Lee B

There was lengthy discusion on the ATX Board about medical sharing programs several months ago so I did quite a bit reading about the subject. Medi-share is most definitely not ACA compliant !

From my reading of the.links that jklcpa thoughtfully provided, the providing of towels, linens, cleaning services, utilities, cable TV, WiFi and supplies constitutes enough services, that they are quite likely Schedule C & self employment income. After all when you rent or lease residential property you normally have to pay for utilities, your own furniture, towels, linens, cleaning supplies, Cable TV and WiFi.

. New on IRS.gov Final Version Forms 2015 Pub. 1179, General Rules and Specifications for Substitute Forms 1096, 1098, 1099, 5498, and Certain Other Information Returns2015 Pub. 1693, SSA/IRS Reporter Newsletter 2015 Pub. 4163, Modernized e-File (MeF) Information for Authorized IRS e-file Providers for Business Returns2015 Pub. 5078, Modernized e-File (MeF) Test Package2015 Pub. 515, Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities2014 Form 5884, Work Opportunity Credit 2015 Inst. 941-X (PR), Instructions for Form 941-X (PR), Adjusted Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund (Puerto Rico Version)2015 Pub. 4772-A, American Opportunity Tax Credit Poster2015 Pub. 4772, American Opportunity Tax Credit Flyer 2015 Pub. 1693 (SP), SSA/IRS Reporter Newsletter (Spanish version)2015 Form 941-X (PR), Adjusted Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund (Puerto Rico Version)Draft Forms: 2015 Inst. 1095-A, Instructions for Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement 2016 Form W-4 (SP), Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate (Spanish version)2015 Form 4137, Social Security and Medicare Tax on Unreported Tip Income2015 Form 8959, Additional Medicare Tax2016 Form W-2GU, Guam Wage and Tax Statement (Info Copy Only)2016 Form W-2VI, U.S. Virgin Islands Wage and Tax Statement (Info Copy Only)Back to Top 2. Efforts to Prevent Payroll Tax Delinquencies IRS Collection is piloting an initiative to make early contact with employers who may be falling behind in their payroll taxes. When it appears an employer may owe a balance at the end of the quarter, revenue officers will be in contact before the quarterly payroll tax return, Form 941, is due. The goal is to address payroll tax issues before they become unmanageable. Headliner Volume 351 has more information. Back to Top 3. ACA Information Returns Specifications The draft Publication 5223 ‒ General Rules and Specifications for Affordable Care Act Substitute Forms 1095-A, 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C, and 1095-C is available for review. This pub contains specifications for these information returns: 2015 Draft Form 1094-B, Transmittal of Health Coverage Information Returns2015 Draft Form 1095-B, Health Coverage 2015Draft Form 1094-C, Transmittal of Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage Information Returns 2015Draft Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and CoverageNote: Failure to produce acceptable substitutes of the forms and schedules listed in this publication may result in delays in processing and penalties. Links to forms’ instructions: 2015 Draft Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B 2015 Draft Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C Please share with stakeholders.

I have the same question. I was at a family gathering last weekend and a nephew cornered me. He rents out 2 houses thru VRBO and AirBnB with an average stay of 4 or 5 days. No breakfast or any other services are included. Schedule C or Schedule E ?

I agree with the file an extension approach. After all with all the usual "tax extender" credits and etc still up in the air, you may have a number of unknowns which won't be resolved until the end of this year.

There are so many things to do when starting your own practice, I suggest that you stick with what you know as long as you are comfortable with ATX.

I hope this attorney knew what they were doing? 1. No step up in basis for the sons/daughters. 2. The FMV of the gifts reduces her estate tax credit. How good or bad this turns out depends on the the FMV and the original basis of each property plus the value of her total estate.

