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I know, and isn't it great that we can have a little fun while simultaneously keeping your very unique question on Page 1 so all the Missouri payroll tax experts have a better chance to see it?! Can't beat us at multi-tasking!

I wish S &H Greens Stamps would come back. Wasn't that like a currency that could be traded and exchanged for goods?

A guy from the Washington Post wanted to interview me about crypto-currencies (because I moderate reddit.com\r\tax) but I told him I didn't know enough about it. One of the other mods stepped up, thankfully. Wish I had know more. Would've been cool to be quoted in the Post!

When I was about 4 or 5 years old, my mom brought home a 13" black and white tv that she scored from S&H Green Stamps. It was a big deal to us. We were dirt poor and that was the first TV I remember us having in the house. Oh...the good ol' days. Tom Modesto, CA

You said yourself that long passwords can make password hacking reasonably hard, and encryption makes internet sniffing a bit tougher. Google/Microsoft/Amazon/Apple don't expend that additional processing power encrypting all of their site traffic for the heck of it. Taking long passwords as an example, every time some website or service is hacked and a huge collection of email addresses, usernames, and passwords is liberated from their servers, almost half of them are very quickly cracked because they're weak. It's often not worth the time required to brute force the remaining passwords. That's what I mean by low hanging fruit. I mean, I have a database (stored locally) of my hundreds of passwords. I can't imagine why I would store that information in plain text when it's trivial to add a significant layer of protection by encrypting the whole database. Sure it's relatively safe on my network, but sometimes happens, you know? EDIT: Speaking of poop happening, sorry about the site going wonky for a while this morning. There were some issues that may have been brought about by my host patching the server against meltdown and spectre late last night or early this morning.

Notice 1036 was (likely) posted today, Reviewing it now... https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/n1036.pdf

Paid Preparer HOH Due Diligence.pdf

Monies reinvested in the next project are not available for wages. Also, he had an initial capital investment and is due a return on that investment. I'd take some % of distributions as wages, but not all.

I agree he's flipping properties. If I understand, and "owner" and "TP" are one and the same, and he's also a shareholder, the S-Corp has to pay him reasonable wages for what he's doing. If he's the only shareholder, I would think that would be all or most of the profits. I realize that S-Corps are commonly used to avoid SE tax, and many are more aggressive than me about avoiding SE tax, but my Social Security checks will be bigger than theirs.

But there were only 3 channels. 2 VHF, and 1 UHF. Tom Modesto, CA

Oh yeah, and we were our parent's remote controls.

The cutlery and dishes that we use here in the office are some that I got from a local bank back in the 70's - a place setting for every $50 I deposited into a savings account. Been a long time since I have seen a bank give a premium for making a deposit.

I don't get it. They're pretending like we get a 4,150 personal exemption on our taxes, just as a way for people to have less withholding? Maybe I do get it, but it seems illogical. I'd be much happier if they just let us enter a flat % that we wanted withheld. When clients call up they ask what % their withholding should be and I tell them. Then they ask how they go about achieving that, and I ask if they have a friend in their payroll department. If not, I send them to paycheckcity.com.

Local banks still do it. They give out sports tickets, I received a "weather station" for opening a business checking account. My in-law received a blanket for renewing a CD.

My update was posted a couple of minutes ago... Not my first rodeo Other than testing the actual accuracy of my calculation against n1036, I did a test of a married 0, 1k week. 24 less FWH. I was actually guessing today. They post the file, if you know where to look, the day "before" the list of their current files gets updated. Something like this, they seem to prefer Friday for wide knowledge, and with the Monday holiday, even better for them Anyone that wants to play, can download and install our free trial and see the results.

What's going to happen to those employees that claim infinity allowances but never file tax returns?

Your update will be out in 20 minutes....correct? I feel for you on this one. Everyone is waiting to see if it makes a difference. I tried to calculate my withholding and I think it comes to about $15-20 per week less. Tom Modesto, CA

No, it's $500, for tax years starting after 12/31/17. Yippee, starts next year.

I still have a scented candle that I bought with S&H Green Stamps in the mid-1990's. Yes, they were still around (limited, but around) then! At least, they were still around in Worcester MA...

It's on the new 2848 that ATX just released today.

I think the IRS now (or soon?) requires that we notify our clients if we use a third-party to access e-Services. More security!

Not green stamps related but my parents still have the Funk and Wagnall encyclopedias they received from the grocery store as a rewards program. Got them back in the late 70's I think. It shocked me to see a local grocery store still doing a similar rewards program. You could get free cutlery, dishes and glasses. Didn't have a clue that was still used.

