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Copied from the ATX Blog: The IRS is issuing this alert to warn e-Services account holders of an uptick in a previously reported scam designed to capture usernames and passwords. If you receive an unsolicited email you suspect could be a scam, please forward it unopened to [email protected]. If e-services users have already clicked on the fake logo and provided their username and password, they should contact the e-services help desk to reset their accounts. Posted 2 hours ago by Stephanie Bradford

Google "eFile status page", which is the IRS official answer to your question.

Elderly client has an older, not that desirable, timeshare that she paid $ 10,995 years ago. Now she just wants to avoid the $ 900 a year maintenance fee. The timeshare management company hasn't been helpful. She talked to several firms about donating the timeshare, but wasn't comfortable with the associated fees. Is there a way to just give the timeshare back ?

Individual tax incentives Provisions for individuals that expire at the end of 2016 include: Sec. 108(a)(1)(E), which excludes from gross income discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness income. Sec. 163(h)(3), the 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. Sec. 222, which provides an above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses. Also expiring at the end of 2016 is the 7.5% adjusted-gross-income floor for deducting medical expenses, applicable to individuals age 65 and older and their spouses, which will rise to 10% in 2017 (Sec. 213(f)). Business tax incentives Provisions for businesses that expire at the end of 2016 include: Sec. 45A, the Indian employment tax credit for employers of enrolled members of Indian tribes (or their spouses) who work on and live on or near an Indian reservation. Sec. 45G, the railroad track maintenance credit, equal to 50% of the qualified railroad track maintenance expenditures paid or incurred by an eligible taxpayer. Sec. 45N, the mine rescue team training credit, which provides a credit for a portion of training costs for qualified mine rescue team employees. Sec. 54E qualified zone academy bonds, which allows qualified schools to issue bonds for renovations (but not new construction), equipment purchases, teacher training, or developing course materials when they partner with private businesses. Sec. 168(e)(3)(A), which allows certain racehorses to be depreciated as three-year property instead of seven-year property. Sec. 168(e)(3)(B)(vi)(I), which provides for five-year cost recovery for certain energy property. Secs. 168(i)(15) and (e)(3)(C)(ii), which allow a seven-year recovery period for motorsports entertainment complexes. Sec. 168(j), which allows owners accelerated depreciation for qualifying property used predominantly in the active conduct of a trade or business within an Indian reservation. Sec. 179E, the election to expense mine safety equipment, which permits taxpayers to elect to treat 50% of the cost of any qualified advanced mine safety equipment as a deduction in the year the property is placed in service. Sec. 181, the special expensing rules for certain film and television productions, which allows taxpayers to treat costs of any qualified film or television production as a deductible expense. The provision is modified to also apply to live theatrical productions. Sec. 199(d)(8), which permits a deduction for income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico. Sec. 1391 empowerment zone tax incentives. This provision is modified to allow employees to meet the enterprise zone facility bond requirement if they reside in the empowerment zone, an enterprise community, or a qualified low-income community. Sec. 7652(f), the temporary increase in the limit on cover over of rum excise taxes from $10.50 to $13.25 per proof gallon to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The American Samoa economic development credit. Energy tax incentives Provisions for energy expenses that expire at the end of 2016 include: Sec. 25C, which provides a 10% credit for qualified nonbusiness energy property. The law also updates the Energy Star requirements. Sec. 25D, the credit for residential energy property for qualified fuel cell property, small wind energy property, and geothermal heat pump property (it will remain available for qualified solar electric property and solar water heating property). Sec. 30B, which provides a credit for qualified fuel cell motor vehicles. Sec. 30C, which provides a 30% credit for the cost of alternative (non-hydrogen) fuel vehicle refueling property. Sec. 30D, the 10% credit for plug-in electric motorcycles and two-wheeled vehicles. Sec. 40(b)(6), which provides a credit for each gallon of qualified second-generation biofuel produced. Sec. 40A, the credit for biodiesel and renewable diesel, which includes the biodiesel mixture credit, the biodiesel credit, and the small agri-biodiesel producer credit. Sec. 45(e)(10)(A)(i), the production credit for Indian coal facilities. Sec. 45, the credits for facilities producing energy from certain renewable resources. Sec. 45L, which provides a credit for each qualified new energy-efficient home constructed by an eligible contractor and acquired by a person from the eligible contractor for use as a residence during the tax year. Sec. 48 credits for fiberoptic solar lighting system, geothermal heat pump, small wind energy, and combined heat and power properties and the credit for qualified fuel cell and microturbine plant property. Sec. 168(l), which provides a depreciation allowance equal to 50% of the adjusted basis of qualified second-generation biofuel plant property. Sec. 179D, the deduction for energy-efficient commercial buildings. Sec. 451(i), the special rule for sales or dispositions to implement Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or state electric restructuring policy for qualified electric utilities. Secs. 6426(c) and 6427(e), the excise tax credits for alternative fuels. —Alistair Nevius ([email protected]) is the JofA's editor-in-chief, tax