Employee Business Expenses | Tax News August 2015We noticed a large number of taxpayers who claim unreimbursed employee business expenses (EBE) on Schedule A that appear questionable. In August, we will increase the number of audits for taxpayers deducting EBE on personal income tax returns, starting with the 2011 and 2012 tax years. Revenue and Taxation Code (R&TC) Section 17201, except as otherwise provided, permits the deduction of all ordinary and necessary business expenses in accordance with Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 162. Valid employee business expenses are defined as: Paid or incurred during your tax year.Required to carry on a trade or business.Ordinary and necessary.Not reimbursed by your employer.Not eligible to obtain reimbursement from your employer.We will request taxpayers who claim these expenses to provide their employer's reimbursement policy and other documentation to substantiate their claim. Your clients can file amended tax return(s) if their business expenses do not qualify. To assist your clients with understanding what the IRS allows for unreimbursed employee business expenses, refer to IRC Section162 and Treasury Regulations Sections 1.162-1(a

FROM THE JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTANCY:Return due dates changed in highway funding billThe short-term highway funding extension passed by the Senate on Thursday contains several important tax provisions (H.R. 3236). The bill was passed by the House of Representatives, 385–34, on Wednesday, and it now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. The bill modifies the due dates for several common tax returns, overrules the Supreme Court’s Home Concrete decision, requires that additional information be reported on mortgage information statements, and requires consistent basis reporting between estates and beneficiaries. Due date modificationsThe act sets new due dates for partnership and C corporation returns, as well as FinCEN Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), and several other IRS information returns. For partnership returns, the new due date is March 15 (for calendar-year partnerships) and the 15th day of the third month following the close of the fiscal year (for fiscal-year partnerships). (Currently, these returns are due on April 15, for calendar-year partnerships.) The act directs the IRS to allow a maximum extension of six months for Forms 1065, U.S. Return of Partnership Income. For C corporations, the new due date is the 15th day of the fourth month following the close of the corporation’s year. (Currently, these returns are due on the 15th day of the third month following the close of the corporation’s year.) Corporations will be allowed a six-month extension, except that calendar-year corporations would get a five-month extension until 2026 and corporations with a June 30 year end would get a seven-month extension until 2026. The new due dates will apply to returns for tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2015. However, for C corporations with fiscal years ending on June 30, the new due dates will not apply until tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2025. These new due dates are generally ones that the AICPA and state CPA societies have been advocating for several years to create a more logical flow of information and help taxpayers and tax professionals in filing timely and accurate tax returns. Under the current due dates, taxpayers and practitioners often have insufficient time to prepare returns because required information from a flowthrough business is not available before the taxpayer’s income tax return is due. AICPA President and CEO Barry C. Melancon, CPA, CGMA, expressed the Institute’s support for due date changes in the act. The act directs the IRS to modify its regulations to allow a maximum extension of 51/2 months on Form 1041, U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts; 31/2 months on Form 5500, Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan; and six months on Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, Form 4720, Return of Certain Excise Taxes Under Chapters 41 and 42 of the Internal Revenue Code, Form 5227, Split-Interest Trust Information Return, Form 6069, Return of Excise Tax on Excess Contributions to Black Lung Benefit Trust Under Section 4953 and Computation of Section 192 Deduction, Form 8870, Information Return for Transfers Associated With Certain Personal Benefit Contracts, and Form 3520-A, Annual Information Return of a Foreign Trust With a U.S. Owner. The due date for FinCEN Form 114 is changed from June 30 to April 15, and for the first time taxpayers will be allowed a six-month extension. The due date for Form 3520, Annual Return to Report Transactions With Foreign Trusts and Receipt of Certain Foreign Gifts, will be April 15 for calendar-year filers, with a maximum six-month extension. Additional information on returns relating to mortgage interestSec. 6050H is amended to require new information on the mortgage information statements that are required to be sent to individuals who pay more than $600 in mortgage interest in a year. These statements will now be required to report the outstanding principal on the mortgage at the beginning of the calendar year, the address of the property securing the mortgage, and the mortgage origination date. This change applies to returns and statements due after Dec. 31, 2016. Consistent basis reporting between estate and beneficiariesThe act amends Sec. 1014 to mandate that anyone inheriting property from a decedent cannot treat the property as having a higher basis than the basis reported by the estate for estate tax purposes. It also creates a new Sec. 6035, which requires executors of estates that are required to file an estate tax return to furnish information returns to the IRS and payee statements to any person acquiring an interest in property from the estate. These statements will identify the value of each interest in property acquired from the estate as reported on the estate tax return. The new basis reporting provisions apply to property with respect to which an estate tax return is filed after the date of enactment. Overruling Home Concrete in cases of overstated basisIn Home Concrete & Supply, LLC, 132 S. Ct. 1836 (2012), the Supreme Court held that the extended six-year statute of limitation under Sec. 6501(e)(1)(A), which applies when a taxpayer “omits from gross income an amount properly includible” in excess of 25% of gross income, does not apply when a taxpayer overstates its basis in property it has sold. In response to this decision, the act amends Sec. 6501(e)(1)(B) to add this language: “An understatement of gross income by reason of an overstatement of unrecovered cost or other basis is an omission from gross income.” The change applies to returns filed after the date of enactment as well as previously filed returns that are still open under Sec. 6501 (determined without regard to the amendments made by the act)

