Leaderboard

I know good and well that I am NOT typing in my password incorrectly for ATX. Well, I'll show them. Not only will I slow it down, I will break fingernails pounding out those characters on this keyboard. Take that! Just once, I want them to say, "Close enough," and let me in.

Cases detailed in the IRS report related to payroll and employment taxes included: •The owner of a Mississippi security company was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of supervised release, and restitution for failing to pay withheld taxes. The owner of the company entered into an agreement with the IRS to pay the taxes in installments, but did not make payments and attempted to avoid IRS levies by transferring the company’s assets to new companies. Some of the taxes owed were collected, but the owner was to pay $165,076 in restitution, which was the amount of taxes still owed. •The owner of a Rhode Island staffing agency was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of supervised release, and restitution for failing to report wages paid and tax withheld. The owner of the company withheld federal taxes from employees’ pay, but did not report about $4.3 million in wages paid to the IRS. The company evaded paying about $1.3 million in withheld taxes and employer contributions. •A co-owner of 11 Massachusetts restaurants was sentenced to 30 months in prison for a scheme to avoid paying income and employment taxes, the IRS said. Employees of the restaurants were paid in cash, and federal employment taxes were not withheld or paid to the IRS, the agency said. The employers misrepresented the number of employees working at the restaurants and the wages they were paid, and did not file Forms W-2, the IRS said. Additionally, the restaurants’ income and wages paid were misrepresented to tax preparers, leading to the filing of false tax returns, the IRS said. The restaurants’ payroll was also understated to workers’ compensation providers, reducing premiums owed. The co-owner of the restaurants was to pay $2.3 million in restitution to the IRS. •The owner of an Illinois scrap-iron refining company was sentenced to one year in prison, one year of supervised release, and restitution for concealing from the IRS wages paid to employees. The owner of the company paid at least $11.6 million in cash wages to at least 50 employees and did not withhold taxes under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act and Medicare. The owner was to pay $1.3 million in restitution. •The owner of a Nevada home-care provider was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and restitution for evading payment of withheld employment taxes and penalties. The employees of the provider had employment taxes withheld from their pay, but the taxes were not paid to the IRS. The agency assessed penalties against the provider’s owner, but the owner attempted to avoid paying the penalties or taxes owed, including by changing the name of the business. The owner was to pay $1.2 million in restitution, the IRS said. •The owner of a Missouri school bus provider was sentenced to three years in prison and restitution for failing to pay about $1.7 million in withheld employment taxes to the IRS. The owner of the company did not deposit withheld income, FICA, or Medicare taxes, and did not pay the FICA employer contribution, the Justice Department said in a news release. The company operated under three names, and each of the company’s identities accumulated unpaid employment taxes, the department said. The owner was to pay restitution of $1.7 million. •The chief executive officer of a Virginia software company was sentenced to 21 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and restitution for failing to pay withheld employment taxes to the IRS. The CEO and vice president of finance of the company paid some employees by manually bypassing the company’s payroll and accounting systems. The employees received the correct amount of pay, including taxes deducted, but the taxes were not paid to the IRS. The company in turn reported incorrect amounts of tax owed on Forms 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. Additionally, the company did not pay all of employees’ voluntary retirement contributions to the company retirement plan. The CEO and vice president were to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution for the unpaid taxes. It warms my heart to see these scoundrels pay for their idiocy!

And I bet your script has no broken fingernails and never curses.

You would win that bet! I could probably make it curse though!

One of the best choices I've made recently is scripting several of my main passwords. I don't even know what my password for ATX is but my script always types it correctly!

I sure wish one of the professional tax groups would rally and have the IRS pay every preparer for whom they hold 10-cards (fingerprints) for being their gatekeepers.

Put the fear of the HUG in them and your problems will go away !

To file a PR return, you have to be a "Hacienda" preparer. I've heard there are several in FL and that HRB has some.

How much was her housing allowance. And, if he is religiously opposed to accepting government help from the SSA, then why is he not religiously opposed to accepting government help in the way of EIC? Just asking.

