Lee B

The only court decisions that the IRS must follow are Supreme Court decisions and Circuit Court of Appeals decisions in the applicable circuit. It been this way for a long long time. A little reading of U S Tax History may be in order.

I filed a C Corp with a loss about 55 days late last year and there was no penalty.

I have copied several paragraphs from the site, CBC News "Not a security breach, says Google The leak does not appear to have been the result of a Gmail security vulnerability, and not all of the leaked email addresses were Gmail addresses — although the bulk were. "It's important to note that in this case and in others, the leaked usernames and passwords were not the result of a breach of Google systems," Google said in its blog post. "Often, these credentials are obtained through a combination of other sources. For instance, if you reuse the same username and password across websites, and one of those websites gets hacked, your credentials could be used to log into the others. Or attackers can use malware or phishing schemes to capture login credentials." Software specialist Troy Hunt tweeted that about 123,000 of the approximately 4.78 million leaked addresses were part of the Russian email service Yandex. Addresses from the Russian-based service Mail.ru also appeared on the list." I got the definite impression that the gmail addresses and passwords were all obtained from other websites where users used their gmail account and gmail password as the user name and password for other websites, something that I never do.

A number of the members will not click on a link.

I tend to be leery of the type of presenters that make dire alarmist predictions. As a practical matter the IRS doesn't even have the manpower to even handle something like this.

I still have a handful of entity returns I'm working on.

I would capitalize the 2012 interest.

Sorry, I didn't realize this was already posted.

Fraom nShare9 FROM TAX PRO TODAY August 29, 2014 By Jeff Stimpson "Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases. Fredericksburg, Va.: Preparer Daniel L. Jones, 56, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for aiding in the preparation of fraudulent returns for his clients and making a false statement to the IRS. According to court documents, for many years Jones ran the tax prep service Tax Doctor Plus where, to increase refunds for clients, he regularly prepared and e-filed returns that contained false entries and items. These included improperly splitting married couples into incorrect filings statuses to place both taxpayers into lower tax brackets and create EITC opportunities, filing false Schedule Cs with enough false deductions to qualify the client for the EITC, submitting false Schedule A expenses and education credits and falsifying income with false W-2s to qualify clients for the maximum amount of government credits, such as the EITC, various education credits and the Making Work Pay Credit. In addition, to represent clients before the IRS, Jones submitted Forms 2848 on which he falsely claimed he was a CPA. Jones agreed that the total tax loss from 2009 to 2012 was some $598,000, based on approximately 630 returns containing false education credits. Little Rock, Ark.: Preparer Christopher T. Craig, 47, formerly of Little Rock and now of Atlanta, has waived indictment and pled guilty to an indictment charging him with two counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of fraudulent income tax returns. Craig admitted that on April 30, 2010, and March 1, 2012, he prepared false employment returns (Form 941) on behalf of other taxpayers. Unknown to the taxpayers, Craig filed the returns in a way that reduced the amount of federal withholdings. He then collected payments from the taxpayers for the correct amount of employment taxes but diverted to himself the difference between the correct amount owed and the amount paid to the IRS. For these two returns, Craig diverted $43,280.50. He admitted that the total loss to the government was $1,092,177.79. Craig faces a maximum penalty of not more than three years in prison on each of the two counts or a fine of up to $500,000 or both. Sentencing has not been set. St. Charles, Mo.: A federal court has permanently barred William Naes from preparing federal returns for others. The government alleged that Naes prepared returns that fraudulently claimed deductions for clients, including bogus charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee business expenses. According to the complaint, he also fabricated business expenses on Schedule Cs, concocted a fake business for at least one client, and failed to properly identify himself as the paid preparer on many of the returns he prepared. Claymont, Del.: Preparer Dawn Chamberlain, 36, has been sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay full restitution after pleading guilty late last year (Accounting Today) to false claims conspiracy and mail fraud. From 2009 through 2012, Chamberlain prepared nearly 450 fraudulent federal income tax returns for clients she solicited in Delaware and elsewhere. In the returns, she claimed an average of some $3,500 in fake credits, often the American Opportunity Tax Credit and the EITC for ineligible clients. Her actions are estimated to have caused at least $1.5 million in losses to the U.S. Treasury. Chamberlain also stole from clients, keeping a portion of their refunds without their consent, and used clients’ names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers to file more than $210,000 in false and fraudulent New York State income tax returns. (Her clients did not live or work in New York nor did she share any of the New York refunds with her clients.) Chicago: The U.S. has filed to bar preparer Laurie G. Helfer, a.k.a. Laurie G. Powell, individually and through her businesses Laurie’s Freelance & Tax Preparation Services and Tax Lady Laurie Inc., from preparing federal returns for others. The complaint alleges that Helfer prepares and files amended returns for individuals claiming refunds to which they are not entitled. According to the complaint, she prepared hundreds of amended returns for clients, and the tax loss could exceed $3 million. According to the civil injunction complaint, Helfer promises clients that she can obtain refunds by amending their returns from prior years. To do this, she allegedly fabricates expenses from businesses that do not exist, the expenses offsetting clients’ income from prior years and illegally generating a refund. To dodge the IRS, Helfer stopped signing the returns she prepares and also frequently changes locations in which she prepares returns, including various Chicago-area hotel rooms, the complaint alleges. Jackson, Mo.: Preparer Cynthia Raymond, who pleaded guilty last year to filing false income tax returns and aggravated ID theft, now reportedly faces allegations that she falsified documents to obtain a lighter sentence. According to published reports, Raymond filed about 98 false returns under 36 clients’ names without their knowledge, claiming excessive refunds and diverting some of the money into her personal bank account. Sentencing in the case has reportedly been delayed several times. In March, Raymond’s then-attorney asked that the case be continued to this month so Raymond could undergo treatment for medical issues, according to reports that added that federal prosecutors have filed a motion to potentially stiffen Raymond’s sentence after she allegedly filed false documents seeking probation, restitution and community service instead of prison time. Raymond reportedly had her attorney submit correspondence purported to be from two doctors, one treating her for a back problem and the other for ovarian cancer. The federal motion lists 11 instances in which Raymond claimed to have varied health problems, including eight types of cancer, a kidney transplant and a miscarriage, according to news outlets. Federal prosecutors reportedly claim that one doctor denied writing such correspondence and a nurse for the other doctor did not recognize Raymond’s name and found no record of Raymond in the hospital’s computer system. Sentencing had been set for earlier this month, but prosecutors reportedly requested a continuance to allow time to investigate Raymond's claims concerning her medical history. The sentencing memorandum states that Raymond’s behavior stemmed in part from circumstances surrounding her marriage to a man who physically and emotionally abused her, reports said, adding that according to the memorandum, Raymond needs to be free to care for her daughter and young grandson and to undergo medical treatment." Creative Tax Return Preparation is alive and flourishing.

