Medlin Software, Dennis

For me, I only sign things the client never takes. Meaning only things I directly file/report.

My spouse of 33 years thanked me today, for us not being homeless.

While I do not prepare for money, I would prep for the recipient only if I could believe they are running a business. A business license or other business document would do the trick. When I was younger, I would likely have looked the other way. I have a similar battle every year about now. S Corp's wanting to fudge a W2 and W3 to reflect the >2% shareholder/employee insurance. While it is true, the W2 and W3 need to reflect the amount to maintain tax benefits, the amount is also wages, taxable on constructive receipt, and should be proportioned to every paycheck. Most face the issue only at tax time, when their preparer tells them their W2 is not correct, and then fail to believe it when they are told it is also taxable wages. The "extra" complication is the person who is usually handling the payroll is also the shareholder/employee, and has a tough time separating the issue to the employer and employee perspectives.

My fav is if the person being paid can sub the job out to others, or have someone else do the work, and no time accountability. If not, then employee. If someone really is running a business (not an employee), they likely have setup some sort of entity to help shield their personal assets from any business issues. Extra complication with being in separate states, if employee, as the employer has exponentially complicated their HR and payroll compliance issues (which I have posted about before).

That is the magic word, to me. If the entity being paid could not have others work, (and also whenever they elected, not for a specific amount of time within a window, and did not have other clients, business license, business insurance, etc.) then employee is proper. In the OP, the deduction for a day off is employee all the way. Probably not a huge chance of getting caught, but I personally would not be comfortable with a 1099 in the OP.

16.30 pacific is coming soon. Just about 70deg outside, so it will be a nice evening to be outside. Less than 2 hours until toes up in the hot tub. The latest interesting message is from someone claiming their "tech person" says something was only partially downloaded because the file can still be seen in their download folder. "Ding", time to get a new tech "expert". Of course, the truth is probably something else, but one can only deal with the information given...

Today is my annual procrastinator's day. The last day for my customers to, on time, get their end of year and Q4 reporting done. This year, I have likely sent more 'reminders' than ever before, but the next few hours will have some interesting questions asked. Someone wants me to walk them though efile signup and setup, today, as their printer is out of toner. Several want to know how to "back" add S Corp Owner/Employee medical insurance payments to their 2019 payroll. Another wants to back enter their entire 2019 payroll so they can prepare W2 forms today. Happily, I was able to have a nice distraction messaging with a customer who was amazed the programmer was helping them. --- Interestingly, I like the compressed deadline. It means after today, I can breathe much easier, and eat lunch away from my computer My wife says my household chores begin again tomorrow! Kitchen is due for repainting, my office (son's former bedroom) needs to be cleaned up and rearranged as my wife and daughter want to use the closet, etc.

My passengers always take on the comments about idiot drivers. While I see them, I usually am not affected by them. After roughly a million miles on motorcycles, I still drive like I am invisible to others, even when in our motorhome towing our Jeep. I was young, dumb, and invincible back in my MC days, and was almost always the rabbit (the fastest moving vehicle). Back to the OP, I just filed my personal, and tried not including DL info. I got a warning (from the software) that my state return (CA) may be delayed without DL info. No warning for the fed return.

For payroll purposes, to compare, an employer would be NUTS to deposit pay into an account not controlled by the employee. Employee will win a claim the funds were not given to "them", should a different account holder (possible exception for spouse or legal partner) "take" the funds. Some will not direct deposit unless the account is only controlled by the employee. Quick online search implies the IRS will flag the return in some manner, if the account does not belong to the TP.

I cannot answer on the proper way. I can suggest "motivation" as there is likely a big cost difference when insuring a vehicle in a company name, and possibly in the financing and registration as well.

I would like to see reference to a stat showing whether or not the computer had W10 preinstalled or not. My reasoning is I follow the advice of using the OS which was preinstalled on the computer, which reduces the odds of any driver or actual hardware issues. I use the latest updates MS posts, and have not yet run into any issues. I am not saying there are no issues, just that I have not had them personally.

They know what they are doing. Same as the other topic where the entity was plainly treating an employee as a contractor. The business people think they can dump the issue on their accountant/preparer and the cost will be less than what they saved by hiring a sketchy person/entity. The hiring person likely did not check for business license, insurance and WC coverage. No clean hands on either side...

I just had "this" conversation yesterday, with someone asking what it was like being able to "speak" programming. I think I shocked with my reply. Programming is a great skill. But, it is no more than 5% of what it is needed to be a programmer. 5% is coming up with the ideas, and 90% is trying to predict what a human non-expert will do, and dealing with those consequences. The person said "what?" and I shaded that when computers first became available to the "public", those who obtained them became experts. Now, they are ubiquitous, and experts are rare. Programmers must now anticipate and react, not just "allow". Many believe their computer should get the job done, and will or should never allow the user to be human (make an error).

