Leaderboard

I seldom answer my house phone when in my home office. And, unless I'm waiting for a client's call, I'm letting my work phone go to voicemail more and more. If I recognize the caller ID or # and am not in the middle of something, I pick up. Otherwise, I'll listen to messages as soon as I reach a stopping point and make return calls to clients, but not to salespeople. Clients get a call back soon, or as my outgoing message says, "by the next business day." I've set the ringer to ring only twice. I have received calls from ME from MY NUMBER to my number and from the "IRS," so I know they can spoof anything. Emails are less intrusive. I try to answer those as fast as possible to encourage emails. Besides, I prefer hard/electronic copies of most client responses.

Bicycle Commuting Reimbursements No Longer Excluded from Employees’ Income but Still Deductible by Employers Under the new tax law, employers can deduct qualified bicycle commuting reimbursements as a business expense for 2018 through 2025. The new tax law suspends the exclusion of qualified bicycle commuting reimbursements from an employee’s income for 2018 through 2025. Employers must now include these reimbursements in the employee’s wages. Qualified Moving Expenses Reimbursements No Longer Excluded from Employees’ Income Except for Certain Members of the Armed Forces For 2018 through 2025, employers must include moving expense reimbursements in employees’ wages. The new tax law suspends the exclusion for qualified moving expense reimbursements. One exception: Members of the U.S. Armed Forces can still exclude qualified moving expense reimbursements from their income if: They are on active duty They move pursuant to a military order and incident to a permanent change of station The move expenses would qualify as a deduction if the employee didn’t get a reimbursement Employee Achievement Award — Tangible Personal Property Defined Special rules allow an employee to exclude certain achievement awards from their wages if the awards are tangible personal property. An employer also may deduct awards that are tangible personal property, subject to certain deduction limits. The new law clarifies that tangible personal property doesn’t include cash, cash equivalents, gift cards, gift coupons, certain gift certificates, tickets to theater or sporting events, vacations, meals, lodging, stocks, bonds, securities, and other similar items

Whew! At least the client is willing to do things the right way. Better to pay the late penalties now than risk being sitting ducks in the event of an audit. Talked to them last night and they agreed to work on their books. Thanks for lending an ear (or an eye? eyes? this being a forum and all? ). The day's certainly better because of you people.

You have one. Except, you won't get paid !!

I was, until the phone spammers learned to spoof actual numbers. I have had numbers come up on caller id, complete with name, as someone I know only to answer the phone and find that is not the person placing the call. Sometimes it will appear that a local business is calling but lo and behold it is not. I am to the point at home where I prefer to let the call go to voice mail and if someone is really there, I will call them back. But it is worse when I have client's return calls that we never made and I know that my number is being spoofed to annoy local people. Edsel is right - as long as there is money to be made with relatively no downside risk, this is only going to get worse.

Low and behold, she called me today. Amazing how useful this board is. I know her ears were burning from us talking about her. Says she had a death in her family the day before our meeting. Just getting back to work. I want a job where I can take 5 weeks bereavement. Tom Modesto, CA

Realistic movement toward relief. It won't happen unless money is involved. The government's "do not call" list failed because there is no enforcement money. Report these numbers to the Federal Trade Commission and see what happens: NOTHING. If there were only a modicum of enforcement money slapping a few dozen fines of $10,000, calls would dramatically reduce. Is there a money motive arising to a force big enough to do something? Maybe. It is the cell phone industry. The last thing they want is for their customers to NOT answer their phone. Charging by the minute means less money for them if people curtail their cellphone usage. But again, so many cellphone situations exist nowadays where they are NOT billing by the minute. Sorry, but corporate greed rules. There has to be a collective fruitless cost involved for the robocalls to stop - if this can happen they will stop. There has to be a return on investment for cellphone companies to create enough mayhem by enlisting the enforcement agencies, who themselves must profit by action. Sometimes the "greedy capitalist" side of me surfaces.

It changes when he hires himself out to non-related parties to do the same work. A friend, many years ago, spent several years unemployed while living with and caring for his grandparents (keeping a promise he'd made as a teen). Once both were gone, he discovered a new profession: elder care advocate and consultant. But he wasn't taking care of his grandparents for profit as a job.

Good. Then my comment served its purpose, to draw people back to this being taxable income. Line 21; the guy's not in the business of doing this for profit.