NEW YORK (AP) — Home Depot may be the latest retailer to suffer a credit card data breach. The Atlanta-based home improvement retailer told The Associated Press Tuesday that it's looking into "unusual activity" and that it's working with both banks and law enforcement. "Protecting our customers' information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers," said Paula Drake, a spokeswoman at Home Depot, declining to elaborate. She noted that if the retailer confirms that a breach occurred, it will notify customers immediately. Shares of Home Depot Inc. fell 2 percent to $90.91 in late trading. Many retailers have had security walls broken in recent months, including Target, grocery store chain Supervalu, P.F. Chang's and the thrift store operations of Goodwill. The rash of breaches has pushed retailers, banks and card companies to increase security by speeding the adoption of microchips into U.S. credit and debit cards. The possible data breach at Home Depot was first reported by Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security, a website that focuses on cybersecurity. Krebs said multiple banks reported "evidence that Home Depot stores may be the source of a massive new batch of stolen credit and debit cards." The Krebs report says that the responsible party may be the same group of Russian and Ukrainian hackers suspected in last year's massive breach at Target Corp. Target, based in Minneapolis, has been overhauling its security department and systems and is accelerating its $100 million plan to roll out chip-based credit card technology in all of its nearly 1,800 stores. In its massive data breach, 40 million credit and debit card accounts were compromised and hackers stole personal information from as many as 70 million customers. The breach hurt profits, sales and its reputation with shoppers. At Supervalu, the data breach may have impacted as many as 200 of its grocery and liquor stores and potentially affected retail chains recently sold by the company in two dozen states. The breach occurred between June 22 and July 17, according to Supervalu. Restaurant operator P.F. Chang's confirmed in June that data from credit and debit cards used at its restaurants was stolen.

