TaxmannEA

One of my co-workers has a restaurant client who was visited by the wage-hour people. Seems that they had a system where the employees could eat on site and have the value of the meals deducted from their paycheck. The problem is that the employer took the deduction by reducing the hours worked instead of simply reducing the net check. (Example; $10 per hour employee has $10 in meal cost. Reduce the time by 1 hour.) They have been ordered to clean this up back to 2013. I am assuming that this means that the payroll will have to be amended for the last 2 years with the correct hours, FICA, unemployment, etc. My co-worker seems to think that she can just show the adjustmemts for this year and not go back and amend. Basically, I'm looking for opinions on the correct way to handle this. I do think that amending is the proper way to go.

I was just asked that if a minister files for exemption from Social Security, does that affect eligibility for Medicaid for his family? I really don't have any idea.

Is it just me, or has IRS gotten more aggressive regarding late penalties on 990s? I've had 2 clients who came to me with late filings receive penalties of $1270 and $2790. These people came to me because of problems getting the returns accepted. When we got them filed, they then are hit with the bill. I might just have been lucky, but I've never seen these late penalties charged before. These are both well established charitable organizations. I intend to request abatement, but I'm just wondering if we are seeing the beginnings of a new trend.

Not a scam. I verified the filing on IRS.gov. Return was filed 4/3/15. Refund issued 4/15/15.

The account that the bank refused was not mine. That's why Republic issued the paper check. The name on the account was not correct.

My puzzled wife gave me an envelope from Republic Bank that had a check for $7900 payable to both of us. It was our tax refund. The only problem is that we haven't filed a return yet! The bank bounced a direct deposit and sent the check to us instead. The slimeballs had everything correct except for a slight error in our address. I'm really looking forward to having this to deal with now. Of course, the return was done with Tax Act online so there's no EFIN to trace. I always thought that we were less at risk as we don't do business online and we don't even have a credit card, but obviously I was wrong. I'm in such a good mood that I almost bit the dog when I left for work this morning. Happy, Happy!

Did you fill out the E-File information on the 4868 tab? It's separate from the e-file for the return.

Our office is investigating alternate accounting and payroll programs as our current vendor (CSA) is becoming more expensive than we can justify. Has anyone here used the ATX accounting and payroll programs? If so, what is your assessment of the program's performance? We have 50-60 payrolls that we do as well as about 250 GL clients. Any suggestions as to another program that will perform well without giving my boss price shock? According to CSA we'll have to covert to a new version of their software soon, so we are going to have a migration what ever we do.

An F350 pickup should not be listed property due to the GVWR rules. It looks like it was marked as listed property on the system and treated accordingly.

Never mind. I got it fixed. .

We set up a desktop on our system to replace one that had died earlier this year. Win 7 was installed as the OS. It is linked to our network. I had installed the links for Drake as well as Microsoft Security essentials and Malwarebytes. Everything was working OK at that point. i downloaded Open Office today as the machine couldn't read PDF and Excel files. We use this on the other desktops on our system. After the download, I noticed that the installer had added another anti-virus program to the desktop. I uninstalled that program. When I re-started the computer, it booted up except that instead of the desktop with the icons,I just have a black screen with the mouse cursor. I'm at a loss. What should I do, or is the answer to restore the system and re-install the OS? As you can tell, I know just enough to be dangerous. Suggestions would be appreciated.

This sounds like a situation that one of my clients had about a year ago. In his case his bank balance mysteriously dropped by about $2500. When I did the bank rec., I found a check image that was from another business at another bank. The clearinghouse had mis-routed it to my client's account. The bank president claimed that he had never seen that happen before, but a few months later the same thing happened with another clients account at a different bank. Oh the wonders of modern technology!

These would be mostly service type businesses that bill customers on a monthly basis. One example would be a trash hauler that services a number of clients regularly.Another would be a heating contractor that would have some billing for parts as well as labor. As far as I know, there are no retailers involved at this time. I would expect the number of change orders to be minimal.

