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Two lines on postcard: 1. How much did you Make? 2. Send it in!

But that $70K truck is jacked up so high it can't bang its underside on anything, and the extra-huge tires are nail proof. Plus, it has such a nice paint job that it always looks like it's in pristine condition even after being driven all over job sites - almost like it's never used for work. That's why it cost so much in the first place.

If the criterion for business use is that one's significant other won't get in your vehicle, then I'm in great shape. I can start deducting mileage on my car, because my wife absolutely refuses to ride in it.

There are some very, very interesting proposals in this bill right now. How many will survive remains to be seen, but there is going to be a lot of tax planning to do for our clients, especially in states like CA, NJ, NY. Those clients in the 75-125K range are going to want to look at different options to save tax dollars if the SALT tax deductions are limited the way they are being proposed. There will always be EIC / CTC / AOTC issues to deal with for our clients, and some of those rules are changing. The 401K option may be one of the best tax strategy vehicles left to our upper middle clients. Right now there is no changes proposed in the current plan. Our clients with pass through businesses are going to need us more than ever. There will be work to do. Tom Modesto, CA

In the past, tax "simplification" has been very good for business. We will see.

Deb, You missed the third line "3. What we don't need, we will send back!

Goggledegook! I have been in this business for thirty plus years and not a year has gone by that I have not heard a cry to tax simplification. If the post card idea works for a bunch of folks - Great! But as long as there is taxation, there will be opportunity for you and me. And my firm belief is that there will always be taxation.

If the client has records of calls and a planner with meetings listed, that plus mileage from Google Maps or MapQuest or similar can serve as authentication of mileage claims. It's not a specific logbook, but it is a log of activities and locations.

Which is why it's absolutely *beyond* most college financial offices. (If you think you hear a tiny bit of cynicism, you're not wrong.)

I understand the difficulties of determining how much was paid for tuition vs. room, board, etc., but if they could change box 2 to total payments received plus loans applied, that would be awesome. One smart college has a 1098T with an account statement printed on the back. Such an easy solution.

In 2002, colleges were supposed to report amount paid for qualified education expenses. They whined that their computer systems weren't up to it so were given the option of reporting amount billed. Every time the deadline has come to eliminate the amt billed box, they whined some more that they still weren't ready. It takes supposedly the brightest among us who inhabit our institutions of higher learning FIFTEEN years to figure it out, and they had 15 years warning. Guess they knew this was an easy pass and didn't bother, or else they really don't belong in a place that teaches our young. I understand that colleges use academic years, bill for calendar year semesters, and receive parent/student/financial aid payments at different times. Sounds like an easy coding solution to me. So we beleaguered tax pros will have to spent yet another year combing through unintelligible bursar statements while the brilliant IT staffs spend their time inventing with more ways to use the student ID cards for off-campus pizza and stadium seating lotteries.

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.

Bulldog Tom, SSN ending in 7, 8 or 9 renew now through 1/31/18.

I did receive that email Catherine, clicked on the link (it took me to where it was supposed to), I completed the 8554, paid my $30 and my EA enrollment is now current. Now to await my new card; I did not receive a card after the last renewal cycle and I have been an EA since 1989

Don't forget ordinary and necessary mileage. Also don't forget about the industry standards too. I had an audit where the agent saw the van driven by a contractor. He saw the ladders and the equipment in the VAN and he said, your girlfriend will not board this VAN so it is 100% business and no logs were required because it was ordinary and necessary for this VAN to travel to work sites and the mileage we were claiming were within the industry standards. After the auditor left my client said "this VAN has saved me and my girlfriend and lot of hotel money". I ignored the comment and changed the subject.

Every time they "simplify" the tax code, my phone starts ringing off the hook. Plus, all the prior-year issues remain under the old rules and the IRS has ten years to catch up with those. But gee, wouldn't it be nice to help clients make the most out of their business opportunities, rather than our constant scramble to protect them from the ramifications of thoughtless decisions and times being stuck between the rock and the hard place? ("I want to live in Theory. EVERYTHING works in Theory!")

