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I, too, have a Pixel, love it! and agree with the great spam blocking. I so appreciate that there is a message that does allow a legitimate caller to leave a message. Bad folks don't.

Simplifying the tax code will never happen because it's used for far more than raising revenue. It is used to reward supporters through loop holes and credits and to push social agendas. Want to push EV's even though the market is lukewarm to them because they are not piratical yet, offer a credit. Want to reward your biggest donors, create credits and tax breaks that favors them. But it's not always bad. IRA's, 401K's, and other retirement plans do make it more attractive to save for retirement, raising the quality of life for seniors.

You may not live forever doing that, but it sure will seem like it?

I had a client with that issue, 3 years running. Ended up calling the state taxpayer advocate and reporting it as harassment of an elderly taxpayer. They stopped. I mean, fer gosh sakes, the state sends out the funds, collects their own tax, and sends the 1099-R, and the taxpayer has to prove it?! In what universe does that make any kind of sense whatsoever?

It has nothing to do with this. It's all about our elected representatives getting re elected.

Don't know how to keep formatting. If you want the original color flyer, including a picture of Catherine, send me your email so I can forward the Constant Contact announcement. September Super Session - 4 CEs Tax Topics that Everyone Should Hear about! Date: September 20, 2023 @ 3:30 pm - 8:30 pm Topics: · Entity Selection and Tax Consequences · Schedule C Refresher & Overview · Minefields & Disasters – How to Navigate & Mitigate · A Case Study Speaker: Catherine White, EA Education Committee Contact/Point Person: Bo Demczar - [email protected] Meeting Schedule: 2:45 – 3:45 Board Meeting & Committee Meetings & Committee Meetings 3:30 – Registration 4:00 – First Session 5:40 – Business Meeting 6:00 – Buffet Dinner 6:50 – Second Session 8:30 – Close Members (Timely): $95.00 Non-Members & Late Members: $125.00 Timely is by midnight the Friday before the meeting! All payments are cleared through PayPal but you do not have to have a PayPal account, just a credit card. Tickets on sale NOW Timely Deadline: 09/15/2023 REGISTER HERE: https://www.nyctatp.org/event/september-super-session/ SAVE THE DATES! Friday 20 October – October Seminar Kathy Morgan Residential Rental Real Estate - Basis Issues - Depreciation - Recapture - From Purchase through Sale Ethics - Due Diligence: It’s not just for EITC anymore __________________________________________________ Thursday 30 November & Friday 1 December – Annual Tax Update Seminar Ryan Reichert? Brass Tax Presentations Federal Tax Update Additional Federal Tax Topics - Crypto Currency & Advanced Brokerage Statements - Energy Credits - Packing a Powerful Punch - Tax Implication of Family Drama - Tax Stuff You Thought You Knew NY Tax Update CT Tax Update __________________________________________________ Wednesday 10 January 2024 Last Chance Tax Update Kathryn Keane

Our VOIP line is with Xfinity and we added all the spam calls we were getting to a block list, and hardly get any spam calls anymore. My cell is a Pixel and the spam blocking on that for both calls and texts is amazing, so spam calls for us are almost nonexistent.

And Form 1040-V (payment voucher) now contains this notice:

Most of the "We are trying to reach you about your car warranty" calls have been replaced with "Your company qualifies for huge tax credits because you stayed open during the pandemic" calls. I must get at least 10 of these calls a week. And I don't qualify for the credit, no employees and my income actually went up during the lock down!

That's the one thing I remember you all saying after the picnic at Rita's that I had to miss -- that Catherine's short. Well, our room has dinner tables arranged all around a dance floor, so none of us should have our view of Catherine blocked.

I've noted sudden decreases after widespread arrests on a call center farm, then increases - probably when a new center is set up. Answering with a business name, "Who's calling?" or some other non-hello response generally throws off robots. But I'm thinking seriously of NoMoRobo for home and business lines. Don't know how it will deal with a fax - probably won't get through. Lots of calls here come through as a town name; if I answer those I'll start with "does the town of [town name] need accounting or tax work?" and those never get put through. If in a fey mood, I'll answer in a language not-English.

What do you mean by "apply the 743 for this partnership until 2014"? Did you file a timely 754 election? But that would not effect the shares of partner that died in 2012; and they would not have received any benefit from an increase in depreciation. The partnership is not "revalued"; only the inside basis of the inherited shares. I will be straight forward. Sounds to me like you have been practicing in an area you are not qualified in. That would be an ethical conduct violation if you were a CPA. For partner who was entitled to 743(b) but did not receive it, the disparity between inside and outside basis usually equalizes when assets are sold and the partnership is dissolved in the same year.