EFC Summer Processing Schedule In preparation for the 2016 Filing Season regularly scheduled maintenance work will be done on the Electronic Filing Center (EFC) through August 31st. To facilitate this, we will be processing efiles Monday 9am thru Friday 5pm ET during the summer months. You may continue sending efiles at any time, including weekends, which we will send to the agencies by 9am ET Mondays. If an efile deadline falls on a Saturday or Sunday, IRS moves the deadline to Monday. Posted by Stephanie Bradford at 1:01 PM

"it's best to be thought a fool that to open one's mouth and remove all doubt "

Anarchy is the solution

COPIES FROM HOW TO GEEK: Windows Update on Windows 10 Windows Update has seen a lot of changes on Windows 10. The biggest is a more aggressive approach to getting everyone up-to-date, but Windows 10 will also use BitTorrent-style peer-to-peer downloads for updates. Many of the included applications on Windows 10 — the Microsoft Edge browser and all those other “universal apps” — will be automatically updated through the Windows Store, which is separate from Windows Update. The Control Panel Interface is GoneWindows 8 offered dual interfaces for Windows Update — one in the PC Settings app, and one in the older Control Panel. Windows 10 retains most of the old Control Panel, but the Windows Update interface has been removed. Instead, you’ll find Windows Update in the new Settings app under Update & security. This is the only interface for Windows Update in Windows 10. Updates Install Automatically, and You Can’t Choose WhichVisit the Windows Update interface and you’ll just find a single button — “Check for updates.” Click this button and WIndows will check for available updates. If it finds any, it will automatically download and install them. Windows will also check for updates in the background and automatically download and install them. Unlike on previous versions of Windows, there’s no way to select individual updates you want to download. All updates — from security updates and Windows Defender definition updates to optional updates and driver updates — will be installed automatically. The only option you can control is to select the “Advanced options” link and uncheck “Give me updates for other MIcrosoft products when I update Windows.” This will allow you to disable updates for Microsoft Office and other Microsoft programs. Windows Won’t Download Updates on Metered ConnectionsWindows won’t download updates on connections you mark as “metered.” This ensures Windows won’t waste valuable tethering data or other mobile data on updates that can wait until it reaches a solid, unrestricted Wi-Fi network. To prevent Windows from downloading updates on a specific connection, first connect to that WI-Fi network. Next, open the WI-Fi settings panel and select “Network settings,” or open the Settings app and select “Network & Internet.” Scroll down in the list of Wi-Fi networks and select “Advanced options.” Activate the “Set as metered connection” option here. Note that this only affects the current WI-FI network you’re connected to, but Windows will remember the setting for this specific network in the future. Professional Editions of Windows 10 Can Delay Feature UpdatesHome users can’t delay upgrades at all, but Professional editions of Windows 10 get a “Defer upgrades” option in the Advanced options interface. If you enable this, you’ll still receive security updates automatically. Windows 10 will put off downloading feature updates for several months until they’ve had plenty of time to be tested on home PCs. This is designed to make business PCs a bit more stable and allow system administrators to test new feature updates before they reach their users. If you upgrade to Windows 10 Professional, you could enable this option yourself. But, either way, you’ll get those feature updates — it will just happen a few months later. You Can Choose When to RebootClick the “Advanced options” link in the Windows Update interface and you’ll only find two “Choose how updates are installed” options. You can pick “Automatic,” which is the default — WIndows will automatically download updates, install them, and schedule a reboot for a time when you aren’t using your PC. You can also choose “Notify to schedule restart,” which will prevent your PC from automatically rebooting without your confirmation. But, either way, those updates will be automatically downloaded and installed. Peer-to-Peer Downloads for Updates are Enabled, Even Over the InternetTo speed up updating, Windows now uses peer-to-peer downloads for updates. For example, if you have several Windows PCs at home, you don’t necessarily have to download the same update several times. Instead, the first PC to update would download it and the other PCs could download it from the first PC. You can control whether peer-to-peer downloads are enabled from the “Choose how updates are delivered” link under “Advanced options” here. By default, Windows 10 enables peer-to-peer downloads over the Internet as well, and your PC will use some of your upload bandwidth sending those Windows updates to other PCs. You can disable this by selecting only “PCs on my local network” here. If you run Disk Cleanup and clean up the Windows Update files lying around on your PC to free up space, your PC won’t be able to provide peer-to-peer downloads because the files won’t be available. You Can View Your Update History and Uninstall UpdatesIf there is a problem with your PC, you can uninstall problematic updates afterwards. To view your update history, open the Windows Update interface, select “Advanced options,” and select “View your update history.” You’ll see a list of updates, and you can select “Uninstall updates” to view a list of updates you can uninstall. Microsoft will probably continue rolling out major updates to Windows 10 in the form of “builds” that contain all previous updates. This means that you’ll be unavailable to avoid updates forever, just as you’d have to accept an update when it appeared in a service pack on previous versions of Windows — assuming you wanted to upgrade to that service pack. Windows Won’t Have to Update Again After You Reset Your PCWhen you use the “PC Reset” feature found in Windows 10 to restore your PC, you won’t have to re-download every single Windows update that’s ever been released. Instead, the new PC Reset feature will give you a fresh, up-to-date Windows system. You won’t need to spend hours updating and rebooting over and over, which is a huge improvement from Windows 8’s Refresh and Reset features and the manufacturer-provided recovery partitions on Windows 10. Microsoft also likely plans on making more use of the “build” system going forward. While small security updates will arrive as individual updates, major upgrades to Windows 10 that include new features will likely arrive as “builds.” A Windows 10 PC can upgrade directly to a new build, which means that old cycle of downloading updates and rebooting four or five times to ensure you have all the old updates on an out-of-date PC won’t be necessary