Don't take that class too soon Christian. The whole AMT schema just changed and it will probably take "college people" some time to figure it out and explain it to Congress.

Looking forward to next year's edition. Might be another panel or two.

Looks like the only change made to 2848 was line 5a. This was added - "Access my IRS records via an Intermediate Service Provider"

Yes. And you can print them out if you wish. Also, you can pull up as many transcripts as you want - no limit - as when Calling PPL.

I think my parents still have some plates they bought/exchanged with the stamps lol.

I received the following information from the Va Society of Enrolled Agents, as provided by IRS Stakeholder Liaison for our area: Key IRS information for tax professionals Message From Ley Mills, CSO - Stakeholder Liaison - Field Please read this IRS Message to the Tax Professional Community. It details how the IRS continues to review its procedures to better protect sensitive taxpayer data. As part of this effort, the IRS will request additional information from tax professionals who contact us through the Practitioner Priority Services or any toll-free IRS telephone number. We also strengthened protections for IRS e-Services and made updates to Forms 2848, Power of Attorney, and 8821, Tax Information Authorization. These changes will require you to inform clients if you are using an Intermediate Service Provider to access client transcripts via the Transcript Delivery System. Please share this message with other tax practitioners that may find it beneficial to their business.

+$1 net pay is welcome. But, the liability issue will be interesting to see develop.

The reality is there are many other tax jurisdictions which use the federal "exemption" amount, and W4 information. I have no idea why, but the IRS wisely decided to come up with calculations which did not require a new W4, and did not "break" the other jurisduiction's calculations. Employers have no flat % options available, other than exceptions for bonus type payments. Employees do not like use of the allowable flat % option, since it is at higher rate than a normal calculation. There is absolutely no logic in withholding, other than to make sure it stays complicated, and for a politician to try to be able to say they increased net pay.

I grew up in a small Iowa town and we really looked forward to going to Omaha to the redemption store for S & H green stamps. We (kids) thought that it was a long drive, but now it's a bedroom community for Omaha.

Ahhh....thank you, that makes sense.

Silly question....they make change virtually any way they want. Tom Modesto, CA

In NYC we had channels 2 WCBS 4 WNBC 5 WNEW 7 WABC 9 WOR 11 WPIX and 13 WNYC (PBS). There was one UHF but it was always fuzzy, I think it came from CT. Now we have advanced so far as a society that we have hundreds of channels, remotes, and Bitcoins to buy the TVs. So my question is, if a Bitcoin is worth so much, how do they make change?

sounds like a flipper and therefor the income is ordinary. Property is inventory as are the improvements

That is my understanding as well. Business meals are still allowed at 50%. Tom Modesto, CA

Poop happens often. My point was to encourage practical security steps, tor realize nothing is secure once our of your head, and to prepare for and actually regularly practice recovery. For email, I assume the world may read it, and write/send with that in mind. Practical data security is easy. Setting up for recovery is easy. Actually testing recovery is easy, but rarely done. The odds are every person with some sort of paper or electronic trail has been compromised already, with no lasting harm (some small percentage have a short term hassle, if not adequately prepared), if even aware of the situation at all. A few have long term hassle, such as having to get a new SSN (something we have experienced in our family). I gave up on a list of passwords many years ago. I do not reuse or recycle them, and I have a memorized way to create unique passwords as needed, including symbols not directly on a keyboard. I have an odd perspective for certain since I hear from folks on a daily basis, who are needing to recover, and were not prepared at all, or worse yet, thought they were prepared and actually were not.

And, that $500 is indexed for inflation. Is it actually $515 or so now? A speaker last night mentioned some audit questions 806HOH as possibly what the IRS will ask for our due diligence. She thinks a new form...

A nice little tidbit to know. A $500 fine for not performing HOH due diligence. CA sometimes requires that a questionnaire be filled for this, which consists of a series of 11 questions. Just holding my breath to see what the IRS wants.

Transcripts. I have clients that can never tell me what estimated payments they've made and others who lose their tax documents or never receive them. Of course the missing documents ones have to wait until as late as summer before the IRS has the documents posted. I also have client business clients with prior balances due for payroll taxes and I need to track those until paid off.

I went to a retirement party last night for a friend who retired from the fire department as a deputy chief. I was really proud of him because he was one of my rookies (probie) when he got to my firehouse. He is also a CPA and has a tax practice where he says he does close to 500 returns. I always found that amazing as there are only so many hours in a day. He claims by using Ultra Tax it is easily done because the program is so good. I know his wife is his assistant. So last night I meet his wife for the first time and I asked if he pays her. Said, No! Last year he made me take the HRB course and now he has me doing input. Now I can’t wait to get home to tell my wife, wish me luck.