A good start for simplification would be to end Head of Household as a filing status. It confuses taxpayers and is needlessly complicated. Increase the standard deduction and the 10% tax bracket (main benefits of HoH) and no one gets hammered and one less thing to worry about. Of course this will never happen.

Your client's bank should be able to access the transaction trace # in their online details and print that information for your clients. This convinces me to advise my clients not to mail checks or to use direct debit anymore.

I have discovered this year that the IRS has different subsystems that don't always communicate with each other. In your client's situations, just because the IRS or the U S Treasury was the payee doesn't mean your client or your client's correct account was posted. You or your client will have to call the IRS. You will need the transaction trace number for the IRS to track down where the payments went.

Seems rather rudimentary in the building of a tax collection system that someone's payments get applied to their account.

Make sure to keep your eyes down or you will look right over the top of her...... Love ya @Catherine but you are short! Tom Longview, TX

I attended two classes on this and one speaker said yes for C & F and another said no. I guess I will be waiting until the rules are more clear.

Years ago I set up all phone numbers under my name, husband's, and mom's with nomorobo and wasn't sure it did anything to stop the calls.

This is more of the ill-logic of our tax system. I have advocated for single payer status for everyone. Forget all this married stuff and dependents and credits. You get a w2, the exact taxes are withheld and you don't have to file. You have a business, you figure out your income and file a return. No kids on returns. No credits. No arguing. You're liable for yourself. Would make the system easier and less abused.

Following up on this - the IRS will only give you a LTR385C which states that the IRS accepted the S status on such date. The Form 2553 is thrown out after the IRS has accepted the election. This is what I was told today when I finally got thru to someone. And I dare say, the phone lines and queues have not gotten any better. It took me 3 tries this week, the first two I was disconnected after a long hold.

I usually don't answer if it's not someone I know, but when I do, I never say "hello" or answer "yes" to anything. I'll answer with "accounting office, Judy speaking" because answering "hello" will tell the computer dialer to route the call to an available person or trigger the computer to start responding. Even if answering "hello" sometimes there are no agents available on the other end to speak to us and so in those cases the computer will automatically disconnect from us. Also, I never say "yes" to any questions because that can be recorded and manipulated as acceptance of something we didn't intend or in answer to a question we were never asked. I have noticed a decrease in calls that, for my office, typically are related to credit card processing, health insurance, Medicare Advantage or Medigap, and sometimes life insurance. I don't get them on my cell phone that is personal. I have AT&T's security with it set up to route any callers not on my contact list directly to VM without it even ringing. The call log lists those as flagged from potential scammer or telemarketers. If it's a real call, that person does have the ability to leave me a message. It works well. On my old phone I used to get calls in Chinese that were out of NY and turned out to be a scare scam directed at Chinese immigrants to get them to pay a fee so that they were not in danger of deportment. The scammers knew that only Chinese speaking people would understand and possibly fall for it with the rest of us simply ignoring it by hanging up. Those calls have finally stopped for me.

I have not noticed an increase in spam calls. I've used NoMoRobo for years and it's effective (and free). Get it. Between that and Comcast having a pretty good spam filter, I don't get many. Occasionally I get a call that the system announces to be from "potential spam"! or Anonymous. I have noticed a huge decrease in spam texts. For a few months I was getting multiple texts per day because there was a "problem" with my account (Netflix, Amazon, bank, PayPal, or unidentified account) or delivery of a package. I blocked a bunch but it did no good. Those have thankfully disappeared.

Do you reply in kind?

My problem is IRS is insisting we provide them with a copy of the front and back of the check. There is no cancelled check, all I have are copies of bank statements showing "External Withdrawal IRS - USATAXPYMT" They'e saying that's not good enough. The last time I called, I thought I was making progress but was disconnected without warning.

Back in the spring of 2022 I had to call to Ogden UT to get a misapplied 941 credit corrected. I ended up talking to a very helpful young lady. What was amazing to me was how many different IRS programs she had to access in order to correct the misapplied credit. It took her about 25 minutes to apply the credit correctly.

The robocalls to my office landline have dropped significantly since I only answer those calls which have a clients caller ID. All of my non business calls go to my personal cell phone where I only answer if I recognize the caller ID. If not, they can leave a voice mail which the robo callers and spammers don't do. The weirdest thing is every 2 or 3 months I get a text message in chines characters?

I have to interject for one reason. Yes, they have increased. Usually my cell and my landline will identify as Spam Risk. I don't answer. However, I have found that since medical facilities have gone to central calling; I have not answered some important calls. We learned early on that if we answer with our business name, spammers will hang up immediately because they are not supposed to call businesses. Yes, they have increased. No, I don't know why, but I do try to answer because we have a multitude of medical and other appointments that send out recorded calls that should not be missed. The situation is hugely annoying to say the very least. Just my two cents worth.

