Lee B

My experience is that the less expensive routers work ok if you are in the same room, but once you have more than one wall between you and your router performance starts going downhill. The other big issue is how many devices will be accessing the router at the same time. With less expensive routers, 1 or 2 devices should be fine. Once you get to three devices, things start to go downhill. Both P C mag and PC World have good reviews and rate their top ten routers every year.

Employer Reminder: Reporting Tips versus Service Charges; Key Differences Between Categories Affect Employees, Tax Reporting FS-2017-08, April 25, 2017 Español The Internal Revenue Service reminds employers that so-called “automatic gratuities” and any amount imposed on the customer by the employer are service charges, not tips. Service charges are generally wages, and they are reported to the employee and the IRS in a manner similar to other wages. On the other hand, special rules apply to both employers and employees for reporting tips. Employers should make sure they know the difference and how they report each to the IRS. What are tips? Tips are discretionary (optional or extra) payments determined by a customer that employees receive from customers. Tips include: Cash tips received directly from customers. Tips from customers who leave a tip through electronic settlement or payment. This includes a credit card, debit card, gift card, or any other electronic payment method. The value of any noncash tips, such as tickets, or other items of value. Tip amounts received from other employees paid out through tip pools or tip splitting, or other formal or informal tip sharing arrangements. Four factors are used to determine whether a payment qualifies as a tip. Normally, all four must apply. To be a tip: The payment must be made free from compulsion; The customer must have the unrestricted right to determine the amount; The payment should not be the subject of negotiations or dictated by employer policy; and Generally, the customer has the right to determine who receives the payment. If any one of these doesn’t apply, the payment is likely a service charge. What are service charges? Amounts an employer requires a customer to pay are service charges. This is true even if the employer or employee calls the payment a tip or gratuity. Examples of service charges commonly added to a customer's check include: Large dining party automatic gratuity Banquet event fee Cruise trip package fee Hotel room service charge Bottle service charge (nightclubs, restaurants) Generally, service charges are reported as non-tip wages paid to the employee. Some employers keep a portion of the service charges. Only the amounts distributed to employees are non-tip wages to those employees. Reporting Tips and Directly and Indirectly Tipped Employees Employees must report to their employer all cash tips received -- except for the tips from any month that total less than $20: Cash tips include tips received from customers, charged tips (for example, credit and debit card charges) distributed to the employee by his or her employer, and tips received from other employees under any tip-sharing arrangement. Noncash tips (that is, tips received by an employee in any other medium than cash, such as passes, tickets, or other goods or commodities) from customers are not reported to the employer. All cash tips and noncash tips should be included in an employee’s gross income and subject to federal income taxes. Both directly and indirectly tipped employees must report tips to their employer. A “directly tipped employee” is any employee who receives tips directly from customers, including one who, after receiving the tips, turns all of them over to a tip pool. Examples of directly tipped employees are waiters, waitresses, bartenders and hairstylists. An “indirectly tipped employee” is a tipped employee who does not normally receive tips directly from customers. Examples of indirectly tipped employees are bussers, service bartenders, cooks and salon shampooers. Employers are required to retain employee tip reports, withhold income taxes and the employee share of Social Security and Medicare taxes from the wages paid, and withhold income taxes and the employee share of Social Security and Medicare taxes on reported tips from wages (other than tips) or from other funds provided by the employee. In addition, employers are required to pay the employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes based on the total wages paid to tipped employees as well as the reported tip income. Employers must report income tax and Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld from their employees’ wages, along with the employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, on Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return, and deposit these taxes in accordance with federal tax deposit requirements. Tips reported to the employer by the employee must be included in Box 1 (Wages, tips, other compensation), Box 5 (Medicare wages and tips), and Box 7 (Social Security tips) of the employee's Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Enter the amount of any uncollected social security tax and Medicare tax in Box 12 of Form W-2. See the General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3. For more information, including what to do if there are not enough wages to withhold all of the taxes, see Topic 761 - Tips – Withholding and Reporting. Reporting Service Charges Employers who distribute service charges to employees should treat them the same as regular wages for tax withholding and filing requirements, as provided in Publication 15, Employer’s Tax Guide. Distributed service charges must be included in Box 1 (Wages, tips, other compensation), Box 3 (Social Security wages), and Box 5 (Medicare wages and tips) of the employee's Form W-2.