I think this list was from publically traded companies, while Bernie Madoff was fraud.

My Way News - The rogues gallery of accounting scandals through the years The resignation of nine Toshiba executives, including the CEO, for doctoring books places the company beside the growing rogues' gallery of corporate desperados. Here's a look at some of the most notorious. Enron - 2001 Founded less than 20 years before it imploded, Enron sprinted to become one the world's biggest commodity and energy companies with deep political connections. The Houston company set a new standard for creative accounting practices. It buried massive losses in its profitable trading business and turned to off-balance-sheet financing vehicles to keep burgeoning debt off its books. The bad investments and debt eventually caught up with Enron, which filed bankruptcy protection and vanished. CEO Kenneth Lay was found guilty of 10 counts against him, but died before sentencing. Tyco - 2002 Tyco's CEO Dennis Kozlowski became the singular image of excess on Wall Street, throwing a $2 million birthday party for his second wife on the island of Sardinia and spending a reported $6,000 on a shower curtain, among other accessories. Tyco paid for a good portion of it. After regulators started examining Tyco's accounting practices, the company restated nearly six years of financial results. Tyco was ordered to repay billions to investors. Kozlowski was released from prison last year. Worldcom - 2002 Once the second-largest U.S. long-distance phone company, Worldcom was also a master of creative accounting, building up an imaginary cash pile of more than $9 billion. It may have been the worst year on record to be a Bernie when Worldcom co-founder and CEO Bernie Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison and tens of thousands lost their jobs in the ensuing maelstrom. The worst year, at least, until the emergence of another Bernie not even 10 years later, Mr. Bernie Madoff. Healthsouth - 2003 The pressure to meet Wall Street expectations can be extreme, and that was certainly the case with Healthsouth CEO Richard Scrushy. The company overstated its earnings by $2.7 billion in 2003 to satisfy analyst projections. Scrushy was fired only to become entangled in a separate scandal involving Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, for which he was convicted on charges related to extortion and money laundering. Satyam Computer Services - 2009 The Indian software services company's founder R. Ramalinga Raju confessed in January 2009 to inflating company assets by exaggerating cash balances, booking fake interest, overstating debt and understating liabilities. The company was taken over by the Indian government, and former executives faced criminal charges. Satyam and its accountants settled with the SEC, agreeing to pay $16 million in penalties. Elan Corp. - 2002 The Irish drugmaker was living the dream, transforming itself from a fledgling research operation into a massive pharmaceutical player, eating up biotech companies and eventually booking close to $2 billion in revenue. That dream ended amid a global economic slump, a closer look at the books and a near collision with bankruptcy amid an accounting scandal and the failure of its key trial research into curing Alzheimer's disease. Royal Dutch Shell PLC - 2004 One of the world's premier oil companies asked shareholders for forgiveness after it was forced to reduce the estimates about its oil reserves, then do it again, and again, and again. Shell eventually downgraded its proven reserves by 4.47 billion barrels, or 23 percent. Resignations of Chairman Philip Watts, Walter van de Vijver, head of exploration and production, and Chief Financial Officer Judy Boynton soon followed, along with a lot of unwanted attention from regulators in the U.S. and Europe. Qwest Communications - 2002 The Securities and Exchange Commission opened an inquiry into the company's accounting practices in April and within two months, CEO Joe Nacchio was out the door. By the fall, Qwest restated $531 million in improperly recognized revenue, erased $358 million in earnings and was forced to book nearly $11 billion in related charges. More than a dozen Qwest executives and managers were targeted by SEC civil lawsuits or criminal charges. