user's total. The rest are all neutral. There is an option to add negative (-1 point) reactions, but they're not currently enabled. I have chosen to keep Thumbs Down and Angry "neutral" because the could be used in different ways, for example: You might be annoyed that there is a new botnet or bit of ransomware floating around the internet, which you might want to give a thumbs down to show your annoyance with that news. You might want to show that you disagree someone's assessment of a particular tax-related situation. There is a possibility that I'll bring back the Downvote (-1 points) option for that second bullet point, but I haven't decided yet. I'm adding more emojis next.

I'm still tweaking the reactions. I've removed the downvote, and added Thumbs Down and Angry. I'll create a new thread soon to explain the additions instead of derailing this one any further

Alright, added a bunch of emoticons/emojis/whatever. Nevermind! I had to remove all of the new emojis. I checked the roadmap for the forum software, and a new emoji system is in the works for the next version, and it looks like full unicode emoji support will be added. I want to avoid conflicts, so for now I'll have to get rid of the new ones. Sorry

I had to look this up, David as I had never heard of a TRAC lease. Generally, it is more commonly used with over-the-road trucks which may be able to fully deduct the cost of the trac lease. It would not be useful for an SUV since it retains the characteristics of a true lease with the pre-determined end-of-lease purchase price and the end-of-lease option to either purchase, walk away, or continue to lease. Like you, IMO the deduction of the S corp is limited to the business use % less the lease inclusion cost.

I don't know much about botnets, bandwidth, VPN, plugins, and the like. But I do know Eric is probably spending money and definitely spending his time keeping our forum as safe as possible. So I decided this is a good time to hit the DONATE button (which I just did), as a way to say "Thank You, Eric".

You mean I can sabotage people by giving them negative votes? Sweeeeet. I can be a real terror on the board now. Thanks for the info Judy. Tom Modesto, CA

At any given time there are a number of people from China and Russia on the forum, about a dozen on the low end, and Judy mentioned that she noticed that there were 150+ guests on recently. Some are trying to register to spread spam, others are probably probing for security vulnerabilities. The anti-spam service I subscribe to seems to be doing a great job of keeping spammers from registering and while I'm not too worried about security, the constant traffic does put additional load on the server. This site is very US-centric, so I can't think of any reason why I shouldn't restrict access to the site from problematic countries / IP ranges. I'm not going to make any changes immediately, but it wouldn't hurt to take note of the URL of the Facebook Group if you haven't already, or my email address ([email protected]) in the case that you suddenly find yourself unable to connect to the website. I don't expect any such issues, but a huge number of addresses will be blocked and I want to make sure people have some way to contact me outside of the forum just in case.

My feeling is if the employer initially filed their W-2s with Social Security, then they would have to issue an amended W-2c with the first column showing zeroes. That is simply to match the 941-X, and new W-3c. If you have no impact on the employer, then the normal Abby is correct. Let them clean up their own mess. File 8919 and be done with it. I believe the statute of limitations is expired for 2013, unless IRS is bugging him. If this is his original return, it won't matter - the three year clock doesn't start until the return is filed. But if he has a refund, I doubt they will send it.

I hadn't heard of these so I spent some time online reading about them. This is a classic tax/GAAP grey area. Apparently they are marketed by leasing companies to businesses with truck fleets. Generally for GAAP purposes they are considered to financing leases. If carefully structured they might be considered to be operating leases for tax purposes. The leasing companies love them because if managed correctly it allows them to manage and smooth out reported earning. On the lessee side as they say the devil is in the details. Hypothetically, if structured carefully, it could be an operating lease for the lessee. However these leases are structured to benefit the leasing companies not the lessee, then promoted to the lessees. For a more technical analysis go to this link https://www.monitordaily.com/article-posts/lease-accounting-six-years-counting/

Just file form 8919 and be done with it. What the employer did or did not do, is of no concern.

Absolutely. The employer, if performing as directed by the IRS, should prepare a W-2c for the year in question, and follow it up with a 941c or 941x. If the employee's portion of FICA/medicare is non-recoverable, the W-2c should be "grossed up" to include a phantom withheld amount for FICA/medicare. The employer will have additional payroll tax liability resulting from this, probably at least DOUBLE what he would have paid if properly filed to begin with. Ever what state he is in also benefits by a probably increase in the SUTA tax - most overwhelmingly assessed against the employer as well. The employee can prepare an amended 1040-X, claiming the new W-2 as wages, and subtracting of the gross amount on his schedule C. Expenses related to this amount should be reduced as well, and transferred to schedule A subject to 2%. (Assuming he included a schedule C on his original return.) Could result in a refund. Of course, this predisposes that the IRS was correct in recharacterizing the income to begin with. They are known to be very aggressive in reclassifying payments to employee-status, and not very correct. Several years ago there was a list of "20 factors" that they supposedly considered, and then they abandoned the 20 factors because some of them gave powerful support to the other party. They would rather the decision be more subjective than directed by axioms, so they can be less accountable for their decisions.