If the issuer won't ask his accountant to correct the 1099, then all you can do is wait for the IRS Notice. About 10 years ago I had a Appliance Repairman receive a 1099 for $ 60,000 when it should have been $ 6,000. When we received the IRS Notice, I attached a copy of the 1099 with a letter of explanation which the IRS accepted. I didn't try to get this 1099 corrected because it was from a very large corporation. Ideally you would explain the potential tax impact to your client and he would go to the issuer who would ask his accountant to fix the problem. If that doesn't happen, then I would ask your client to get a signed letter from the issuer explaining the discrepancy. This should be on your client to pursue. Your job is to explain to your client what will happen if the 1099 isn't corrected.

There is a reason that the last major tax reform bill occurred 31 years ago after 2 years of hearings, negotiation and compromise. This really isn't a bill, it's a wish list, that already has made some major players very unhappy.

According to Ashley, the sales rep I have been emailing back & forth, I can download any year from 2013 thru 2016.

To me this sounds like an upgrade. Is this tax planner, Federal Only, or is a state tax planner included ?

Since I am seriously considering switching from ATX to Drake, does Drake have a Tax Planner and how does it compare to the ATX Tax Planner, pros & cons ? Thanks in advance,

After the ATX 2012 debacle, I took a good look at Drake, went to one of their seminars, watched some of their videos and downloaded some of their manuals. My practice is mostly a client write up/payroll processing practice and then I do tax returns for the business owners, their children, relatives, friends and etc. Now I am in the process of evaluating Drake again, but since I am on vacation I will miss the 2 Drake presentations in my state. I have always been curious if it would possible to use Drake CWU along with the Drake Tax Software. Four years ago, I participated in a a online Webinar about Drake CWU. Afterwards I felt that while functional, it was too slow and inefficient especially for my larger clients. I just watched Drake's current video about CWU, which was dated 2015 and downloaded their CWU manual. As far I can tell it appears that Drake CWU is basically unchanged since 2013 ? I would appreciate any feedback about how Drake CWU currently compares to 4 years ago. Thanks in advance,

Terry, My thoughts are with you and your mother.

The son of one of my former clients accumulated $ 300,000 going thru Med School.

New on IRS.gov Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit Inst. 8974, Instructions for Form 8974, Qualified Small Business Payroll Tax Credit for Increasing Research Activities Form 8655, Reporting Agent Authorization Form 941, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return Form 941 (Schedule R), Allocation Schedule for Aggregate Form 941 Filers Inst. 941-SS, Instructions for Form 941-SS, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return – American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands Form 941-SS, Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return – American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands Pub. 5146, Employment Tax Returns: Examinations and Appeal Rights Form 14039 (SP), Identity Theft Affidavit (Spanish version) Pub. 1281, Backup Withholding for Missing and Incorrect Name/TINs (including instructions for reading tape cartridges and CD/DVD formats) Back to Top 2. New Fax Number for Form 8655 There’s a new fax number for Form 8655, Reporting Agent Authorization. The new fax number is 855-214-7523. As a reminder, don’t send more than 25 forms in a single transmission when faxing Forms 8655. And if possible, send faxes directly from your computer instead of from a traditional fax machine

Unfortunately, the situation is only going to get worse. I have been both directly involved and talked to clients about similar situations. It's hard to do but you need to reach out to the children or become more actively involved with this lady's recordkeeping.

I don't know about New York, but in my state you could take them to Small Claims Court without an attorney and win this case plus all fees hands down. You would receive a judgement and then you would have find property or a bank account to levy. It would take some time and effort, but for this client I would absolutely go for it.

Yay, I have email again

I find it very puzzling, for a lot of them it's like they place very little importance on the whole process. I suspect that if they could do it all on their smartphone, it would all fall into place quickly.