I'm looking for software to prepare billing and A/R records for several clients. We seem to have interest in this service from some of our small businesses. We would need to handle multiple clients and probably would need a network license as there would be more than one person doing this work. Inexpensive is always good also. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have finally been in contact with an agent who could sort this out. When the bank owned the corp, they filed the returns under a parent company. After the sale of stock to the present owner, we tried to file as a C-corp, but IRS directed us to file as a S-Corp. They did process the first 3 years but later deleted the filings from their records. We have been directed to write to the Entity Control Division of the IRS to have them correct their records to show that the corporation is no longer under the parent company as of 10/1/2010 and to show the current stockholder as the responsible party. We are also to request that they have processing re-process the S-Corp returns with us providing copies of any returns that they no longer have on their system. I can' t even begin to visualize the problems that might occur with this process, but I guess that our only alternative is to proceed and see what happens. I'm composing the letter now. Any advise or comment would be greatly appreciated.

Yes. The numbers are the same. It seems that the returns fell into a dark hole somewhere. Maybe they were on Ms Lerner's drive?

From 2000 through 2009 the business was owned by a bank. From 1971 till the bank bought it, it was an S-Corp. The bank included the corp's return on their own filings for that period. As i felt that the S-Corp election was terminated by the bank's ownership, I filed the first year under the new owner as a C-Corp with the intention of electing S-Corp status for the following year. The IRS returned the C-Corp filing to us with a notice saying that they showed the business to be an S-Corp and to file on the 1120S. We complied and re-filed as an S-Corp and have done so ever since. No notices of any kind have been received during this period. Now we find that the IRS shows no record of the returns being filed. We filed an extension for 2011 which does show up on the iRS records along with a notation that no return is required. They do show all 941 and W-2 for all years. The sole shareholder's returns have included the K-1 information for all years. I simply don't know how to approach this to get things straightened out. IRS PPL is starting to run in circles. I just need some sage advice at this point, or at least some proof that I'm not going out of my mind.(A distinct possibility!)

No.

The past returns were mailed by 1st class mail. Did not send certified. Illinois shows all of their returns filed for this period. We had one year where an extension was filed. That shows up on the record, but the record also is notated "return not required".

I'm more than a little confused by this one. The IRS has just informed us that they have no record of any of the 1120S returns that we have filed for a number of years. When I talked to PPS, they find that different places show us as either a C or an S corp depending on where they look. These databases also show both fiscal or calender year depending on where they look. I know for certain that the returns were filed for 2009 to present. There have been no notices received during that period in regards to our filings. I've gotten POA's for 2008 to present and IRS still can't tell me what the problem is as I need to go further back. The current owner purchased the business in 2009, so the problem must pre-date that. I'm waiting for the owner to sign another set of 2848's to allow me access further back. Does anyone have any idea about what could be going on here? I suspect some kind of database error. It appears that the returns were received but not processed with no notice of any problem sent. I'm beginning to think that we need a PRO to assist us in getting things straightened out. By the way- all 941's and W-2's have been processed for the same corp. with no problems and the K-1's have been reported on the owner's returns for these periods.

I believe that if you have a court-appointed administrator that the return needs to be paper filed.

Our office has a small group of clients who use the bank product. That same Illinois law caused the service fees to be automatically added to all of the client bills, regardless of their using the bank product or not. (We use Drake at that location.) We give a credit on each cash client's bill equal to the added fee. I've talked to our Representative about this, but can't get any great interest. I'm still amazed by the logic that gave birth to that law.

Yes, she still works for the company. The home has changed hands and the new owners are discontinuing the 401K. She tried to transfer it to an IRA, but the bank told her that she couldn't do so until the RMDs had been taken. I'll admit that I missed the information in the Tax Book.(Brain Fart?) I believe that rule would apply in her case. I assume that if she rolls into an IRA she will need to start taking RMD at that time. Correct?

Thanks. This is a widow who still works in a nursing home(husband always handled finances).. Total income less than $25K. She really doesn't need to lose 50% of the money if we can avoid it.

I have a 77 year old client who has had a 401-K for a number of years. She was not aware of the RMD rules and has not taken any distributions from the plan after she reached 70.5. What are the chances of her taking the missed distributions and getting a waiver of penalty on 5329? Se makes just enough to get by in wages, SS, and a small pension ($833/yr) I really don't have a good feeling about this.