3-5% depending on circumstances. Less for the elderly or those in financial straits. Although even then I usually raise the rate but then give a bigger discount.

From today's Quick Alert email:

Reminds me of the apocryphal story of the guy who killed his parents, then asked the court for leniency because he was an orphan...

Here's my two cents' worth. I have only one payroll (besides my own) that I do in-house. Nanny payroll for a client who is seriously allergic to online *anything* (she is in computer security). $75/month for a weekly payroll, includes monthly state tax payments and SUTA only. Schedule H and W-2 are billed at year-end. Royal PITA because neither she nor the nanny are good about getting me hours for the week when I say I need them, and then of course want instant turn-around on the nanny's paystub (she hand-writes the check for net pay). Jerry Medlin's software *will* work for nanny payroll if you tweak it right, even though it's not officially offered. I bill client quarterly; at least she pays quickly. If I am away, I have to make sure my assistant gets a refresher on running they system before I go so nanny can still get paid. I have several clients for whom I do payroll online through Paychex's "SurePayroll for Accountants" - client logs in, puts in employee hours, all emp's get paid by direct deposit, ba-dum-cha we're done. I download quarterly reports, make sure W-2's go out (additional fee), and enter all new and terminated employee info (easy for me, easy for client to screw up if I let her do it). I get to pick the mark-up over the fee SPfA charges me. I get paid by direct deposit monthly. I can go away for weeks and everything runs smoothly unless a new empl starts up while I'm gone (had not happened). All tax payments are made for the client; it's *their* job to make sure there is money in the checking account. We have one guy unable to log in regularly; we enter his one employee's standard 40 hours every Monday and he's done. Again, it's the SPfA system; my assistant logs in every Monday, puts in "40" and hits run. We download quarterly reports and make sure the W-2 gets mailed. Direct deposit payment to me. All tax payments made by SPfA. Unless you have a good support staff that can run payroll (always, or in a pinch) keep in mind it's a ball and chain on YOUR time.

No. Technically they are supposed to report their trades but reality is it isn't traceable for most people. When one sets up a wallet or trading account, the SSN information isn't exchanged. A bank account or credit card number MAY be exchanged. A company that pays with bitcoin and would normally be required to issue a 1099 is still required to issue a 1099. The IRS is supposedly trying to figure out how to monitor who is trading but part of the allure of bitcoin is that this isn't really possible. That's why the majority of the coins are owned by foreigners (and criminals) looking to avoid government oversite. Very few of the public owned bitcoin actually ever circulate and that's why the price has skyrocketed. The last time I checked, the US Government is one of the biggest owners of Bitcoin and they can't sell it because it is evidence.

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.

I just heard, at an update seminar, that the date has been extended till Jan. 1, 2019, on the mandate for colleges to fill in box 1 of the 1098-T for all college students. So, for tax year 2017, we still have to play the billing statement game. Just like the usual IRS. Make a deadline (or so called), then extend it because of pressure from the people involved.

One of the things I have noticed over the years is that we as tax preparers are now required to enter data into a tax return that we were never officially trained to be experts on - health insurance, EICs, investigative fact checkers, dependent Social Security numbers, divorce issues, lifestyle changes, engagement letters, etc etc that all create a larger liability for reporting than we ever bargained for - and we become the first victims IRS and tax authorities look to should a return have an issue. And we have to rely on the reliability of third party information. Until we can control our clients' honesty and reliability of data we're given, these problems are never going to stop.