Today, I came back from lunch and went to check my emails. No access. Called my isp. Their whole email system is down for an undetermined amount of time and they don't know why or when it will be fixed ? Between my clients and this ******, I am starting to think someone is conspiring against me ! The number of hours between now and the start of my vacation on the 20th is shrinking alarmingly !

Thanks for the heads up ! I allowed the security updates to go ahead. I will skip the main Win 7 and the .Net update until after I return from vacation next month. Sidenote: After last months Win 7 & .Net update I noticed that my prior years ATX programs are opening much quicker and running faster. I'm sure there is an appropriate saying that applies to this situation but at this moment nada.

Copied from Accounting Today: Data breach of IRS student financial aid tool may have affected 100,000 taxpayers A data breach in the Internal Revenue Service’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, tool, which the IRS was forced to shut down last month, may have affected up to 100,000 taxpayers. The IRS shut down the tool last month when it noticed suspicious activity occurring (see IRS student loan link goes dark). In early April, the IRS started mailing notifications about the breach to some 100,000 taxpayers who may potentially have been affected, though Commissioner John Koskinen testified before the Senate Finance Committee last week that the service believes that fewer than 8,000 fraudulent returns were processed (see IRS chief reports to Congress about tax season amid new push for his ouster). Up to $30 million in refunds were issued before the tool was shut down. “Student financial aid is another area where we have concerns about the potential for unauthorized attempts at obtaining taxpayer information,” said Koskinen. “We have been working with the Department of Education to secure the online process through which student financial aid applicants obtain their family’s financial information, which they need in order to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) or apply for an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan for their student loans. As part of this effort, in early March we disabled our IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) found on the fafsa.gov website after we became concerned about the misuse of taxpayer data by criminals masquerading as students. Our IT, cybersecurity and privacy experts spent the next three weeks working with their counterparts in the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) to find a way to secure the data provided to applicants for financial aid.” “Fortunately, we caught this at the front end," Koskinen said, according to The New York Times. "Our highest priority is making sure we protect taxpayers and their identity.” The IRS posted a questions and answers page on its website to help provide further information about the suspicious activity found on its data retrieval tool and the FAFSA form. Security experts believe more government entities should be sharing information about tax fraud and security breaches. “You have to have some sort of alert system,” said Haywood “Woody” Talcove, CEO of the government unit at the technology company LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which provides tax security services to some state governments. “The other part that needs to start happening is data sharing. Once you identify a bad entity, it needs to be shared as quickly as possible.”

Just found my email. My quote for ATX Max is up $ 100 from last year. I have no idea what this person was looking at ?

Copied from the ATX Board: Just got a renewal notice email and there is no 1040 office Package being offered. The ATX Max package is $500 more and the ATX 1040 only has 3 states. I really like the ATX software but not sure what I am going to do. Something to think about but first I have to finish out tax season. I wonder what Drake's pricing will be now ?

Pub 4681 is my go to resource for this stuff, fairly well written with lots of detailed examples.

So far this year, ATX has had significant problems with state software for MA, VT, MT and HI and to lesser extent with several other states including business returns for my state of Oregon. Specifically, personal tax returns in HI and some business tax returns in MT could not be efiled until well into March. The overall atmosphere around ATX is the worst since 2012 and is very confidence deflating. There is nothing going on to inspire any confidence that next year will be any better !

This may be a bit of a stretch, but I would seriously consider filing a 3115 for each corporation. For the corporation with the increased expense, they could deduct it in the current year. For the corporation with the increased income you have the option of spreading the increase over 4 years. You would have evaluate this approach versus amending all those years.

Re: ATX This is it for me. I have stuck with you people through all of your problems with the software and all of your customer service glitches for 20+ years, but being turned over to a collection agency when my credit card on file was up to date and the problem was on your end and now finding out that I was LIED TO about the pricing is the last straw!!! The most recent post from the ATX Board about this subject. I will be leaving too !

Phase out for MFJ begins at $110 k