Leaderboard

My brand new, professionally-set-up computer is fast and pretty and now shows that I'm an ATX Supreme Guru, have six black dots (which I take it are not at all like being black balled), a green Donors sign, 5,822 posts, and am in CT. Even better, I can see which states all of you are in, because I have clients from CT to CA and many states in between and may need your help from time to time. I'm a happy camper for many reasons. One of which is all of you helpful, happy folks who are my virtual water cooler tax experts. Happy New Year!

If your client base is the person who's return takes 15 minutes and it's Schedule A and B - you might be in trouble. If your client base is schedule C, E, F and 1041s, 1120S, 1065s..... you'll always have a client base. It's like accounting, for many small businesses doing the books is ultra easy and you don't really need a professional. When it gets complicated at all, they likely will need help. Just got the books on a long term client and I'm reminded about this. His revenue is a negative expense account and he deducted his principal loan payments as an expense. This guy is EXCEPTIONALLY bright.

Not black balled. You are a sixth degree black belt

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The federal government spending bill passed by Congress on Thursday repeals three health care taxes that were originally enacted as part of 2010 health care reform legislation, makes many changes to retirement plan rules, extends several expired tax provisions, provides disaster tax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 Health care taxes The three repealed health care taxes are the Sec. 4980I excise tax on certain high-cost employer health plans, popularly called the Cadillac tax; the Sec. 4191 medical device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.

I used to argue that jerks go high increases so that I was okay putting up with their jerkiness. About 3 years ago I fired all the jerks (only a few really) and oh my goodness life is more enjoyable. I can't think of a single client I wouldn't want to sit down and have a beer with. Have a client who did freak out that I had a 1099 on his tax return for a dividend. It was a mutual fund he insisted he didn't own and had no clue where it came from. About a month later he called to apologize, he'd found it. How does one forget a $50k account?

I want to shrink my client base at my age and think that clients moving, passing away, and not itemizing will accomplish that. But, I remain wrong. Just had another client ask me if I can take on a new client, her fiance (they've been engaged forever, so it'll never end up one MFJ return). I continue to add at least as many as I lose. Family members. Clients opening businesses/separate entities. And, I like almost all of my clients, so I'm not looking at firing anyone this year. Maybe a couple of healthy price increases...

The titles and number of dots under each name are assigned by the site's software based solely on the number of posts by that member. Someone who posts only jokes or cartoons with a certain number of posts can be ranked a Supreme Guru.

Was unaware we had a Supreme Guru. I feel more secure. A post of mine a few years back returned almost thirty responses and hardly anyone agreed with anyone else as to the correct answer.

If, as you've stated over and over, the employer should take no responsibility beyond knowing that the form isn't invalid, then why would the employer be involved in the 100K discussion at all or be memorializing the conversation? By your phrase "and it makes sense" it sounds as if you are suggesting that the employer is to evaluate the entries, not for validity of an acceptable entry on any given line, but to rate it as to their effect on the resulting withholding. Is that what you intend? In the case of the 100K of deductions, why isn't the employer still totally uninvolved, and why isn't the signed and dated W-4 enough?

That would give us a reminder that it is time to donate again. Everyone donates at a different time. I also have no idea what it cost to keep this forum up and running. I know there is also a time factor along with the actual hard cost to operate.

Thank you so much, Abby. I swear, the older I get, the more I lose my mind every day

Customize master forms under the tools menu. I have a huge list of customizations I do every year. I highly recommend you start your own list.

You do NOT need addresses on 1099Rs. That's the secret. Only W2s require addresses. It's a huge waste of time to enter the address and EIN on 1099-INT or DIV or MISC or K1s. It's also a huge waste of time to type the whole name on a 1099R. I've seen people type things like: State of Missouri Teachers Retirement System Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Inc. I just type: Missouri Metlife Never had a problem. Which means IRS is just matching the EIN. And I never enter any punctuation either. Not even apostrophes in names like O'Brien.

This isn’t something I worry about much. My client base is aging as I do, and as each retires to a state that isn’t CA, I jump for joy since that’s another return I won’t have to pay CA tax on! I consider myself semi-retired. Last year was the first year I had steady work through the season, but wasn’t overwhelmed. My assistant didn’t need to come from Sacramento to help. Yet surprisingly enough, I seem to have made a about the same amount of money! i say,if someone finds me, fine. If someone leaves, also fine. I’ve got other sources of income, but need the tax biz cash for a few years yet.

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.

I noticed my liability insurance plan has a new form about this with the renewal paperwork.

As they say: "Sounds like a plan to me." I'm pretty sure yours is like 90% of other tax preparers in this country (excepting the Big Three/Four/Five/Whatever national CPA firms). HERE'S MINE: (1) designate one or more employees to coordinate its information security program. I ALSO NAMED MYSELF AS SECURITY COORDINATOR. (2) identify and assess the risks to customer information in each relevant area of the company’s operation and evaluate the effectiveness of the current safeguards for controlling these risks. I KNOW OF TWO OR THREE LOWLIFES AROUND HERE WHO WOULD BURGLARIZE THE PLACE IF THEY COULD, BUT I'VE GOT A LANDSCAPE TIMBER UNDER EVERY DOORKNOB AND THEY CAN'T KEEP THEIR STOLEN TOOLS WITHOUT PAWNING THEM FOR LIQUOR. (3) design and implement a safeguards program and regularly monitor and test it. I BUY FILE CABINETS, LOCK THEM, AND PULL ON THE HANDLES EVERY NOW AND THEN TO SEE IF THEY STILL WORK . (4) select service providers that can maintain appropriate safeguards, make sure the contract requires them to maintain safeguards and oversee their handling of customer information. I DON'T HAVE ANY SERVICE PROVIDERS EXCEPT ATX AND MALWAREBYTES. ALL MY STUFF'S HERE AND NOT UP IN THE CLOUDS. JUST HOPE THOSE GUYS AT ATX CAN KEEP A TIGHT LIP ON THEIR END/ DON'T TRUST MAL TOO MUCH 'CAUSE THEIR REP'S IN BORA-BORA OR SOMEWHERE AND BARELY SPEAKS ENGLISH. evaluate and adjust the program in light of relevant circumstances, including changes in the firm’s business or operations, or the results of security testing and monitoring. WELL, IF THE PLACE BURNS, THE FILES WILL GO WITH IT. IF TORNADO, THEN ME AND THE BATHTUB WILL GO WITH IT, SO I''LL BE OUT OF REACH OF IRS. WE HAVE FAKE ADT STICKERS (FRONT AND BACK) PLUS A BLINKING RED ROOM DEODORIZER THAT LOOKS LIKE A BURGLAR ALARM IN THE BACK WINDOW. OTHER THAN THAT, THE OUTSIDE MOTION LIGHTS ALL HAVE WORKING BULBS, SO CAN'T THINK OF WHAT ELSE TO DO EXCEPT MAYBE CHAIN UP A PIT BULL IN THE BACK YARD. BB