We stopped taking new EIC clients when the due diligence rules were tightened and the fines went way up--too much risk. We only do a handful now, all from long-time clients we know, but we did raise their fees $25. Like John H, we send others to HRB and tell them their preparers have more training in this area, which is true. But how can you turn away clients with rentals or security transactions? Between those items and small businesses, that's the majority of our client base. While the forms for clients who purchased insurance through the exchanges are a pain, we don't discourage those clients. You have to tackle the forms anyway for those who had a lapse in coverage or are insuring a nondependent under the age of 26. We are seeing a number of audits for those who "forgot" to bring us their 1095As. If we could turn down anyone, I'd vote for those with education credits. We get a lot of audits, especially if there were 529 distributions. Hopefully this year the 1098Ts really will have the "amount paid" instead of "amount billed." I am so sick of putting returns on hold while parents try to get the financial transcripts from the schools. We'll still have fun determining the nontaxable portion of the 529 distributions, but that's why we charge the big bucks. So John H, if you don't have clients with EIC, rentals, and brokerage statements, who's left? After this busy summer, I don't want anymore clients who will get audit notices.

IRS signed a new contract with Experian, but Equifax is taking them to court over the stop work order. Talk about nerve.

TP is a property manager, no vehicle is provided by employer, manages 15+ building with over 250 units has to drive back and forth to pick up keys from the office and is probably unhappy because he is on call after hours for emergencies.

WASHINGTON –– The Internal Revenue Service today reminded the nation’s more than 727,000 federal tax return preparers that they must renew their Preparer Tax Identification Numbers (PTINs) for 2018. All current PTINs will expire Dec. 31, 2017. Anyone who prepares or helps prepare any federal tax return, or claim for refund for compensation must have a valid PTIN from the IRS. The PTIN must be used as the identifying number on returns prepared. Failure to have and use a valid PTIN may result in penalties. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/2018-ptin-renewal-period-underway-for-tax-professionals

Edsel: You and me and a little bit of software can set up a "bitcoin" like site. Then one day, we decide to "cash out". We convert others Bitcoin to other legal tender, and leave everyone else to fight amongst themselves for whatever is left. It has already happened a number of times.... I would call that a Ponzi like scheme. The US Dollar may be "funny" money, but it isn't nearly a humorous as these blockchain "currencies". Rich

Max: You stated this: "One more thing - if the case is assigned to an RO, the RO will decide if you can file an OIC, or not. " Not true. I had an RO on a employment tax case, 90k+ that I thought had been resolved to $17k in trust fund that the client was paying monthly. Then the RO showed up two years later and asked for the original $90 to be paid. I told her quite bluntly that I will do an OIC for the entire balance. She said I could not do that, she would not approve it. I told her it was out of your hands, and I filed two OIC's, one for the TF portion, and one for the 941 taxes. It took over a year, but both were approved and the client makes the final payment this month. Do not presume that the RO is speaking any truth. Rich

Most people are afraid of the risk associated with bitcoins, because there is nothing of substance to anchor their value. I am one of those who are thus afraid. Supporters admit there is nothing to back up the value, but add that the major currencies of the world have nothing to back up their value either, including the U S Dollar. With no publishing of the money supply by the Federal Reserve, the Dollar (including the deficit) is nothing but "funny money." It is going to be tough to catch up with the founders and progenitors of the bitcoin, but I believe the government will eventually do so. If the bitcoin becomes too much of a threat to the U S Dollar, they will fall into the same persecutory status as counterfeiters.

I have detected absolutely nothing in the original post which puts its arms around business mileage. It is difficult for me to get my clients on board with the idea of "bottoms-up" calculation of mileage, as well as use of the mileage rate. Too many times the client doesn't think in terms of "bottoms-up" addition of specific trips and associated mileage. They love to present me with "I drove 25,000 miles and I think about 75% was for business." If they can't present a decent bottoms up number of miles to deduct, I won't deduct anything. To be honest, I'm not as meticulous with details per trip as the IRS dictates, but I do insist on addition of specific trip mileage, and allow multiple trips if the evidence warrants. The struggle with the std mileage rate fails to appease clients who think huge expenditures justify whopping deductions. Usually, I don't follow the siren song to taking actual expenses. I explain that when they buy something else and the usage falls below 50% there is massive recoil of original cost. They try to tell me they are going to drive their $70,000 honkin' new truck forever. Truth of the matter is a very expensive truck is more of a showcase than business use. Their "real" business vehicle is usually an older pickup truck or maybe even a car, but they still try to make me believe the $70,000 truck is driven to jobsites where it will run over roofing nails and bang its underside on construction ruts. I may have been born at night, but not last night. Me and Rita B.

