Abby Normal

IRS can't finalize forms until Congress gets its act together and either passes or rejects the extenders bill. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2256 There was this article today on Wolters Kluwer: Extenders Could Move Soon By George L. Yaksick, Jr., Wolters Kluwer Jan. 11, 2018 federal Tax extenders and the state and local sales tax deduction continue to drive discussions on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have expressed support for extending the expired tax breaks. At this time, talks have surfaced that the extenders could be part of a government funding bill. Extenders In December, Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee (SFC) introduced the Tax Extender Bill of 2017 (Sen 2256) (TAXDAY, 2017/12/22, C.1). Included in the bill are many expired energy tax incentives. Support for extending the energy incentives comes from trade groups active in biodiesel and renewable energy. "Acting to extend these expired tax provisions will allow businesses and individuals to make important planning decisions. Allowing these tax provisions to remain lapsed creates confusion and effectively increases taxes," several industry groups, including the National Biodiesel Board, National Corn Growers Association and National Renderers Association, recently told lawmakers. Along with extending many energy tax incentives, the bill would also extend the higher education tuition and fees deduction, Indian employment credit and mine safety training credit. These incentives expired after 2016. Comment. The impact of these provisions on IRS forms and instructions for tax year 2017 remains a consideration as the filing season gets underway on January 29. Funding Bill The federal government is currently operating under a temporary spending bill. Without another extension, funding lapses later this month. According to Hill staffers, some lawmakers have floated the idea of extending the expired tax breaks in another temporary funding bill. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., appeared to express optimism recently that the extenders could move soon. However, Thune acknowledged that "not everybody is going to have the same interest in the same extenders." It is unclear if GOP leaders in the House share the same views about renewing the extenders. Deduction Changes made to the state and local tax deduction by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (P.L. 115-97) include capping the deduction at $10,000. After President Trump signed the Act on December 22, 2017, many taxpayers, especially in high tax states, rushed to pre-pay their 2018 property taxes. The IRS later stepped-in. According to the IRS, whether a taxpayer is allowed a deduction for the prepayment of state or local real property taxes in 2017 "depends on whether the taxpayer makes the payment in 2017 and the real property taxes are assessed prior to 2018," (IR-2017-210; TAXDAY, 2017/12/28, I.1). On January 9, several lawmakers asked the IRS to rescind IR-2017-210. According to the lawmakers, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is "silent" on the pre-payment of property taxes. The lawmakers called on the IRS to "reverse course." By George L. Yaksick, Jr., Wolters Kluwer News Staff Tax Extender Act of 2017, Sen 2256 Letter to Acting IRS Commissioner Kautter Regarding Prepaid Property Taxes and IR-2017-210 Show Metadata ©2018 CCH Incorporated and its affiliates and licensors. All rights reserved.

It will be ready next week... we're told.

Transcripts. I have clients that can never tell me what estimated payments they've made and others who lose their tax documents or never receive them. Of course the missing documents ones have to wait until as late as summer before the IRS has the documents posted. I also have client business clients with prior balances due for payroll taxes and I need to track those until paid off.

This is the first example of a global currency. It was inevitable.

It seems to me that with the existing W4, and the personal allowance now at zero, choosing single 0 or single 9 will give you the same withholding.

Other than a few sites problems over the years, I've almost never had a problem logging in, but then I login several times a month.

I guess I'm in the minority who doesn't mind verifying my Social Security number and birth date (which they already have) with the IRS to decrease the chance that someone is using my CAF to talk to the IRS.

I wonder if the new W4 will ask about your kids ages and factor in the 2,000/500 per kid tax credit. Now that exemptions are gone, your withholding is not affected by allowances, unless credits are considered. And they had better eliminate the married checkbox, because if a newly wed couple makes the mistake of both changing their W4 forms to married (happens every year), they're going to owe 12%-24% (or more) of 24,000. Then they'll be screaming about an nonexistent marriage penalty. Instead of the married single checkboxes, they should add a yes/no question: "Do you have a spouse who does not have any income?" Answering yes will tell payroll to use the married withholding tables.

Just tell the employees that the withholding tables changed. As long as they're getting more, they won't complain.

I bought an older version (1.0) of Nuance Power PDF Standard for $30 on ebay. It is marketed as a lower cost alternative to AdobePro. I also use it to add headers and page number to organizers, and to make the organizers fillable.

Try Paycheck City's calculator: https://www.paycheckcity.com/calculator/salary/

Aggregated payees. If you receive payments from a PSE on behalf of one or more participating payees and you distribute such payments to one or more participating payees, you are: The participating payee with respect to the PSE who sent you the payment(s), and The PSE with respect to the participating payees to whom you distribute the payments. https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1099k#idm140023508570640 The way I read that, you become a PSE and can issue a 1099-K.

He should send them a 1099K.

https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-fraud-blotter-look-ma-phony-deductions

I'll have to review what QuickBooks charges. It may be the cheaper option now.

Eset antivirus plus Comodo free firewall has always served me well.

Standard deduction people benefit. Itemizers who had near 24k in deductions will lose their personal exemptions but have slightly lower rates. returns with dependents under 17 will get increased child tax credit, and there's a small family credit for kids over 16 that I haven't bothered to learn yet. A single at 20k with no dependents, their tax rate will remain 10%, but they have a slightly higher deduction of 12,000 vs 10,350, so save $165.

I just replied to her comment to make sure she really meant 1099 and not 1096.

Some states are suing over the legality of capping the deduction. Will be interesting to see how the courts rule and why.

Except... ATX never has business returns ready that early. Some of the state business returns aren't ready until February. It doesn't excite me to just do the federal return and have to go back later to do the state return.

I sous vide these frozen indian entrees because I don't want to overcook the meat in them, but I've sous vide'ed(?) anything raw.

A proper spoon is a must.

They were afraid we'd paper file a return with SSN suppressed. I said fine, don't allow SSN suppression on Filing Copy print packet, but please let me suppress SSNs on Client, Preparer and Custom print packets so the PDFs on my computer are more secure and I'd feel better about emailing returns.

Microsoft issued an emergency patch for all supported versions of Windows, including Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, but added that users should also apply firmware updates when they become available from device manufacturers. Google patched the flaw in Android with the January 2018 update, issued Tuesday (Jan. 2), although only Google-managed devices have the patch for now. Patches for macOS, iOS and Linux may not yet be fully available. https://www.tomsguide.com/us/intel-cpu-kernel-pc-mac,news-26320.html