Article from CPA Insider "A false sense of security can lead a client (and his or her adviser) to make mistakes. September 2, 2014 by Patricia M. Annino, J.D. The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA), P.L. 112-240, changed the game in estate planning by significantly increasing the amount of wealth that a taxpayer may pass free of federal gift and estate tax to beneficiaries. Many advisers and clients who are under ATRA’s $5.34 million exemption (inflation-adjusted for 2014) believe their past planning is sufficient, that estate taxes are no longer relevant as part of their planning, and no further action is required. This false sense of security can lead a client (and his or her adviser) to make several mistakes. This article examines three of them. 1. Mistake: Ignoring the impact of the state estate tax I recently had a telephone conversation with a very angry client whose mother had recently died. Her mother’s net worth was under the federal exemption, and I told her that the Massachusetts estate tax was estimated to be $160,000. I wanted her to reserve the cash now to pay the tax instead of investing it. All the publicity about the increased federal exemption had led the daughter (and many Americans) to believe that estate taxes were no longer relevant. I explained to her that her mother had been very aware of the Massachusetts estate tax and did not want to gift any of her assets to reduce it, as she had begun her planning when her estate would have been subject to a much more significant federal estate tax. Many states have an estate tax, and the rates in some rise as high as 20%. Fewer people paid attention to state taxes back when the federal estate tax exemption was much lower. Now that the federal estate tax is out of play for some of them, clients need to revisit their planning for state estate taxes. This is especially true for clients who have real estate or tangible personal property located in more than one state. That’s because the estate may be subject to state estate tax in several jurisdictions and there may be a dispute as to which state the decedent was domiciled in. It is important to review the plans of those clients and consider what options exist now. 2. Mistake: Blind reliance on “portability” For federal estate tax purposes, the gift and estate tax exemption is now portable, meaning that if one spouse does not fully use his or her exemption during his or her lifetime, the surviving spouse can take advantage of it later. While clients and advisers may rely on portability as a default strategy, other considerations should be taken into account. Portability does not include an inflation-adjustment factor for the first spouse to die’s exemption. (This is different from a credit shelter trust where the funded assets and their appreciation will bypass estate tax at the death of the surviving spouse.) Portability is federal and is not recognized at the state estate tax level. Portability is an important planning strategy, but it should not be used as the absolute strategy. All factors should be considered and reviewed on an ongoing basis before assuming it is the “right” answer. 3. Mistake: Failing to understand that the cost of long-term care may cause more significant erosion to family wealth than estate or income taxes Families whose assets are under the exemption threshold and no longer have to plan to avoid or reduce the estate tax should still be concerned about the erosion of the family’s wealth. With an aging population that is living longer and needing additional assistance with custodial care, the key goals of estate planning could very well shift. Instead of focusing on how they can help clients protect their accumulated wealth from taxation, CPA planners may concentrate on helping clients protect their accumulated wealth from the escalating cost of health care. While the focus may change, the need for financial planning will be just as critical. The CPA, as a trusted adviser, is well-positioned to start that vital conversation and keep reviewing it as the client’s situation changes." I know my state of Oregon and also I believe Minnesota only have a $ 1,000,000 exemption. Oregon ' s rate is 10 %, so it doesn't take that large of an estate in Oregon before tax is due.

My main service is monthly writeup plus payroll processing. I provide monthly financial statements to these clients. Technically, they are "internal use" statements. Frequently, my clients give copies to their bank who have always accepted them without question or comment. Once in those 22 years, I had a client who was a subsidiary of a Swedish Corporation who needed a Reviewed Statement, for which I arranged for a nearby local CPA Firm to do the Review. As a practical matter, all the lenders in my area seem to be very aware that external use Financial Statements are very expensive and beyond the means of most small businesses.