There are no "bitcoin companies." The blockchain is public, and the buyers/sellers are anonymous, which is one of the major points of the cybercurrency. There are exchanges and people have cyber "wallets" to hold their coins, but those are anonymous as well. IRS tried to get one of the big exchanges to reveal the owners with a John Doe summons. The exchange refused because the summons was too broad (all its clients), so the IRS rewrote with some more restrictive request. Don't know how that's been settled. For now, it seems people will have to self-report. We know how well that's worked out for the self-employed. I have a client who mines bitcoins and we've been reporting his gains for a few years. Last year he came in and enthusiastically showed me some IRS message that said only 830 people reported bitcoin transactions on their returns. He was quite proud that he and I were among the elite group. (Don't know why he included me--I just report his and don't own or even know how to buy one.) I sure hope he cashed in his entire wallet this year. At what, $5-6k each lately, he can certainly retire 20 years early.

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.

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'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

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

"CPU cycles" That is exactly what I try to preserve... I show the IP on the "blocked" page, cover a few reasons why they are being blocked, and that they can send an email message, including their IP address, asking for access. You will get some spam from that page, but those are easy to catch. I also have a stock reply for those messages, asking for more information, which bots will not likely reply to. Many of the blocked items I use are not IP based, they are for bots, such as non us search engines, MJ12, nutch, libwww, etc. Also a few SEO "companies" who are constantly pounding away to gain data to try to sell as SEO improvement data...

Since I only have to worry about the people who want to visit this forum, a lot of those edge cases won't apply here. Blocking China will take care of 90% of the junk traffic. Your suggestion to show a special page to those who are blocked is a good one. I'll do that. It's not difficult to get around the block, but I don't need it to be air-tight either. Like I said, spam registrations haven't been an issue since implementing that service, and I'm confident in the server and site's security. I just don't need those types of people eating up precious CPU cycles while they poke around.

It has been a LONG time, but IIRC, you do not even need to VPN. There are browsers/extensions which let you choose the country IP shown. Used it during the 2008 Olympics, when a local young man we know was competing. Only way to see live coverage of all rounds of the event.

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

In the US ranges, there are also certain ranges - generally hosts friendly to spam - which I block. Also block many of the Amazon ranges, since they generate a large amount of non human traffic, and since my product is not designed for something like an AWS virtual computer. I am willing to share my current list if you would like to review it.

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

This is something I deal with as well. I block for certain countries. It does take some manual handling (not just using an IP list service), since some desired users will have non US IP addresses for various reasons. For instance, I have a customer who lives abroad for 1/2 of the year. When blocked, I show a special page, with contact info, so those who are human, and actually customers, can send me an email with their IP address. Some on the northern border will have a Canadian IP address, some on the southern border will have a Mexican IP address. Some may have randomly placed IP addresses, such as when a VPN or other masking service is in use (have one customer who uses a non US IP s they can stream videos - such as TV sports feeds - which are blocked for those in the US).

Go get 'em Eric. Show them the door. Tom Modesto, CA

I think it is going to be on how lenient the auditor is. I have had direct expenses accepted with only 3 or 4 odometer readings, from maintenance receipts, spread over a three year period. With another audit, expenses were accepted, even though the odometers on both vehicles used for business were broken. The client was a musician on tour most of the year and used a motor home.

Mad.......... Or Mad......

We need a Mad emoji.