kcjenkins

Yes, Marilyn, that is exactly what I was referring to. As well as the warning that no matter what the actual rules are on 1/1/14, it could still change by 4/15/14, so we need to keep that in mind as we answer and advise them. Think like a lawyer and use lots of wessel phrases, too!

Good excuse for a shopping trip?

Although all those have been discussed, I do not believe they have yet been actually passed. Hope I am wrong, and someone can give me a cite. That article was based on info from Robert Kerr, senior director of government relations at the National Association of Enrolled Agents. And it's a current article.

Yep, reasonable or not "peace of mind" is a huge value.

And contact the Sec of State office/website for info on licensing rules. CA is a state that tries to regulate practically EVERYTHING. Even down to the kind of sheets a motel can use! So no matter what the type of business, ask about their requirements to operate here.

Well that is certainly true. And Taxed does not always resist, either. But she's getting better [smarter] about that. And Jack is trying, also. I think we're all trying to keep the tone better.

See, if you don't take everything as an insult, it can end it without escalating it. That is an adult way to deal with it. Jack might have been looking for a fight, but happily he did not get one. I'm sorry rfassett did not deal with a similar situation as well, but hopefully he'll be back later. I did not really understand why Judy gave him one, but I did not think it was that big a deal.

That's my thought too. I love the Dick Tracy idea, but it's just not ready yet.

I laughed even tho I saw it coming!

Here is Kim's advice about the SmartWatches Don't buy the Gear - or any smart watch - just yet. Your smartphone already does everything a smart watch can do - only better and faster. To date, there are only about 70 apps available for the Gear, and battery life is not much better than the average smartphone. Plus, the Gear only works with a Galaxy Note III smartphone or Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. If you don't own one of these, the Gear is just a regular watch. Another much-hyped smart watch is the Pebble ($150). It has a better battery life than the Gear - up to one week - but uses a black-and-white e-Ink screen and has few apps.

I agree.

Ed, this is not intended as a 'political' issue, because frankly, both parties are guilty of playing games with the tax code, unfortunately Basically, I posted it as a reminder for us all, as we run into questions on these various tax items. But I agree, it's hard to explain why they can not at least get together on tax issues, and no matter what they end up doing, why can't they at least do something within a reasonable time frame, and stop messing everyone up with late and/or retroactive changes?

rfassett I have no idea why Judy gave you a warning, but I hope you will come back.

It’s the time of year to again start thinking about expiring tax provisions. Usually the first thing that comes to mind is the alternative minimum tax, but this particular issue was “fixed” in January of this year by the fiscal cliff bill. That still leaves a number of expiring provisions, according to Robert Kerr, senior director of government relations at the National Association of Enrolled Agents. Among them, Kerr noted, are the deduction for state and local sales taxes; the deduction for mortgage insurance as qualified interest; the above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses; the above-the-line deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers; the Work Opportunity Tax Credit; the increase in expensing and the expansion of the definition of Section 179 property; the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit; and the 15-year straight line cost recovery for qualified leasehold, restaurant and retail improvements. Every year the alternative minimum tax was at the head of the list of things that needed fixing, observed Kerr. “Each year that we didn’t have a fix, we had a growing number of people on the AMT bubble. It created a ‘whale tail’ when you paid for the patch. Since the increase in cost to pay for the patch wasn’t linear, it was exponential. It didn’t grow gently. Probably the piece that got our attention was there were some 20 million potentially affected out of the total population of taxpayers.” There are a number of reasons that less attention is being paid this year to the extenders, Kerr indicated. “One reason is that AMT is no longer the engine that drives the extender train,” he said. The other is the overall legislative environment this year—the budget, the sequester, the shutdown, and talk of tax reform. At least the Ways and Means Committee had visions of managing the extenders within the context of tax reform.” “The net is that we’re sitting here with 10 legislative days left in the year, and we don’t have any word on the extenders except for the notion that they will be included in the El Dorado of tax reform,” he said. “My take on that is tax professionals desire stability and predictability above all else, and the current state of affairs on extenders provides us with neither.” Will Congress act before the end of the year to extend some or most of these?Will they all expire, only to be resurrected retroactively during the filing season—or in 2015? Or will they just expire, period? “None of us should be surprised if we find ourselves in precisely the same situation as at the beginning of 2013, and proceed all the way through 2014 without knowing which ones will be retroactively extended,” said Kerr.

Thank you for sharing that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3vRHgxviZJk

yes, a scary point is that if you look at these numbers, the IRS issued checks on $34 million which is more than half of the total fraudulent claims. I'm happy that they ended up stopping the ones they did stop, but still bothered that so many were issued without any verification. And especially that this fraud involved postal workers. I hope they put them in prison, but my guess is that even if they do, the postal workers will still get their government pensions, at least after they get out.

