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This theft discussion reminds me of the response I give when a client turns "prepper" and asks me whether they should buy gold in preparation for a total economic collapse. My answer is always the same. "In the scenario you're anticipating, the only metal that will make any significant difference is lead."

The Omnibus Spending Bill passed the Senate and has been forwarded to the president. Copied from the the Journal of Accountancy: The federal government spending bill passed by Congress on Thursday repeals three health care taxes that were originally enacted as part of 2010 health care reform legislation, makes many changes to retirement plan rules, extends several expired tax provisions, provides disaster tax relief, and repeals the provision that taxed exempt organizations when they provided parking to their employees. The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, H.R. 1865, passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday by a vote of 297–120 and the Senate on Thursday by a vote of 71–23. It now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature. Health care taxes The three repealed health care taxes are the Sec. 4980I excise tax on certain high-cost employer health plans, popularly called the Cadillac tax; the Sec. 4191 medical device excise tax; and the annual fee on health insurance providers contained in Section 9010 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, P.L. 111-148. All three taxes had previously been postponed or suspended, most recently by P.L. 115-120 (a fiscal year 2018 federal appropriations continuing resolution). The Sec. 4980I Cadillac tax had been delayed until 2022. The 2.3% medical device excise tax was suspended through Dec. 31, 2019. And the health insurance fee was suspended for 2019. The three taxes, which were enacted to fund the health care reform known as Obamacare, have now been repealed. Retirement plan changes The bill also incorporates the text of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019, which passed the House of Representatives in May but was never voted on by the Senate. The bill is designed to encourage retirement savings in various ways and to simplify administrative requirements in order to make it easier for employers to offer retirement plans. The bill introduces many other changes. Among them, the bill: Increases the age after which required minimum distributions from certain retirement accounts must begin to 72 (from 70½); Modifies requirements for multiple-employer plans to make it easier for small businesses to offer such plans to their employees by allowing otherwise completely unrelated employers to join in the same plan; Reduces Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation premiums for certain multiple-employer defined benefit plans of cooperatives and charities; Allows penalty-free distributions from qualified retirement plans and IRAs for births and adoptions; Makes it easier for long-term, part-time employees to participate in elective deferrals; Allows consolidated filings of Forms 5500, Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, for similar plans; Allows certain home health care workers to contribute to a defined contribution plan or IRA; and Requires beneficiaries of IRAs and qualified plans to withdraw all money from inherited accounts within 10 years. The bill repeals the maximum age for IRA contributions (currently 70½). It also amends Sec. 408 to reduce the amount of deductible charitable IRA contributions allowed to taxpayers over 70½ by the aggregate IRA contribution deductions allowed to them after they turn 70½. The bill allows certain expenses associated with registered apprenticeship programs to count as qualified higher education expenses for purposes of Sec. 529. The Sec. 6651 failure-to-file penalty is increased to $435. The new kiddie tax in Sec. 1(j)(4), which was introduced by the law known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), P.L. 115-97, is repealed. Extenders The bill also extends many expired tax provisions. Among those extended through 2020 are: Sec. 108(a)(1)(E), which excludes from gross income the discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness income; The Sec. 163(h)(3) treatment of mortgage insurance premiums as qualified residence interest, which permits a taxpayer whose income is below certain thresholds to deduct the cost of premiums on mortgage insurance purchased in connection with acquisition indebtedness on the taxpayer’s principal residence; The 7.5% (instead of 10%) adjusted-gross-income floor for medical expense deductions in Sec. 213(f); and Sec. 222, which provides an above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses. Also extended were various incentives for employment and economic growth and for energy production and efficiency. A number of credits that were scheduled to expire at the end of 2019 were extended through 2020. These include the Sec. 45D new markets tax credit, the Sec. 45S employer credit for paid family and medical leave, the Sec. 51 work opportunity credit, and the Sec. 35 credit for health insurance costs of eligible individuals. Disaster tax relief The bill also provides tax relief for victims of various disasters occurring in 2018, 2019, and up to 30 days after enactment of the bill. Eligible taxpayers can make tax-favored withdrawals from retirement plans. The bill also enacts an employee retention credit for eligible employers equal to 40% of qualified wages, which are wages paid to an employee during the time the employer’s business is not operating due to a natural disaster (up to 150 days after the disaster). The bill also implements special rules for disaster-related personal casualty losses and for determining earned income for purposes of the Sec. 32 earned income tax credit. The bill also introduces automatic 60-day filing extensions for certain taxpayers affected by federally declared disasters. Parking as UBTI Finally, the bill repeals Sec. 512(a)(7), which was enacted by the TCJA and which required tax-exempt employers that provide qualified transportation fringe benefits or parking to employees to pay unrelated business income tax on the amount by which a deduction is not allowable under Sec. 274.

Merry Christmas! Hope Santa brings you everything you want!

One (former!) client, some years ago, just about went ballistic on a $4 difference between their depreciation calculations and mine - in several thousand dollars total. Nitwits. (Mine were correct; duh, lol.)

Merry Christmas, and best wishes for the upcoming tax season. God Bless Us, everyone!

If they are expecting werewolves, silver might be advisable.

Gee! Another retirement savings plan. Love the way congress comes up with acronyms to form a word. SECURE, SIMPLE, JOBS, FAIR, ETC For more - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/03/364-bills-that-have-been-introduced-in-congress-ranked-by-acronym-quality/ Notice how some of the old tax provisions, excluded from TCJA, are slowly creeping back in, with the 4 extenders.

Merry Christmas to all of you! I got my new computer today and it's all set up and running great! I love my IT guy! ATX 2014 won't open any of my returns unless I give them money, but I will work on getting that fixed later. He made my desktop look almost like my Windows 7, except for not so cluttered.

Merry Christmas to all my friends here!

I gotta boogie out to ..family... So...To all you fine people...

Thanks.

Yikes, hopefully it's not one of those TP that their numbers have to match their excel file

I guess the FBI didn't think of your suggestion since they had to get a company from Israel to get that phone. If I am not mistaken, the FBI had access to the thumb and yet they had to hire someone to help with the password.

It is not what I think, it is clear passwords can be worked around as described in the second post. Most password schemes have a reset function, which can be used, with relative ease, to reset 9guessing using pet names, etc.). It is my contention that any password which can be reset is of no use against a pro hacker, since the reset process may not be secure. Your physical phone does not have to be stolen to be "lost". Someone can claim they are you, and get a SIM card for your number, then change the info so your number is no longer in your control. With your number, they may be able to access things with two factor, since they will have your phone number to receive calls and text messages. Phone providers have implemented auth methods to prevent this, but you have to "enable" the new security process. For instance, one of my family plan members needed a new sim, and had to get me to share my secret code (or add them as an auth admin) to be able to get the new sim. Had I not had the additional security on, with the proper phone number and name, they could have gotten a sim for any number on my account...

No, I was just referring to the directly related ACA tax on Cadillac Health Plans and the tax on Medical Equipment Manufacturers

THAT is the key; make it too much of a hassle so they go to the next place, hoping for an easier score.

You rent the house from your brother and utilities are included in the rent contract.

You should never use a home OS for business. It's too limited in too many ways.

Merry Christmas!

Gotta wonder what that electric bill will be. Anyway Merry Christmas to all. Can I say that??