One my clients received one of these calls today. Scam Phone Calls Continue; IRS Identifies Five Easy Ways to Spot Suspicious Calls Español IR-2014-84, Aug. 28, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service issued a consumer alert today providing taxpayers with additional tips to protect themselves from telephone scam artists calling and pretending to be with the IRS. These callers may demand money or may say you have a refund due and try to trick you into sharing private information. These con artists can sound convincing when they call. They may know a lot about you, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling. They use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. If you don’t answer, they often leave an “urgent” callback request. “These telephone scams are being seen in every part of the country, and we urge people not to be deceived by these threatening phone calls,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said. “We have formal processes in place for people with tax issues. The IRS respects taxpayer rights, and these angry, shake-down calls are not how we do business.” The IRS reminds people that they can know pretty easily when a supposed IRS caller is a fake. Here are five things the scammers often do but the IRS will not do. Any one of these five things is a tell-tale sign of a scam. The IRS will never: Call you about taxes you owe without first mailing you an official notice. Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe. Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone. Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying. If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here’s what you should do: If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS workers can help you with a payment issue. If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1.800.366.4484 or at www.tigta.gov. If you’ve been targeted by this scam, also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments of your complaint. Remember, too, the IRS does not use unsolicited email, text messages or any social media to discuss your personal tax issue. For more information on reporting tax scams, go to www.irs.gov and type “scam” in the search box. Additional information about tax scams are available on IRS social media sites, including YouTube and Tumblr where people can search “scam” to find all the scam-related posts. Follow the IRS on New Media Subscribe to IRS Newswire Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 29-Aug-2014 The IRS says that they have now received 90,000 complaints about this scam.

areDoes anyone Does anyone remember about 15 years ago American Express tried to move into accounting by buying up local accounting firms and as this article mentions HRB has tried this before unsuccessfully ? By Michael Cohn August 28, 2014 H&R Block and Liberty Tax have been expanding from traditional tax preparation services into other areas such as bookkeeping as they reach out to service small business clients year-round, giving traditional accountants some extra competition. On Tuesday, Liberty announced a bookkeeping service built around the cloud-based accounting software Kashoo. The new bookkeeping service, dubbed Liberty Accounting, is intended to help Liberty Tax’s 4,400 franchisees expand beyond tax season and provide additional services besides tax prep and filing. The number one tax prep chain, H&R Block, recently announced plans of its own to attract CPAs and other accountants into selling their practices to Block or becoming franchisees (see H&R Block Reaches out to Attract Accounting Firms). In conjunction with that effort, Block also said it would start offering bookkeeping and payroll services to small businesses through cloud technology. Competing tax chains such as Jackson Hewitt and TaxSlayer are still sticking to their core tax prep services, but if they see significant growth from Block and Liberty, they could be induced to change their minds. This isn’t entirely a new trend. Individual franchisees for Block have already offered services such as bookkeeping and payroll in the past. Another franchiser known as BookKeeping Express offers bookkeeping services to small businesses through its franchisees. Block made a major move into the accounting field in 1999 with RSM McGladrey, operating what it called an alternative practice structure in conjunction with the CPA firm McGladrey & Pullen before selling the business back to McGladrey in 2011. Block has tried other financial businesses in the past, such as the ill-fated Option One subprime mortgage business that it was forced to sell at a heavy loss in 2007. In this case, Block does not appear to be making such a heavy bet and is mainly out to attract small CPA firms whose owners are looking to retire or planning for an eventual exit. If the idea catches on, small accounting practices could find themselves competing against Block, Liberty and perhaps other chains for their small business clients and will need to diversify further by adding extra services to avoid being lumped in with the franchises. Do you think H&R Block and Liberty Tax will provide serious competition to traditional accountants in the small business market ?

There is risk in everything you do. Two years ago I had a very close call with a red light runner who was busy talking on their cell phone. I view this as equivalent to the doctor who is practicing defensive medicine by ordering every medical test he can think of. I am aware of these issues, but I chose not to incorporate them into my agreements.

Exactly, I just leave my preparer information on all my returns business, payroll and personal.

Here are several quotes from today's followup news: "The New York Times, citing people familiar with the matter, said JPMorgan Chase and at least four other firms were hit this month by coordinated attacks that siphoned off huge amounts of data, including checking and savings account information" "The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources in a report that called the attacks a "significant breach of corporate computer security."

