michaelmars

my min fee for even the smallest business ie a 3 person pizzaria is $250/m, w/u sales & payroll tax and corp tax. If many notices or other pia stuff i add a year end fee too. I never spend more than 1.5 hours at a client like this and thats mostly bsing with the owner. [NYC rates]

i just ordered on line from the gov website

Thanks everyone. mircpa got the senario correct, the daughter was merely a supplemental card holder, the cards were issued to MOM, Daughter and Son [3 cards on acct] although only daughter used it and paid the monthly bills. As for gail's suggestion, i doubt the credit card company would give an honest answer. Daughter has no interest in using the card after mom passes but she has lots of debt and is just trying to figure out which cards to pay off first. this card has a high interest rate so normally you would pay it first but if there is no blow-back to her then she wants to just pay the minimum and use her money to pay off her other cards first. This is why the country is where it is, Mom with an annual income of $12,000 had available credit on all her cards of over $70,000 and with the credit card companies closing down cards of so many people and tightening credit, hers hasn't been touched.

without commenting on the morality of it- if a mother with great credit and no income added her daughter as a signatury on a credit card so that the daughter can use it as her own, were to either passaway or enter a nursing home under medicaid. [the mom's sole income is social security] Would the daughter be liable on the credit card debt?

i do as Ken does but i have a few more columns [you can add many columns to the return manager] i track if a client is sent a draft and i track if authorization forms have been sent out. And to answer the other poster re columns, i move them to a logical order for my use. i also have a cloumn for notes ie, need a k-1, client called and has more info, client away-hold to mail, etc.

Stupidly if you put both organizers in a return to look at they have the same name in the form list

you got it erc, the issue is if i mark all topics as read and later someone adds a new post to it, then that should show up as a new content-at least thats how i believe it worked before. after i leave the forum i would mark all as read then when i came back and clicked new content every topic or answer that was new used to show up

i can't seem to get the setting right [the way they worked on the previous board]. my goal is to click new content and see all new topics as well as responses added to old topics which were posted after i read the topic. currently if i sign in and read only one topic when i come back none of the previous topics show under new content. i have tried both setting options in the setting screen.

my comment of changing the classifcation of income was because the poster asked about taking the inocme out as wages-that would make the income suject to payroll taxes, work comp, dbl, etc. Old Jacks comment about holding RE in an S corp is leaving out the main reason not to-refinancing down the road. if you refi in a partnership you put the money in your pocket, if you refi in an S corp you have to leave it in the corp or pay tax on the distribution as a dividend, and that usually uses up your basis for loses. the debt in a partnership gives you additonal basis

I've read everthing he wrote and written about him, in fact a few books came out in just the past few years. His speaches to the military, nasa and congress should be required reading by all politicians. Even if you disagree with him he certainly provokes heated debates!

problem 1]owning real estate in an s corp sucks problem 2] each company stands on its own so you can't say one comapny pays wages so the other doesn't have to. problem 3] s corp should pay wages but now you have real estate income which is not subject to se tax becoming subject! if the lease was a triple net lease with the tenant paying all expenses you might have an arguement that the re income is totally passive and should not be considered earned income but the irs likes earned income subject to fica. problem 4] he is self dealing-[renting to a related party] fair market rent needs to be established and will be considered active so other passive losses will not offset the income

"She would also need to advise her employer of the change of address to get NJ tax taken out of her wages."-BSTAXES is incorrect, you don't want NJ taxes withheld and a NY employer will not normally do this anyway. her wages are taxable in NY and she will only owe NJ if she falls into a higher bracket in NJ or has other income. This is a common error employees make. you pay taxes on wages where you earn the money not where you live. as stated by others, you will have a p/y NJ and a P/y nys and a p/y nyc-this is a pain in the butt to do with atx but manageable.

if you moved the program to a new puter you have that issue. atx was able to remove it for me but whith my latest new puter i just decided to live with it-just make your user name one letter so you don't have so much to type!

A burglar broke into a Christian Family's home one night. He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables; when he heard, a strange voice echoing from the dark saying, 'Jesus is watching you.' He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze. After awhile when he heard nothing more, he shook his head and continued. Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard, 'Jesus is watching you..' Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically, looking for the source of the voice and finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam came to rest on a parrot. Did you say that?' He whispered to the parrot. 'Yep,' the parrot squawked, 'I'm just trying to warn you.' The burglar relaxed. 'Warn me, huh? And what is your name?' 'Moses,' replied the bird. 'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would name a bird Moses?' 'The kind of people that would name a Rottweiler, Jesus.'