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. - 2006 The company took the hard sell to a new level, unloading a whole mess of its best-selling drugs on wholesalers with some attractive incentives. As it turns out, generic versions of the drugs that were flooding the market meant that everyone's medicine cabinet had been stuffed and, according to monitors, so were the company's revenue figures. CEO Peter Dolan was fired at the insistence of the federal monitor overseeing settlement charges in an ensuing accounting scandal. American International Group Inc. - 2005 Former chairman Maurice "Hank" Greenberg agreed to pay $15 million years after he was ousted from the New York company, for what regulators called "numerous improper accounting transactions" that inflated financial results for a half decade. Those transactions included shell companies used to conceal underwriting losses that ran into the millions. The company settled with the U.S. for $800 million in repayments and fines

Federal and State W-4 Rules for 2015 | CPA Practice Advisor Let's take a look at W-4s. As we all know, this is the document that employees turn in to an employer to calculate federal and (sometimes) state withholdings. There was once a time when - if the employee turned in a W-4 with more than 10 exemptions - the W-4 needed to be sent to the federal government for verification. This requirement no longer exists, except for California state withholdings. Elsewhere, a lock-in letter replaced this requirement. If an employer receives a lock-in letter from the IRS, the employer is then required to use the IRS calculation of exemptions instead of the employee W-4. The rare exception is if an employee submits a new W-4 with more taxes that are calculated than the lock-in letter-again, this is very rare. A lock-in letter trumps a W-4 and must be put in place by the employer no more than 60 days after it is received. "How many times can an employee change their W-4?" is a common question. Actually, there is no minimum or maximum number of times. However, an employer has up to 30 days to implement the change. Another common question is "Does a W-4 expire?" There is no expiration date for W-4s so you could be correct to use a 1984 (or any other year) W-4, if no change has ever been received from the employee. Let's talk about what constitutes a legal and acceptable W-4. The form can only contain the employee demographic information, marital status, and the number of exemptions, with an area for additional dollar amount of withholding and a box for exempt. Any alteration of this, like set percentage or set dollar amount of withholding, voids the W-4. If the employer does not have a valid W-4 for the employee, the employer is required to use either Single 0 or the last valid W-4 they have on file for the employee. Also, make sure you are using the correct year W-4 when the employee submits it to the employer. Now let's look at the states. The W-4 is a federal document, and several states - but not all - accept the federal W-4. Below is a chart of states and what they accept. If the state has their own withholding form, then the federal W-4 is not allowed for state calculation of withholdings. You'll notice that Pennsylvania does not have a state W-4-this is because the rate is a set percentage. Legend *CA - 10 or more exemptions must be faxed or mailed to stateStateFormALA-4AKNo WHAZA-4ARAR4ECCADE-4*COFED W-4CTCT-2-4DEFED W-4DCD-4FLNO W/HGAG-4HIHW-4IDFED W-4ILIL-W4INWH-4IAIA-W-4KSK-4KYK-4LAL-4MEW-4MEMDMW-507MAM-4MIMI-W4MNW-4MNMS89-350StateFormMOMO W-4MTFED W-4NEFED W-4NVN/ANJNJ W-4NMFED W-4NYIT-2014NCNC_4NDFED W-4OHIT-4OKFED W-4ORFED W-4PANONEPR.499r-4.1RIFED W-4SCFED W-4TNN/ATXN/AUTFED W-4VTW-4VTVAVA-4WAN/AWVWV/IT_104WIWT-4WYN/AKnowing the federal and state W-4 rules will assist you in correct calculations of withholdings and can assist employees with the requirements.