The forms can be scanned if BW. The absence of a valid vendor code - approved for the particular tax year - is likely to cause rejection (and possibly penalty). I have no idea what SSA's policy is, nor am I inclined to look. SSA does not want untested and non pre-approved form layouts. SSA designed the approval process, so it will not be news to them at all. If the software vendor is not stating their forms are approved (each year), that is a sign they are not approved. No vendor code is another sign. Not being willing to share their approval letter is another sign.

A qualified yes, not a blanket yes. There could be someone creating BW forms who did not go through the approval process.

Might not be out of a job due to the embarrassment factor. Unlikely the church would want it public they are cheating the teacher, or the governments.

Since email is becoming less and less reliable as far as getting past "security" settings, I have added a secure online file folder system. I can post messages, and when the customer next opens my software, the message(s) will be shown. I also have added the ability to send certain messages via text, which also helps. I send only transactional messages, yet some "security" vendors still block or drop my messages (instead of delivering, or delivering as spam). I use a private IP address to send, so there is no chance of getting blocked by the actions of others. So if I were looking to get something securely to someone, and I could not handle it myself, I would look for a product that hosts the secure file (for download) and sends notice to the recipient (with viewing instructions) via email AND text message.

Since TY 2001, when using approved software. You can ask the software vendor for a copy of their approval letter, or look at the printed form for the vendor's code (which will put the responsibility on the vendor if their alignment is off / form is not scannable). The vendor code appears just under the year at the bottom of each form. The SSA approval process does not usually begin until mid/late summer, even though the blanks may have already been posted online by the IRS. In my case, I won't even try to submit for approval until June, unless the substitute form instruction sheets come out sooner (thinking of 2020). The 2019 1141 pub did not come out until August...

Some PDF programs allow "writing" on them, even if the file was not created as a fill in form. I use foxit too, and I don't recall having any issues marking up forms when needed. I dropped Adobe years ago because they added a setting, with a default, which caused some files to appear in an alternate font, even though the file had embedded fonts the file designer intended to be used.

Tom from the Valley, I understand completely. Not all would be interested. I can absolutely accept that position. What I cannot accept is then the tax expert tries to decline by stating it is the employER's responsibility to help their employee. If I were helping W4 prep for cash (which I already do for friends family for free), I would limit my "help" to setting WH to 100% of prior year (no under WH penalty), or to meet some other magic number the employee provides.

Who should be giving someone tax withholding / tax liability advice other than their tax expert / tax preparer? I posed this earlier as an income opportunity / customer acquisition / customer retention opportunity, which seemed to be a "not interested" by several.

The current Microsoft provided tool for always on. Random other tools, none based outside of the US, for weekly/monthly (whatever makes you comfortable) double checking. I insta;;, then uninstall the random tool. I would not suggest having two tools "on" at the same time. Before even starting to "believe" and warnings, I would do an update check on the tool reporting the issue (they are updated at least daily if they are worth using), and I would check the file with the "reported" issue against virustotal.com Personally, I do not use heuristics, as the results are, to me, like a WAG, hoping to show you the tool is worth paying for. Heuristics, to me, is roughly the same as palm reading for stock tips. Maybe you get lucky, but most likely, it is an unneeded annoyance (at best). Whatever you choose, look for any "rankings" on false positives. False positives are costly to deal with. A good firewall, with good settings for outgoing connections and easy to use reporting, is a good thing as well. Will let you watch for any missed items causing you to be part of a botnet.

No pay, no work. Charge more until you would not describe as demanding or difficult, or they self fire.

I don't think MSE is baked into Windows, it is a separate application. Many expect at least some updates, but MS's official policy is no more (for consumers). MS has, in the past, provided updates, such as one for XP long after it was abandoned, but hoping is not really security (to me). I am a realist. Many will not change anything until forced. Dealing with a customer, today, who insists because S Corp Shareholder Insurance is deductible on the personal return, there is no harm not accounting for it properly as wages for withholding calcs. They are ignoring the payroll regulations. Another case of an owner/employee forgetting to treat all employees "hands off", with no consideration of the employee's personal tax situation. The tough part is they are telling me their CPA (and tax preparer) is relying only on 2008-1 for guidance, and is not considering the payroll processing aspects. I suspect their experts are only being asked about "tax filing", not "payroll processing".

I would not want to make that argument since a reasonable person would likely see that as something a business should have mitigated, and as someone subject to security regulations, was obligated to know of the risk and take all reasonable actions to mitigate. Yesterday's Windows patches fixed a huge potential security issue, as a for instance. No one can say MS will ever provide another patch for W7. No security software or setting would have caught the issue fixed yesterday... only human safe hex. I am not spending time looking, but maybe the issue patched yesterday could also exist in obsoleted versions of Windows.