"he thinks the taxpayer has done the tax return or made changes after you prepared" interesting thought-and a good one. if you do meet with the agent make sure you see the return he is auditing before you say a word. and see if it matches your files and if it has your signature.

i don't think you can fire him. if you are infact a target for something then you want to keep you line of communication open with the client. right now he is just too cheap and arragant to have you do the audit since "=he can do it himself" but if you fire him he becomes an angry disgrunted adversary.

i would not notify the insurance co yet, so far this is a non-issue, unless you have exposure because you know there is a problem with the return. Last time i notified insurance over a minor issue the ins co made me talk to their attornies, fill out forms and i lost 1/2 a day on an issue that never really existed.

i agree with jainen and taxbilly. at the very most i would give a client the depreciation method and conventions used and not a thing more. Where as i don't think you need a poa if the client is there to give verbal permission for you to "advise" him i would get one anyway. This type of client will blame you for saying the wrong thing, no matter what you say if he gets a huge assessment and you want a poa so he cant say you offered info against his wishes. there is no way i would allow this agent to question me in front of a client on issues that i am not prepared for and not as a follow up on an audit i didn't participate in. i would probably ask the agent to issue a doc request if he wants any info that the clietn didnt have for him

if its only "for 15 minutes" then why not try and do it on the phone, that way you don't need any doc ready or accessable. "why the client reported more income?" Maybe because he is honest!, that would be omy only answer on that issue. but if the agent is willing to reduce the income to only the amount on the w-2g's just say thank you!

THIS IS FROM THE NYS DEPT OF EDUCATION-regulations of cpa's. the issue of course is if tax prep falls into this catagory, but why take the chance. every cpa i know is just keeping everything for at least 7 years. iv.Retention of work papers. a.Licensees shall ensure that a formal written policy is established for the retention of work papers that is in accordance with the requirements of this subparagraph. Licensees employed by an employer authorized to practice public accountancy shall have met this requirement for a formal written policy, for work papers produced under such employment, if their employer has established a formal written policy for the retention of work papers that is in accordance with the requirements of this subparagraph. Such written policy shall identify the process and authorization requirements for the destruction of work papers after the expiration of the retention period. b.Licensees shall ensure that work papers are retained for a minimum of seven years after the date of issuance of the work product, unless licensees are required by law to retain such records for a longer period. Work papers may be retained for a period that is longer than seven years from the date of the issuance of the work product and may be retained permanently. c.Licensees shall ensure that work papers are retained during the term of a New York State Education Department investigation or disciplinary proceeding by the New York State Education Department that is reasonably related to such work papers. Licensees shall not dispose of such work papers until notified in writing by the New York State Education Department of the closure of the investigation or until final disposition of the disciplinary proceeding. d.If work papers are retained in an electronic form, the licensee shall ensure that such work papers are capable of being accessed, for read-only purposes, throughout the required retention period established for the work papers and are safeguarded through sound computer security procedures to prevent the unauthorized modification of the work papers. e.Work papers shall not be destroyed or otherwise disposed of at a time or in a manner that is inconsistent with applicable requirements of the law. v.Availability of work papers to the department. A licensee shall make available to the New York State Education Department at its request work papers that the department determines to be relevant to an inquiry or complaint about a licensee's unprofessional conduct, in accordance with the requirements of section 29.1((13) of this Part.

thank you that does the trick

is there a way to change the fonts on this board. i know i can change for the entire monitor but its only this board that seems way too small. i know you can change on your posts but i mean overall enlargement.

becarefull of state requirements. in NY you are requried to keep returns for 7 years n some form or another. I keep for as long as i hve the clietn and for 7 years after i lost the client. things change. for example bernie madoff w/o allowd you to go back 5 years instead of 3 on a carryback. sure helped having the files handy and the returns still on my puter. for most people i scan the oridinal docs and return them to the client so the paper files aren't too massive.

and the form mta-305 is in the program ready to go!

JUST WRITE TO THE IRS TO DISREGARD THE WRONG ONES