I have been processing 2 Q 941s this week including 1 yesterday with no problems.

IRS Phone Scam Ringleader Gets 14-Year Sentence A scammer who organized a scheme in which taxpayers were threatened with calls purporting to come from the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI demanding payment has been sentenced to 14 years in prison. Sahil Patel was sentenced to 175 months in prison and $1 million in forfeiture for his role in organizing the U.S. side of a massive fraud and extortion ring run through various “call centers” located in India, through which Patel and his co-conspirators impersonated American law enforcement officials and threatened victims with arrest and financial penalties unless those victims made payments to avoid purported charges. In addition to the prison sentence, Patel, 36, of Tatamy, Pa., was sentenced to three years of supervised release. SourceMedia's Partner Insights program enables marketers to deliver relevant content and insights directly to the Accounting Today audience via SourceMedia's digital media platforms. Partner Insights content is produced by the marketer. To find out more, contact Jack Lynch at [email protected] Patel pleaded guilty in January 2015 before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who imposed the sentence Wednesday. “The nature of this crime robbed people of their identities and their money in a way that causes people to feel they have been almost destroyed,” said Hellerstein. According to prosecutors, from Dec. 2011 through the day of his arrest on Dec. 18, 2013, Patel participated as a leader in a sophisticated scheme to intimidate and defraud hundreds of innocent victims of hundreds of dollars apiece. Throughout the course of the fraud, telephone call centers located in India hired English-speaking employees to place telephone calls to individuals living in the U.S. Armed with long lists of potential victims, referred to by Patel and his co-conspirators as “lead sheets,” those India-based callers systematically placed thousands of calls to individuals in the U.S. in the hopes of intimidating the call recipients into providing a payment to the co-conspirators. To extort these victims, the India-based callers impersonated law enforcement officials of the FBI and IRS and threatened their victims with financial penalties and arrest in connection with fabricated financial crimes. “Sahil Patel’s elaborate scheme involved impersonating law enforcement officers and using intimidation and fear to bilk over a million dollars from hundreds of unsuspecting victims,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a statement. In order to receive funds in a manner that would mask the identity of Patel and his co-conspirators, the ring undertook several measures to anonymize itself, including by using anonymized voice-over-internet technology, which was subscribed under fraudulent names in order to give the appearance of being related to U.S. law enforcement agencies. Patel and his co-conspirators also used several layers of wire transactions in order to conceal the destination and nature of the extorted payments, which totaled at least $1.2 million. The scam has been continuing and on the rise this year despite Patel’s arrest. Taxpayers who have been targeted by the scam can report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at www.tigta.gov and clicking on the IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting tab in the upper right corner, or call the TIGTA hotline at 1-800-366-4484