Tax court cases involving reasonable salary for S Corp officers generally settle on the max Social Security wage cut off. See the above Forbes article for the specific cases.

I see we have a 'downvote' now. I guess that's like a 'don't like' button? Could encompass mad/angry, I suppose.

Yeah we already have a confused emoji. A WTF emoji would come in handy too.

The Second one is perfect. the first one just looks confused. Tom Modesto, CA

/s BUT JUDY: The IRS gives us so much and asks so little. Besides along with "other sites" they are always with us, that is why you and Eric protect us and are always watching .... Be well and enjoy before the snow flies!

I'm right there with you on this! We're supposed to work for our clients, not act as gatekeepers for the IRS.

When you reset the ATX password, it will allow you to use the same password. Just type it in.

This story has been out there on tech sites for a little while and just found it way to the mainstream media. I have been using online SaS accounting and payroll software for sometime now, but not tax software. Stories like this one are making me reconsider whether that is a good idea ? Tribune News Service WASHINGTON _ Just as hurricane trackers chart storms in the Atlantic before they make landfall, cybersecurity researchers track viral infections that threaten mayhem. They've found a doozy. A massive zombie robotic network, or botnet, has expanded to infect "an estimated million organizations" and could bring corners of the internet to its knees, an Israeli cybersecurity company, Check Point Software, says. "The next cyber hurricane is about to come," Check Point says. Several cybersecurity researchers Monday confirmed Check Point's findings, saying the botnet could replicate, and perhaps dwarf, the Mirai botnet that almost exactly a year ago took down major websites on the Atlantic Coast, crippling a part of the internet's backbone and slowing traffic to a crawl. The botnet, which has been named either "Reaper" or "IoTroop," was first detected in mid-September. A Chinese cybersecurity firm, Qihoo 360, says the botnet is swelling by 10,000 devices a day, forcibly recruiting foot soldiers in an ever-larger invisible rogue army. Cybercrime gangs form botnets by infecting internet-enabled devices, often wireless cameras or routers with weak security features. Once corralled, controllers can send commands for the botnet to overwhelm a target, knocking its website off line or crippling the internet.The new botnet has spread across the United States, Australia and other parts of the globe, researchers say, although Check Point notes that "it is too early to assess the intentions" of those propagating the infection. "It could be something that's meant to create global chaos," Maya Horowitz, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point, said in a telephone interview from Israel. "But it could be something that's more targeted," perhaps aimed at a country or industry. She said it is unlikely that cybersecurity experts will be able to halt an eventual attack. "The chances are pretty low for that," Horowitz said, adding that like an epidemic of infectious disease, "each infected device is looking for other devices to compromise." Criminal hackers are assembling increasingly powerful botnets. "They are getting bigger and badder," said Robert Hamilton, director of marketing at Imperva Incapsula, a Redwood Shores, California, cybersecurity firm that offers technology to mitigate botnet attacks. "The motive more than ever is money," he said, adding that criminal gangs send ransom demands to companies threatening to hit them with a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack unless paid off "We had a client that received a letter that said 'if you don't pay us, we are going to bring your websites down with a DDoS attack,'" Hamilton said. "This was a client that you'd definitely recognize their name," declining to specify the company. Last year's Mirai botnet attack hit Dyn, a New Hampshire company that provides backbone services for the internet. Imperva says it found 49,657 infected devices spread over 164 countries. The top infected countries were Vietnam, Brazil and the United States. Scores of major companies were hit in that Oct. 21, 2016, attack, including Netflix, Twitter, Spotify, HBO, Amazon, CNN, ancestry.com and Comcast. The new botnet is based on the source code for Mirai, Horowitz said, "but about 100 different functions have been added ... and it has the potential to reach many, many more devices." The malware creating the botnet is infecting a variety of Internet of Things (IoT) devices but has been found with functions to target networking gear or routers manufactured by D-Link, TP-Link, AVTECH, NETGEAR, MikroTik, Linksys and Synology, Check Point said. "Since Reaper is exploiting a number of known vulnerabilities in different IoT devices, this botnet could definitely be much more disruptive than Mirai," said Merike Kaeo, chief technology officer at Farsight Security, a San Mateo, Calif., cybersecurity firm. "Known security issues in cameras, televisions, home routers, and any other internet-connected devices need to be addressed and fixed." Consumers can do their bit by checking to ensure that "all of their internet-connected devices, especially home routers, have the latest firmware upgrades and security patches installed," Kaeo said. (c)2017 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Written by Tim Johnson