EW YORK (AP) — The FBI is investigating a hacking attack on JPMorgan Chase and at least one other bank, according to reports citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. A report on Bloomberg.com says the FBI is investigating an incident in which Russian hackers may have retaliated against U.S. government-sponsored sanctions against the country. The attack, Bloomberg says, led to the loss of sensitive data. Bloomberg cited security experts saying that the attack appeared "far beyond the capability of ordinary criminal hackers." In a statement, JPMorgan spokeswoman Trish Wexler said companies "of our size unfortunately experience cyber attacks nearly every day. We have multiple, layers of defense to counteract any threats and constantly monitor fraud levels." Wexler did not confirm the reports. The FBI did not immediately respond to messages for comment

Five Ways to Get Tax Deductions for Local Transportation Uses by Ken Berry, CPA, Practice Advisor Tax Correspondent for CPA Practice Advisor publication http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/news/11656241/5-ways-to-get-tax-deductions-for-local-transportation-uses Frequently, the IRS challenges deductions for business-related driving expenses, especially when they involve local travel. Start with this basic premise: To qualify for transportation deductions, you must be traveling away from your tax home to a business location. For this purpose, your tax home is generally your principal place of business, not the place where you live, eat and sleep. Therefore, you can’t deduct the cost of commuting back and forth from work, no matter how much your clients believe they should be able to. The IRS views this as a purely personal expense even though you’re going to work for business reasons. And it doesn’t matter if you’re driving or if you travel by bus, rail or taxi or if you do work during the commute. Period. But that doesn’t mean a client can’t deduct some transportation expenses that are in the nature of commuting, but fall outside the technical definition. Here are five prime examples: 1. Working from home: If your home office is your principal place of business -- for example, you’re self-employed or your employer requires you to work from home -- your tax home is the same as your home. In this case, you can deduct the cost of visiting a client or customer across town as long as you keep the proper records. But if you stop for a carton of milk on your way home, the portion of the trip representing personal travel is nondeductible. 2. Multiple business locations: Suppose that you’re based at one of several local job locations and travel between them. For instance, you might be a dermatologist with countywide offices or an officer at a bank operating multiple branches. The cost of the travel between the two business locations, regardless of the method, is deductible. However, if you don’t go directly from one place to the other, your deduction is limited to what it would have cost you for direct travel. 3. Short business stops: It may be advantageous for you to stop off and visit a client or customer on the way into work or on the way home. Accordingly, you may deduct the cost attributable to the travel between your regular place of business and the client or customer’s place of business. But the rest of your commuting remains a nondeductible personal expense. 4. Temporary assignments: Your business may require you to work at a distant job site for a short period of time. Instead of making a long commute each day, you might decide to stay close to the work site and come home weekends. Assuming that the job lasts no more than a year, it qualifies as a temporary assignment. This means you can deduct your lodging and meal expenses, within certain limits, plus the travel between the distant work site and home. 5. Business education: If you’re taking courses at a local college to improve your job skills, you may usually go straight to school after work on weekdays. The cost of the travel between work and the school is deductible (or between school and work if you’re taking a morning class). Naturally, you can only deduct those T&E expenses that are properly documented. (We’ll have more on this in a future article). Also, if you’re a company employee, you must claim these expenses as miscellaneous itemized expenses, subject to the usual limits

Nakajima said the PlayStation Network's online services were unavailable from Sunday through Monday afternoon Tokyo time. While Lizard Squad tweeted that it was responsible for the hack that caused Sony's system outage, Nakajima said it remains unclear who compromised. Sony said that no personal information was stolen as part of the breach. Hackers compromised the company's network — including the personal data of 77 million user accounts — in 2011. Since then, the network's security has been upgraded, the company said