Copied from the OSEA newsletter: Tax Changes Signed into Law June 29 2015 Tax law changes can be included in any bill sent to the President, or so it seems. Such is the case with the Defending Public Safety Employees' Retirement Act, also known as Public Law 114-26 (formerly known as HR 2146) and the Trade Preference Extension Act of 2015 (TPE 2015), also known as Public Law 114-27 (formerly known as HR 1295). Here are the tax provisions included in these laws signed on June 29, 2015. Form 1099 Penalties effective with returns required to be FILED after December 31, 2015 (i.e., for calendar years 2015 and later). The penalty under Section 6721 for not filing correct information returns increases. (Not filing a required information return is considered not filing a correct information return.)The penalty is $250 per return (an increase from the previous $100 per return penalty).If there is an unintentional delinquency and it is corrected no more than 30 days after the return due date, the penalty is reduced to $50 per return (formerly $30 per return).If there is an unintentional delinquency and it is corrected more than 30 days after the return due date but on or before August 1, the penalty is reduced to $100 per return (formerly $60 per return).The penalties above still have maximum amounts, but of course these maximums increased compared to prior years.The penalty for intentional disregard also increased from $250 per return to $500 per return.The penalty under Section 6722 for not furnishing information returns (i.e., Forms 1099) to payees increases.The penalty is $250 per return (an increase from the previous $100 per return penalty).If there is an unintentional delinquency and it is corrected no more than 30 days after the return due date, the penalty is reduced to $50 per return (formerly $30 per return).If there is an unintentional delinquency and it is corrected more than 30 days after the return due date but on or before August 1, the penalty is reduced to $100 per return (formerly $60 per return).The penalties above still have maximum amounts, but of course these maximums increased compared to prior years.The penalty for intentional disregard also increased from $250 per return to $500 per return.Education institutions are exempt from these penalties for not having TINs of the students on the Form 1098T if the institution complies with the IRS rules on obtaining TINs.The total penalties for a taxpayer who does not prepare a required Form 1099 is now $500 per Form 1099 ($250 for not sending a copy to IRS plus $250 for not giving a copy to the payee). Education Credits and Tuition Deduction Effective with tax years beginning on or after June 29, 2015, no education credit (American Opportunity Credit, Hope Scholarship Credit, or Lifetime Learning Credit) or tuition deduction is allowed unless the taxpayer receives a Form 1098T. A statement received by the dependent is treated as if it was received by the taxpayer. [Since IRS now requires school information on the Form 8863, this change requiring a Form 1098T to exist isn't too surprising. Each of us will have to decide if we want to see the Form 1098T or if we just want to confirm with the taxpayer that it exists.] Child Tax Credit Effective with tax years beginning after December 31, 2014, the refundable portion, if any, of the child tax credit is DENIED for any taxpayer who excludes any amount of gross income using the foreign earned income exclusion [i.e., Form 2555]. The Health Coverage Tax Credit under Section 35 which expired December 31, 2013, is now extended through December 31, 2019. To be eligible for this credit taxpayers must qualify for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) or be an eligible Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) pension recipient. The "Public Safety Employee" exception to the 10% penalty for early distributions from retirement plans is expanded to include Federal employees who are law enforcement officers, customs and border protection officers, firefighters, or air traffic controllers

Copied from the ATX Blog:ATX Concludes Successful First Beta TestThe ATX product team has completed the first successful beta test of the 2015 release. Volunteers were invited to preview new features that are planned for availability when ATX 2015 ships later this year. As the team analyzes feedback from the program, there are tentative plans for a second beta program later in the summer. If you would like to actively participate in testing and be considered as a candidate tester for future previews, please call your Account Manager at 800-495-4626 now. Posted by Stephanie Bradford at 9:13 AM

Ripples combines 3-D and ink-jet printer technologies to paint a picture on top of any foam-covered drink using coffee extract. Baristas can choose a pre-loaded design or upload their own over Wi-Fi, such as a picture of the person receiving the drink, corporate logos or even jokes. The Israeli company behind it, Stream CC, says it has a deal to introduce the machines in Lufthansa's first and business-class lounges this year. The $999 machine will be available to commercial establishments that serve coffee. Service plans start at $75 per month.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A CIA-backed technology company has found logins and passwords for 47 government agencies strewn across the Web — available for hackers, spies and thieves. Recorded Future, a social media data mining firm backed by the CIA's venture capital arm, says in a report that login credentials for nearly every federal agency have been posted on open Internet sites for those who know where to look. According to the company, at least 12 agencies don't require authentication beyond passwords to access their networks, so those agencies are vulnerable to espionage and cyberattacks. The company says logins and passwords were found connected with the departments of Defense, Justice, Treasury and Energy, as well as the CIA and the Director of National Intelligence. Shocking, just shocking

Very interesting. My browser now rates the ATX site as,"unsecure without a security certificate." More corner cutting by ATX ???