I filled out these surveys over the years for many of my clients.

Copied from the OSCPA website: News - Medical Insurance Premium Reimbursement Arrangements Are Back in Play (For Small Employers) December 15, 2016 - Prior to closing for the year, Congress passed legislation that allows eligible small employers to reimburse employees through an HRA for qualified medical expenses, including medical insurance premiums. The legislation was signed into law on December 13, 2016, and is effective for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2017. By Walter W. Miller, Shareholder at Schwab, Williamson & Wyatt PC * * Reprinted with permission. This article first appeared here on December 14, 2016. In the days before the Affordable Care Act (the “ACA”), an employer that did not offer a group medical insurance policy to its employees could instead adopt a health reimbursement arrangement (“HRA”). Through the HRA, the employer could reimburse employees on a tax-free basis for all or a portion of the cost of the premiums for an insurance policy purchased on the open market. The ACA disallowed this practice, effective as of January 1, 2014. Prior to closing up shop for the year, Congress passed the “21st Century Cures Act,” which consists of a myriad of health care measures. Among the provisions of the legislation is one that allows eligible small employers to reimburse employees through an HRA for qualified medical expenses, including medical insurance premiums. The reimbursements are excluded from the employee’s income, provided that the employee is covered under a medical insurance policy that provides minimum essential coverage (such as an individual insurance policy or a policy purchased on an Insurance Exchange). The legislation was signed into law on December 13, 2016, and is effective for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2017. As a result of the legislation, small employers will be able to sponsor medical insurance premium reimbursement programs, just like in the old days. The key features of the new HRA rules are outlined below. An employer can establish the HRA for a year only if it: Had fewer than 50 full-time equivalent employees in the preceding year (i.e., it Is not an “applicable large employer” under the ACA for that year); and Does not offer a group health plan to any of its employees. The maximum amount that may be reimbursed during a year is $4,950 for an individual employee, and $10,000 in the case of an HRA that also provides for reimbursements for family members. The annual limit is prorated for an individual who is not covered for the entire year. The limit will be adjusted for inflation. The HRA could provide for the reimbursement of any type of a qualified medical expense. However, the law is designed to simply reimburse employees for the cost of their medical insurance premiums. Reimbursements must be made available on the same terms to all eligible employees. For this purpose, the following employees can be excluded: Employees who have not completed 90 days of service; Employees who have not attained age 25; Part-time and seasonal employees; and Union employees. Amounts reimbursed under the HRA will reduce dollar-by-dollar any premium tax credit otherwise available for an insurance policy purchased on the Insurance Exchange. A notice advising of the amount of the reimbursements available under the HRA, and other described information, must be provided to eligible employees prior to the beginning of each year. However, the first notice will not be required earlier than 90 days after the date of the enactment of the new law (which is March 13, 2017). The amount of the reimbursements made available to an employee under the HRA for a year will need to be reported on an employee’s W-2. The HRA is exempt from the COBRA continuation coverage rules, and from the ACA generally. The HRA will constitute an employee benefit plan for purposes of ERISA. Therefore, a plan document and summary plan description will be required. Small employers having cost restraints that restrict their ability to provide group medical insurance to their employees can now again through an HRA subsidize their employees for the premiums paid for the purchase of medical insurance on the open market. The reimbursements will be tax-free to the employees, and deductible by the employer. However, the tax-free treatment to an employee will need to be weighed against the offset of the premium tax credit that may be available