For payroll taxes, I, for years, have advised (for those that deposit too much for some reason), to always ask for a refund, never a credit. Credits often get applied to other taxes and cause issues later.

"oh - I thought you knew...."

Several years ago my wife received a call and the spoofed number was her own cell phone number For years I have used my answering machine on my office landline to screen calls. As soon as the answering machine activates the robocalls disconnect.

I had a client who's state pension had state tax withheld and the state demanded we provide proof via a copy of the 1099r. My 3rd party checkbox also magically disappeared for a LOT of clients on the state level. I've had two clients who's W2 state tax withheld wasn't on their transcript and again we had to provide proof. They are a couple which makes it even more weird. My state has this weird credit for food pantry donations where it is a terrific credit up to a certain yearly amount and then the credit transitions from a tax credit to an income deduction. No clue when the state has reached their yearly limit so my late filing clients usually don't get it, get an adjustment and blame me. I've have multiple clients who've received adjustment letters and then adjustments reversing the previous adjustment. I absolutely hate adjustment letters that don't give a reason for the adjustment. I roll over refunds for clients who pay estimated taxes. HATE it that clients don't tell me when they've had an adjustment and then for years they keep getting adjustment letters because every year my assumption that the amount rolled over was correct was actually wrong.

My father-in-law always said the only thing he’d like to know is where he’s going to die. Then he would just be sure to never visit there.

I’ve used 1099Express for several years, filing 250-300 1099s annually Excellent product, simple Interface, great support, and reasonable pricing. Well worth checking them out. https://1099express.com

That is what I am thinking. I can export to excel, combine duplicates and import into something that will prepare the 1099s from a .csv file. I found something online called Track1099 by Avalara that seems like it will do the trick. $2.99 per form for the first 15, $2.19 for the next 150 forms. All versions of 1099s. I just watched their promo video on how to do the import. Seems straightforward enough. Anyone ever use this Avalara product? Tom Longview, TX

Can you send them back to the person that recommend QBO?

I know. But that ain't what happened. At least I am not dealing with this in January..... Tom Longview, TX

"To take one difficult area of tax law and apply that to the whole agency is an exaggeration" To me, this has nothing to do with the IRS or any other agency. It is another sign of the moral decay of our society - period. "Do the right thing" used to not be noticeable, because it was a matter of constant action, the expected action if you will. Now when someone "does the right thing" it is unique enough it becomes the closing bit on the evening news. Worse yet, the "right thing" often gets you chastised privately and publicly, so less and less will do the right thing when it can be seen, such as some/many? in politics, or even being a volunteer in a local service group (what, you are a member of X? So is a real red/blue person, so you musty be red/blue too). For those who have a desire to help, one place which usually does not bite politically is foster care / CASA. The bite is you do have to become a little more self aware about town as you may run into a "parent" who believes you helped take their child from them, but in most cases, those folks don't bother seeking revenge.

even before the decline of the USPS, I'd get 30 day letters from the IRS that were dated 3 weeks prior to receiving them, leaving little time to respond. The postmark on our correspondence is the official record of the date received--maybe their correspondence should have a postmark as well?

I apologize. I posted without reading all of the details. Thanks to Catherine and Patrick .

It's not that the IRS is having trouble understanding and applying this particular area of tax law that is troubling and evidence of cultural rot. It's that the IRS attorney's find it OK to back date court documents. If this was an isolated incident, you might conclude that this is a rouge employee stepping outside the rules. "But there are other watchdog claims made by three other partnerships—Arden Row Assets LLC, Basswood Aggregates LLC, and Delwood Resources LLC—who are asking the IRS to admit its staff backdated penalty approval forms in their cases as well" (https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/irs-backdating-court-order-spotlights-culture-attorneys-say). If a DA filed a criminal indictment, and back dated the indictment to get around a statute of limitations problem, would that not destroy the public's confidence in the system? As I learned in auditing class, the fish usually starts rotting at the head. The fact that these IRS employees felt it was OK to back date court documents should raise questions as to the integrity at the top. If there was a culture in the organization that condoned and penalized this type of behavior it most likely wouldn't happen. And it does impact our clients and society at large. Maybe not directly, but it does erode any confidence that tax payers have that they would be treated fairly if they ever had an issue with IRS. And it makes it easier for them to justify padding a deduction or not reporting the income from that side job if they feel, "if the IRS isn't playing by the rules, so why should I."

Thanks @Lion EA. I can now see why this is being put into effect and that this may be put on tax preparers to file these reports. Not to derail this topic, but I will say though that as tax preparers, we should not be "forming companies with the Sec of State for [your] clients" as you said. At least in my state, that would be considered practicing law and also most likely would not be covered under tax preparers' typical malpractice policies. If anyone here is doing this, you may want to check with your insurance carrier about your current risk exposure.