The internal records of as many as 25,000 Homeland Security Department employees were exposed during a recent computer break-in at a federal contractor that handles security clearances, an agency official said Friday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of an incident that is under active federal criminal investigation, said the number of victims could be greater. The department was informing employees whose files were exposed in the hacking against contractor USIS and warning them to monitor their financial accounts. Earlier this month, USIS acknowledged the break-in, saying its internal cybersecurity team had detected what appeared to be an intrusion with "all the markings of a state-sponsored attack." Neither USIS nor government officials have speculated on the identity of the foreign government. A USIS spokeswoman reached Friday declined to comment on the DHS notifications. USIS, once known as U.S. Investigations Services, has been under fire in Congress in recent months for its performance in conducting background checks on National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden and on Aaron Alexis, a military contractor employee who killed 12 people during shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington in September 2013. Private contractors perform background checks on more than two-thirds of the 4.9 million government workers with security clearances, and USIS handles nearly half of that number. Many of those investigations are performed under contracts with the Office of Personnel Management, and the Homeland Security and Defense departments. The Justice Department filed a civil complaint in January against USIS alleging that the firm defrauded the government by submitting at least 665,000 security clearance investigations that had not been properly completed and then tried to cover up its actions. USIS replied in a statement at the time that the allegations dealt with a small group of employees and that the company had appointed a new leadership team and enhanced oversight and was cooperating with the Justice probe. It's not immediately clear when the hacking took place, but DHS notified all its employees internally on Aug. 6. At that point, DHS issued "stop-work orders" preventing further information flows to USIS until the agency was confident the company could safeguard its records. At the same time, OPM temporarily halted all USIS background check fieldwork "out of an abundance of caution," spokeswoman Jackie Koszczuk said. Officials would not say whether workers from other government agencies were at risk. DHS will provide workers affected by the intrusion with credit monitoring. The risk to as many as 25,000 DHS workers was first reported Friday by Reuters. A cybersecurity expert, Rick Dakin, said the possibility that other federal departments could be affected depends on whether the DHS records were "segmented," or walled off, from other federal agencies' files inside USIS. "The big question is what degree of segmentation was already in place so that other agencies weren't equally compromised," said Dakin, chief executive of Coalfire, a major Maryland-based IT audit and compliance firm. In an announcement Friday, DHS warned that more than 1,000 U.S. retailers that their cash register computers could be infected with malicious software allowing hackers to steal customer financial data. Officials urged businesses of all sizes to scan their point-of-sale systems for software known as "Backoff

The Tax Court sided with the plaintiff in a recent case involving the rules surrounding the home office deduction. The deduction is allowed for the portion of a residence that is used exclusively and on a regular basis as the principal place of business for a taxpayer. Setting aside an area of the dwelling for exclusive use is not always easy, however. In Lauren Miller’s case, the IRS challenged her deduction for the expenses allocable to one-third of her New York City studio apartment of 700 square feet. Miller was employed by BrandingIron Worldwide (BIW), a company that provides public relations, advertising, and marketing services. BIW is headquartered in Los Angeles, while at the time she was hired, Miller was BIW’s only employee in New York. Miller used part of her apartment as an office throughout 2009. BIW listed her apartment address and telephone number on its Web site as the address and phone number for its New York office. Miller usually worked weekdays between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., but was generally expected to be available at all times. Miler’s studio apartment, a single room, was divided into three equal sections: an entryway, a bathroom, and a kitchen area; office space, including a desk, two shelving units, a bookcase, and a sofa; and a bedroom area including a platform bed and dressers. Miller has to pass through the office space to get to the bedroom area. Miller frequently met with BIW clients in the office space, and she performed work for BIW using a computer on the desk. The bookcase and shelving units were used to store books, magazines, supplies and samples related to her work for BIW and its clients. Although she used the office space primarily for business purposes, she occasionally used the space for personal purposed. BIW did not reimburse Miller for any of the expenses related to her apartment. The Tax Court, in Summary Opinion 2014-74, noted that if the taxpayer is an employee, the deduction for a home office is only allowable if the exclusive use of the office space is for the convenience of the taxpayer’s employer. In Miller’s case, BIW listed her apartment address on its Web site as its New York office address, and Miller “testified credibly that she regularly used one-third of her apartment space as an office to conduct BIW business, she met with clients there, and she was expected to be available to work well into the evening.” The court agreed with Miller that her apartment was her principal place of business, that she was obliged to use the space as an office for the convenience of her employer, and that BIW was not able or willing to reimburse her for any of her apartment-related expenses. “Although Petitioner admitted that she used portions of the office space for nonbusiness purposes, we find that her personal use of the space was de minimis and wholly attributable to the practicalities of living in a studio apartment of such modest dimensions.” Therefore, the court concluded that Miller was entitled to the home office deduction.

Be aware that Business Credit Cards do not have the same protection under the law that personal credit cards do.

With his citizenship status, can he qualify to be legitimate S Corp shareholder ?

Some customers of The UPS Store may have had their credit and debit card information exposed by a computer virus found on systems at 51 stores. A spokeswoman for UPS says the information includes card numbers, postal and email addresses from about 100,000 transactions between Jan. 20 and Aug. 11. United Parcel Service Inc. said Wednesday that it was among U.S. retailers who got a government bulletin about the malware on July 31. The malware is not identified by current anti-virus software. UPS spokeswoman Chelsea Lee says the company is not aware of any fraud related to the attack. Atlanta-based UPS says it hired a security firm that found the virus in systems at stores in 24 states, about 1 percent of the company's 4,470 franchised locations.