I am getting quite a few new clients this year. We don't take many new clients because we have more work than we can handle, but we do get some referrals from attorneys, financial advisors, and good clients and take them because we don't want to disappoint. Most of these new people tell me that their previous accountant retired. With all the changes from the TCJA, I am not surprised! One way to secure your business is to find a niche. Tax law has gotten so complex that we were headed in this direction even before TCJA because no one could master it all. Those who specialize in low-income, EITC, rapid refund returns (like Block, who used to be "America's tax return preparer" and then changed its business model in this direction, and now sees the writing on the wall and is changing back) will see business drop off. I do a lot of trust and estate returns, and that business isn't going anywhere. Yet when I get a person with anything but a standard type of visa, I refer him or her to someone who knows a lot more about that area than I do. We each have to think about what area of tax we like, learn more about it, and become that kind of preparer in the future. Anyone wild about cryptocurrencies?

In looking over the qualifications for head of household yet again. I note on the front of the old 1040 that you listed an individual you did not claim as a dependent and wallah (!) it worked. If this filing status requires a dependent how did completing that line go through ?

I was going to say Abby's script is probably ALL curse words! (joke, Abby)

Hey, I'm an EA and stuck with all the same stuff, but I didn't have to be fingerprinted. I want my pay, too!

Use the search function within General Chat and search for "Puerto" and you'll see some past posts with general information on this.

THAT subset has gotten easier since the invention of the online services/utilities that track basis and create reports. I have one client who can send me an importable csv file, another whose software spits out a properly sub-totaled report that we can append as a pdf like we can do with brokerage statements. They also like that they're not paying ME to calculate gain on every frimping latte they bought with crypto all year long.

Not me, sorry!

Housing allowance was taken against his wages not hers. Also she didn't opt of Social Security. He did years ago and she only became clergy more recently and chose not to opt out. As to your latter question, I can't answer that nor is it my position to ask.

Yup this is why I am always looking for new business clients. Since I am already preparing their business returns, they almost always just have me prepare their personal returns (and if lucky, any other shareholders'/partners'/members' returns) and then our real bread and butter is the write-up work they provide throughout the year (usually on a monthly or quarterly basis). When I first started out, I found that charging slightly higher than usual fees for small personal 'I need my refund ASAP' returns and lower than usual fees for more difficult personal or business returns helped me to weed out the more unreliable client and build a client base that tended to remain loyal, didn't just shop around looking for lower fees and faster refunds, and understood when I had to impose 'reasonable' fee increases from time to time. They also tend to have much more lucrative associates and clients for referrals. Note: if you are thinking about or already trying to obtain more business clients, look into professional networking groups in your area. Once we found the right group (professionally run, formal and serious but still fun, and allows only one member from each type of business, i.e. one accountant, one lawyer, one investment advisor, one plumbing contractor, etc.), we probably tripled our business clientele within a few years.

"The IRS has authority to charge a user fee for preparer tax identification numbers (PTINs) a federal appeals court held on Friday, paving the way for the agency to reinstate the charges for obtaining and renewing a PTIN". . . . . . This may be nitpicking, but the appeals court ruled that the IRS has the legal authority. The fee question is returning to the District Court for determination. "Having upheld the IRS’s authority to require return preparers to obtain a PTIN and charge a fee, the court then discussed whether the fee the IRS charged was excessive. It noted at first that the IRS had lowered the fee from $50 to $33 (plus a separate processing fee). The appeals court remanded the case to the district court to determine whether the fee is reasonable and complies with the IOAA"

The new standard deduction helps out a lot on this. But in Ky, charitable deductions still count, ugh.

I think these are great. Since there is no date in the text, I would make sure that in addition to being signed that they are also dated. In addition.I would add the Tax Year to which it applies. Otherwise, if a problem arises later, the client could claim it was for a different year.

I've got a couple of those; from whom the wafting essence makes my eyes smart. They have apparently adopted the philosophy made famous by Dolly Parton (in another field, of course); to wit: MORE IS MORE!

IRS won their appeal to reinstate PTIN fees. https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2019/mar/court-upholds-irs-ptin-program-201920752.html