I don't know if it's prohibited, but I do know that that you cannot receive a Premium Tax Credit and claim a deductible business expense. You don't say anything about number of employees etc. More than likely the the premium paid is taxable wages to the owner

Antivirus software will not protect you against this type of scam.

Be aware, some states have accelerated their due dates to January 31st and some have not. For example, my state of Oregon, which has a mandatory efiling of W -2s, has kept the same due date of March 31st.

Congress Eliminates IRS Penalty on Employer Reimbursements for Health Insurance The Senate passed legislation Wednesday eliminating a tax penalty on employers who reimburse employees for the cost of health insurance premiums, following passage of the measure last week in the House. The IRS began enforcing the penalty on employers last year, even though it isn’t part of the Affordable Care Act. Employers who violate the rule can be fined up to $100 per day for each employee, or up to $36,500 a year, which is 18 times more than the penalty imposed on larger employers that don’t offer insurance to workers. Under Section 18001 of the 21st Century Cures Act, business owners would be permitted to compensate employees for the cost of individual insurance premiums or medical visits. President Obama has issued a statement in support of the legislation. The National Federation of Independent Business praised passage of the bill. “Both the Senate and the House have now passed critical legislation to protect small business owners from outrageous IRS fines,” said NFIB president and CEO Juanita Duggan in a statement. “Our research showed that a significant percentage of NFIB members reimbursed employees for the cost of health insurance, a practice the IRS tried to stamp out despite the lack of clear direction from Congress. Now Congress has acted to make it clear that businesses should not be punished just for trying to help their employees pay for health care costs.” The legislation includes a number of other sweeping health care provisions, including more funding for research into diseases, improvements in the mental health treatment system, and an overhaul of the regulatory system for medical devices and pharmaceuticals. It also includes funding to fight opioid drug abuse, collect genetic information from a million volunteers for medical research purposes and provide money to back Vice President Joe Biden’s “moonshot” effort to find a cure for cancer. “One of the last times I'll preside over an actual Senate vote count,” Biden tweeted Monday. “A lot of lives will be saved by this bill, God willing. So will this taxable wages subject to social security and medicare ?

Perhaps I am fortunate, that all of my rental clients are primarily operating business clients, because I don't have these problems. Actually I prefer business/payroll clients and I discourage 1040 clients.

If you still have time, I would suggest talking to the examiner's supervisor.

I remember the first time I installed ATX on my current Windows System, I had to adjust the default security levels downward before I could install any ATX prpgram.

ATX is referencing Knowledgebase Article # 13729, which details the procedures to add/update an EFIN. It doesn't say anything about confirming or recertifying a current EFIN. Since I don't start preparing tax returns until early February, I have time for other users to play guinea pig and figure this out. Good Luck, I just hope it's not excessively frustrating and painful !

ATX™ MAX® Cyber Week Offer $999* Apparently this is a cyberweek deal offered only to new users! You cannot renew at this price! Unfortunately, this kind of marketing just continues to break down the relationship between providers and users! Reminds of the banks who will offer $100 to $500 to new customers to entice them.

