Lee B

Copied from the BNA Blog: Here is a roundup of payroll issues covered in the past week: Federal A House bill (H.R. 2213) was introduced April 10 that would permanently extend the work opportunity tax credit. The credit, which ranges from $1,200 to $9,600 per employee, seeks to help veterans, the long-term unemployed, felons, the disabled, and other disadvantaged groups. A congressional plan for federal paid family leave would use health savings accounts to fund the program. Employers would make pre-tax contributions to the accounts under the plan, which was introduced April 9 by Rep. Andrew Biggs (R.-Ariz.). Reports of business identity theft were up about 10 percent in 2018 compared, with 2017, the IRS said April 8. Compared with individual identity theft, which had an 18 percent decrease in reports over the same period, business identity theft may take a variety of forms, such as stealing the employer’s identification number or W-2 information, as well as making fraudulent wire transfers, the IRS said. Treasury Department and IRS officials March 28 presented payroll-industry representatives with an early draft of the 2020 Form W-4 that would implement changes required by the tax code overhaul (Pub. L. 115-97). State Nebraska employers may make unemployment tax payments on an annual basis, instead of quarterly, if they have a positive account balance and no late payments on Oct. 31 of a given year, under an amendment to a state regulation effective April 10. New Jersey’s wage base for employee contributions the state temporary disability and family leave programs is to increase by nearly four times in 2020, to $131,000 from $34,400, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said April 9. New Mexico added an income tax bracket of 5.9 percent for high earners, to take effect in 2021, in a tax-changes bill (H.B. 6) signed April 4 by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D)

I would take a look at Medlin, who posts on here from time to time. Medlin would do a good job for a very reasonable cost without paying for all of the bells and whistles that you probably don't need. If you're interested in online solutions, take a look at Wave or Kashoo. I have looked at these programs, but they aren't robust enough for my larger monthly write up clients.

Right now Dell has a small business computer sale going on with I5 processors for $ 529 to $ 659 until April 25th.

I don't believe the IRS will try again. Their automated system will send your client a letter with a NSF penalty. I think in this situation you need to be proactive and either you or your client needs to call the IRS, explain the situation and ask them what would be the best payment option to resolve this snafu.

Drake also has a state comparison, which I gave to my clients, however all the changes were on the federal return , since Oregon allows taxpayers to itemize on the state return when claiming the standard deduction on the federal return.

I haven't had any either, although all of my higher income clients still have NIITax

If it's a capital gain, it's a subtraction

Generally speaking, the sale of depreciable property to a related party cannot be reported on the installment method. "Exception: The installment method is allowed if the seller can show that tax avoidance is not the principal purpose of the sale." This was the rule prior to the TCJA, don't know if it still applies for 2018 ?

I just received a Federal ack from Drake with a time stamp of 5:37 PM ?

On the other hand, I have met other accountants who previously could not get any health insurance due to pre-existing conditions. For people like them, the ACA has been a lifesaver! So, yes it's a PITA, but it's saved the lives of many of our fellow citizens.

You just have to follow the guidelines for the deduction of "out of pocket expenses" as a volunteer . Under the TCJA, there is no way to deduct unreimbursed employee expenses with the elimination of "misc itemized expenses subject to 2 %".

Did you apologize profusely and promise to work harder ?

Now there are a number of reports coming from users of Avira security software that their Windows systems are running very slowly after updating.

Here is a link : https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-provision-11011-section-199a-qualified-business-income-deduction-faqs

Are you saying that you claim the Simplified Method Deduction even though the client can't use it?

Microsoft has announced that they are blocking updates to systems which use Sophos security software. There are a number of reports that users of Avast security programs are having the same freezing problems.

If you read the article, the problems seem to revolve around the use of an antivirus program called, "Sophos", which is from England. However there appears to be no official response from Microsoft, so the actual details are a bit sketchy.

This idea gets my total support !

1. Put this client on extension 2. At the very least read the 10 page IRS "Safe Harbor" rental guidance. 3. Set down with your client and go over the safe harbor guidance and see whether they can document their involvement. Until at a minimum, you have done steps 2 & 3, you shouldn't be attempting to prepare this return.

Excellent question !

Case in point: Several years ago while changing payroll software I transposed 2 digits in the SSN of the office manager of my 2nd largest write up client. She didn't notice and I didn't catch it for 2 years. I filed the corrected W-2s for 2 years. She never received a letter from the IRS or the ODR regarding the wrong SSN.

Vehicle tax credit information comes from the manufacturer passed thru the car dealer to the car buyer. If you client has misplaced the info, send him back to the dealer where he purchased the car.

However , I have entered UPE on the schedule E page 2 worksheet for an LLC partner when the only office for the LLC was the home office for one of the partners.

Since the rental days are less than 15 , the rent isn't reportable, The 1099 may trigger a letter from the IRS, which will have to be answered.

I have never entered the 1099 K information on a return. I just use it to double check against the clients total sales for reasonableness.