Else it's called "retirement" which I hear actually works for some people. No one I know! All the retirees are busier than ever.

Anybody else have a problem with them? I receive three calls each and every day from them without fail; no matter what. Complaining to supervisors, over-talking salespeople, being on the DO NOT CALL list, cursing, begging for removal, screaming, beating the phone on the desk, nothing helps. You're on their computer list and there's just no way to get off. You'll be dialed again tomorrow morning.

All I can say is, I'm thankful we have caller ID!

Well, yes, those are the obvious and easy ones wherein you can just pick up the receiver, immediately hang up, problem solved. But many local callers' names don't show in the caller ID; just your area code, your local prefix, and a 4-digit number you don't recognize. So you have to listen a bit to see if it's a real customer. Gail's and Lion's methods are good workarounds, but the thing is, it takes time away from your actual business to deal with the continuous nonsensical distractions. While working a case the other day, the receptionist was out, I answered, lost my place in a count, and it took a hundred numbers and five minutes after that bogus call to get back on track. Like Catherine I sometimes get several more than three per day; it just grows, and after enough of this your phone becomes a burden rather than a help. It's a sort of "mission-creep" type thing becoming more and more onerous like say, the growing 8867. While Edsel was funning us the other day about IRS requirements, I can foresee a day when some of those questions will demand serious answers for, say, a schedule C or an S-Corp. We've only got so much time to sell and everybody wants more and more of it. Did anyone notice that the ATX 8863 education credit has become more difficult to complete and that, strangely, ATX offered (in the "warnings" of return check mode) to sell you an add-on to your program to navigate easily through the form? I don't know what the cost is.

Fortunately, I don't get too many. One was from a very persistent solar panel company, that kept calling on the home land line, even after it was blocked. So, I answered and played along with the caller and dragged the call out. Finally, I said I didn't own the house (lie). The guy hung up and that was the last call I ever got from them.

I get calls from "invalid number" and "unavailable" --several every day. Sometimes I pick up the phone and press "talk" then hang up. That stops the phone from ringing.

My husband recorded the telephone company's statement "I'm sorry, but the number you have reached is no longer in service. If you feel that you have received this message in error, please hang up and dial" whatever it is. Now, whenever a number calls that he doesn't want to talk to he plays that recording for them, complete with tones, as soon as he answers. I don't know if we are actually getting fewer calls, but he is having a good time and thinks the calls are going down. And I am not going to interfere with his fun.

Nice change, Catherine. I agree 100% that's a much better way to state that fact.

The IRS will say that this is compensation and needs to be reported, even if you try to call it a gift.

I set the phone down on my desk, but not on speaker. When I hear them say Press 1 for..., I press and let phone stay on my desk. Eventually it squawks at me that the human hung up. I kept that line from calling someone else for a few minutes. It doesn't bother me much, not being on speaker. I irritate a human. And, I think that some of those irritated humans actually drop my number from the lists. Sometimes.

Well, they may not be but they say they are Google. And yes, last year they began using our area code and then progressed to our local prefix. I tried the reasonable approach recently and listened to their entire spiel, starting off emphasizing I was not interested in buying anything. They assured me all was well and there would be no charges whatever. Five minutes later, they tried to end the call by notifying me I would be invoiced $170 for something. After a good cursing to his supervisor they hung up. I've tried blocking the numbers but you might as well try to count the stars by comparison - each time I do that they simply change or add a digit and it's all new. Their computer is smarter than my computer.

I'd call it a gift from the parents. "Here, son, we're taking a lot of your time and want to thank you."

If he wants to deduct it you should tell him he has to claim as self employed income on his return. SE tax. he will change his mind. But I agree it is not deductible to his parents and I think it taxable to him. he is providing a service.

Is the son reporting the income on his tax return? I would deem the expense associated with being a Power of Attorney to be comparable to legal fees which aren't deductible.

I use Carbonite and it shows me what is being backed up with a little green dot. Even still, I have to check it often to be sure it's being done. So, I'm still a detective, just not a real good one. Off topic; @RitaBdidn't realize that PMS was first documented in the Bible. It says, "Mary rode Joseph's ass all the way to Bethlehem." Or something like that. I'm glad I could validate her. Maybe this can help others, too. You're welcome.