PENALTY RELIEF EXTENDED TO 1040 FILERS: The extended due dates for information returns required to be furnished to individual taxpayers may make it difficult for employees who may not receive the information in time to file their returns. For those taxpayers, the IRS is providing relief by eliminating any requirement that they file amended returns if they receive these statements after they have filed their returns. They should, however, keep the information returns with their tax records. The IRS is also extending its relief from penalties under Secs. 6721 and 6722 for taxpayers that have made good-faith efforts to comply with the 2016 reporting requirements. —Sally P. Schreiber ([email protected]) is a JofA senior edito - See more at: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2016/nov/irs-extends-due-dates-for-ppaca-forms-201615569.html#sthash.6veELRC5.dpuf

Copied from the ATX Blog Download your updates: Program: ATX Tax 16.1 Program Update will be available Nov 28th. ATX Tax 16.2 is planned for mid-Dec. ATX Tax 16.3 is palnned for early January and is the minimum version needed to efile individual returns later that month. Payroll Compliance Reporting-- 16.1 Program Update will be available the week of Jan 3rd. Forms: Refer to this page for expected delivery dates, but check for form updates every day as we deliver three times around 10am, 2pm, and 6pm. https://support.atxinc.com/download/formdevelopmentstatus.aspx Efile: Electronic filing for a particular federal or state return is activated by a form update, the EF INFO form for that particular entity. The EF Info forms will be downloaded to you starting Jan 3rd week, and then updated as "efile enabled" as we near the efile start dates. IRS has not released official efile start dates. Efile: Refer to this page for expected delivery dates of federal and state efile

Excerpted from the ATX email I received Note: EFIN verification is only required once. You do not have to update this information every year. Will Campbell800-495-4626 [email protected] ATX 800-638-8291 [email protected] © 2016 Universal Tax Systems Inc. d/b/a/ CCH Small Firm Services. All rights reserved. 225 Chastain Meadows Court NW | Suite 200 Kennesaw, Georgia 30144 USAUpdate Email Preferences

November 30th is the IRS deadline for personal tax returns. However the ATX blog says that ATX will stop accepting efiles 1 or 2 days before the 30th. The IRS will announce the business efile deadline ( usually just before Xmas ) early next month.

4. Technical Guidance Notice 2016-70 extends the due dates for certain information reporting requirements for 2016 imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) under section 6055 and 6056 of the Internal Revenue Code. Specifically, this notice extends the due date for furnishing to individuals the 2016 Form 1095-B, Health Coverage, and the 2016 Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage, from January 31, 2017, to March 2, 2017. This notice also provides for transitional good-faith relief from the penalties imposed by sections 6721 and 6722 of the Internal Revenue Code relating to the 2016 information reporting requirements under sections 6055 and 6056 Great, this will help me and my one ALA for whom I have to prepare these forms !

I transmitted a 1040 late Wednesdday. Thursday morining I received an IRS matching error reject. I immediately fixed the error and retransmitted Several hours later I received my acks. So, I haven't experienced these issues. The most interesting facet of this is that ATX has posted zero responses to the user posts on the ATX Board. The last 2 years it seems like ATX has adopted a Public Relations style of responding to problems i.e. don't acknowledge any negative stuff!

Copied from IRS enews: Congress recently expanded the EITC due diligence requirements to include two additional refundable credits – the Child Tax Credit/Additional Child Tax Credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit

Copied from the ATX Blog: IRS Security Summit announces 2017 initiatives that will affect you this tax season. One new requirement will require all individual tax software customers to update their security credentials to a minimum eight-character password and establish personal security questions. For ATX users, this means your passwords will be required to meet IRS-mandated complexity standards. We know that you value the security of your clients’ data and will be implementing these steps to help protect them. Be sure to look for more information about new security measures when ATX 2016 is released in November. You can also learn more about the new initiatives recently announced by the IRS on the ATX Blog.

This article on Tax Pro Today is like throwing stuff on the wall. It doesn't tell you much.

According to the ATX Blog, they will be requiring complex passwords plus secret questions with the coming Tax Season's software. There was an IRS Security Summit earlier this year attended by Tax Software Providers and State Revenue Departments where the participants agreed to implement these security related changes. There is more detail about this on the ATX Blog.