Lee B

I just finished a tax planning session with one of my clients who is an author. While asking about her expenses and what constituted Professional Services, I found out that since she has switched this year to self publishing, she is now making payments to 5 different individuals who provide various kinds of publishing services, one of whom is a Canadian citizen living and working in Canada. Does anyone know what the rules are for reporting the payments to the Canadian citizen. Of course the payments to the other 4 need to be reported on Form 1099. Thanks,

Just the other day, I was reading an article about the filing of fraudulent W-2s & 941s with inactive EINs to prepare the way for claiming bogus 1040 refunds. The article said that everyone should follow the procedures for closing any inactive Federal EINs. I didn't even know there was a procedure and I've been processing payrolls for 21 years. I am going to have review my files to see if I have any EINs from any of my current clients which should be closed.

The ATX Board is up and running. I was just there. According to some posts, it sounds like they may have blocked access to anyone who hasn't renewed for 2013 or has other active software. I have the current Payroll module so I still have access. Other posters with support requests for last years tax program have apparently been told no help with last years program unless you renew for the coming year? Customer Service ain't what it used to be !

Is the use of available public information "spying ?"

Business efiling will be closed the last week of December thru the first week of January, otherwise open.

I was a Senior in High School standing in the hallway getting ready to enter a Civics class. The news was announced over the P A system. I remembered my Civics teacher saying, " The stupid bastards actually went ahead and did it." He wouldn't explain his comment. Grist for the conspiracy theorists ?

I just received an email encouraging me to click on the enclosed link to renew my PTIN. It was all text no graphics, pretty clearly a scam !

Just used EFTPS and it's working fine. I efiled a Form 1120 late yesterday afternoon with ATX and received my acks this morning.

According to the MeF Status Page, the system was back up as of 3:30 PM EST.

Intuit Tax Online has emailed an advisory against using IE 11, due to unspecified problems. Chrome, Firefox, & Safari, are their preferred browsers.

I was just at Dell's Website. Most of their business system selections give you the option of Win 7 or Win 8. if you go to consumer or home computer websites, your only option is Win 8. i also went to Lenovo's website which also gives you the option of both Win 7 & Win 8. Lenovo (formerly IBM PCs) is now the largest P C maker in the world.

As I understand it, in those states which choose not to expand Medicaid, there will be a gap between that MAGI that allows you to qualify for Medicaid and the MAGI that allows you to qualify for health insurance thorough the ACA exchange. If your MAGI falls in this gap, then your only option would be a standard individual health insurance policy with no credits. There have been some articles written about this gap, if you want to google.

Also, if for whatever reason the senior ends up in a nursing home paid by medicaid past gifts may well end up being examined.

Actually the ATX Community is up and running. I was just there. Last year I discovered purely by accident that ATX has subcontracted out the running of ATX Community, when I got redirected to another site which does that kind of stuff for different companies.

It depends on what ATX email communications that you have selected and agreed to. I decided to minimize my email communications from ATX so I just receive the major announcements

Do you interpret this to mean that S Corp owners will no longer be able to reimburse themselves for their own health insurance premiums includable in W -2 Box 1 wages, then deductible at the bottom on page 1 of Form 1040 ?

We both have a right to our own opinions.

Actually, I am in favor of the PTIN program because it makes it easier for the IRS to track fraudulent tax preparers. The fee helps make the program self supporting.

JohnH, I agree with you and have usually handled the penalties and interest like you do.

It's amazing how much each ATX user's experience varies. I had to enter about 50 stock transactions on Form 8949 yesterday and had slight delays between each data entry field (less than a second).

I believe that if you become a "Navigator" that you have to agree not to charge any fees for your services.

Jack, I really appreciate all the extra time and effort that you have put into beta testing and hope that you continue to keep us up to date. Thanks, Lee Barckert

My understanding is that Virginia filers will be able to use the federal exchange and will receive their credits. However any resident of a state that did not agree to expand Medicaid could fall in a gap where they don't have enough income to obtain coverage thru an Affordable Care Act Exchange and they won't be able to get on Medicaid.

I've started doing more reading about the Affordable Care Act, since I'm getting more client questions. One thing that caught my attention, is that nonfilers will not be able to obtain any health insurance thru the exchanges. Their only option will be to try to obtain Medicaid. So, I'm wondering how many nonfilers will be filing returns in order to obtain health insurance.

I pay $ 150 per year for a combined office/consultant license plus 30 hours of CPE annually. I'm able to use the same CPE hours for both licenses.