Copied from Forbes: Robert W. WoodThe IRS statute of limitations is usually 3 years to audit or make an assessment. There are many exceptions from this rule that give the IRS 6 years or longer. And once an assessment is made, the IRS collection statute is normally 10 years. Incredibly, in some cases the IRS can go back 30. In Beeler v. Commissioner, the Tax Court held Mr. Beeler responsible for 30 year-old payroll tax penalties. That may sound crazy, but sometimes, the IRS has a memory like an elephant. And it can come down like an elephant on top of you, too. Don’t pay your income taxes and the IRS will come after you. But fail to pay payroll taxes and the IRS can push even harder. Payroll taxes involve withholding tax money from employee wages. Employers must hand it over to the IRS. “Responsible persons” have personal liability even if they are employees themselves and don’t own any part of the business. Section 6672 of the tax code puts a 100% penalty on responsible persons who fail to withhold, or who withhold but fail to hand it over to the IRS. What’s more, this penalty can be assessed against more than one responsible person. IRS can collect only once, but it can come after them all and see who coughs up the money first. Joel Beeler, Stuart Ross, and Robert Liebmann were all officers of Equidyne Management, a company that failed to pay employment taxes way back in 1982. The company fell on hard times, and so did some of the officers. In fact, Ross filed for bankruptcy in 1983. The IRS assessed the 100% penalty against all responsible officers in 1985. Ten years later, in 1995, there was a settlement between the IRS and creditors. The IRS collected $80,860 on Ross’s behalf in that settlement. The IRS also got judgments against Beeler ($154,032), Ross ($117,484), and Liebmann ($153,985). Liens normally last 10 years, giving the IRS time to collect. But in 2001, the IRS made a mistake and released its tax lien. It was years later when the IRS discovered its mistake. At that point, the IRS went after Beeler. The Tax Court agreed the IRS could collect from Beeler. However, on appeal, the Second Circuit ordered the Tax Court to determine whether Ross or Liebmann might have paid it. After all, with 3 officers, and 100% assessed against all 3, if one paid the other 2 would be off the hook. Given the IRS errors, the Tax Court said the only fair thing was to put the burden of proving that neither Liebmann nor Ross paid the amount on the IRS. The IRS satisfied the Tax Court, so Beeler was still on the 30 year-old hook, stuck paying taxes from 1982! Beeler’s only consolation? The $80,860 the IRS collected from Ross, which the Tax Court offset against Beeler’s penalty. The moral of this mess? Pay your payroll taxes. If you can’t handle it in-house, hire a payroll service so you won’t have any discretion about it. If you aren’t an owner, try to avoid check signing authority. If you can’t avoid it, get a written indemnity, and make sure payroll taxes are always paid

Copied from The Morning Report: IRS announces tough new measures to prevent tax fraud In a major announcement yesterday, the IRS announced that it is teaming up with state tax officials and tax software providers, including H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt and Intuit, to share information and implement stronger authentication methods in order to prevent identity theft and tax fraud. At a news conference in Washington, Commissioner John Koskinen said “For the first time, everyone in the software industry will share aggregated details about their filings to help us all identify fraud”, adding that the changes, effective as of the 2016 tax filing season, “are being built into the DNA of the entire tax system”. Added security filters will include crosschecking returns filed electronically with Internet addresses and computer devices, and scanning for mechanized fraud by checking the time it takes to complete a return. The agency will also provide monthly reports to the tax preparation industry updating on any new tactics employed by fraudsters. The changes have been made following the incident this year which saw identity scammers make over $39m in fraudulent refunds. In the Washington Post, Jonnelle Marte notes that the new measures do not change the deadline for when employers need to send W-2 forms with taxpayer information to the IRS - a move that would give the agency a chance to verify returns before issuing refunds, but which would require action from lawmakers in Congress