Newark, N.J. (November 13, 2013) A New York man has pleaded guilty to leading one of the largest and longest-running tax refund fraud schemes associated with identity theft ever perpetrated in the U.S. Jose Torres, 47, of Bronx, N.Y., pleaded guilty Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi in a Newark, N.J., federal court to an information charging him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, theft of government property and aggravated identity theft. The scheme caused more than 8,000 fraudulent U.S. income tax returns to be filed, which sought more than $65 million in tax refunds and resulted in losses to the United States of more than $12 million. Torres, who is also known as “Jose Quilestorres” and “Carlos Jose Luis,” admitted that the fraudulently obtained tax refund checks in which he was personally involved totaled $9.9 million. According to prosecutors, Torres and others obtained personal identifiers, such as dates of birth and Social Security numbers, belonging to Puerto Rican citizens.He then directed the others to use the information to create fraudulent 1040 forms that they filed electronically. They gained control of the tax refund checks by bribing mail carriers to intercept the checks and deliver them to other conspirators. In exchange for cash payments, the mail carriers gave the checks to the conspirators, who sold the checks to other conspirators. Torres and others also purchased “mail routes,” lists of addresses covered by a single mail carrier. He and his fellow conspirators applied for tax refunds, inserted addresses along the mail route as the purported home addresses of the taxpayers, and obtained the refund checks sent to the addresses. In other instances, the conspirators applied for checks using addresses otherwise controlled by, or accessible to, certain conspirators, and collected the checks after they were delivered to those addresses. By tracing the specific IP addresses that submitted the electronically filed 1040s, law enforcement officers learned that only a handful of IP addresses created many of the fraudulent 1040 forms. The New Jersey task force also identified certain “hot spots” of activity, with millions of dollars in tax refund checks directed to just a few towns and cities in and around New Jersey, including Nutley, Somerset and Newark, N.J., and Shirley, N.Y. The task force members then interacted with U.S. Postal Service employees in these hot spots and identified the characteristics of refund checks connected to the scheme. As a result of these efforts, more than $22 million in fraudulent tax refund checks that had been issued by the U.S. Treasury were not delivered to the conspirators or others, but were stopped by law enforcement officers. Torres previously pleaded guilty in the Southern District of New York to charges arising out of the same scheme. He will be sentenced in the Southern District of New York on the charges from both states at a date to be determined. The conspiracy count is punishable by up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. The count of theft of government property is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine. The aggravated identity theft count is punishable by a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison, which must run consecutively with any other sentence. U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman praised special agents of IRS-Criminal Investigation, under the direction of special agent in charge Shantelle P. Kitchen; and inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, under the direction of Maria L. Kelokates, with the investigation leading to the guilty pleas. He also thanked the special agents of the U.S. Secret Service, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James Mottola; the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Carl J. Kotowski; and HSI-ICE, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Andrew M. McLees, for their roles.

Wish there was at least one on the west coast besides LA. And central, besides Houston or Chitown. Wonder who decides these locations? If only one on the entire west coast, why not a more central location? SF has plenty of possible locations. Las Vegas always has cheap flights and packages from all over.

They were not REALLY the 4th largest, although they claimed in their advertising that they were. The truly scary part is that the advent of more advanced tax software has made this so easy. They advertised that "no tax experience is necessary". And that was true, since all they had to do was teach them how to use the software, not understand it. Basically, all their 'franchisees' were crooks, but the use of the software made it easy for them to turn out returns that LOOKED correct and professional. And I don't know how you protect against that, it's always going to be a case of catching them AFTER they commit a lot of crimes. One thing is for sure. If the government does not put a whole bunch of these people in prison for this, and the owner of the companies that set this up in prison for a VERY LONG TIME, it could do great harm to the entire system and the entire country!

cute.

I agree with Judy, and would add that when they are sold, they are normal sales with the amount that was included on the W-2 at vesting as the 'cost basis'. so yes, you do need more info before you go forward. I think I misunderstood the original question.

Yes, that question is totally confusing to the average person, and probably to the average "Navigator" too.

Janien, there is just, at this point, a Preliminary Injunction, http://www.leagle.com/decision/In%20FDCO%2020121029955 while they continue to build the case. Given the nature of the details in the Complaint, it's obvious that there is a lot more that is going to happen to this guy, and, no doubt, to most, if not all, of his 'franchisees' as well

From the Complaint filed by the IRS, just a few tidbits, since it is 37 pages long: According to its website, Instant Tax Service is the “4th largest tax preparation company” in America, one of “the fastest growing franchises,” and the “number one new franchise” brand in the country as of 2009. Potential new franchisees are told, among other things, that, “[n]o tax experience [is] necessary!” Instant Tax Service also claims to have “hundreds of locations in 34 states.” Today, those locations are owned by franchisees who have contracted with ITS Financial. Many of Instant Tax Service’s most profitable franchises— including five of its six largest—engage in systemic and pervasive tax fraud. Defendants are aware of, and even enable, much of the fraud engaged in by these franchisees. Ogbazion also wholly owns Tax Tree, LLC, an entity he created and operates to finance false and deceptive loan products, including Instant Cash Loans (ICLs) and Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs), marketed nationwide to Instant Tax Service customers. Tax Tree’s relationship to Instant Tax Service is not disclosed to customers. Rather, documentation provided to Instant Tax Service customers falsely suggests that Tax Tree is an independent, third-party lender. Instant Tax Service uses its false and deceptive loan products principally to lure customers into its local stores so that franchisees may charge them unconscionably high tax preparation fees and added fees. Ogbazion calls the added fees “junk fees” and “revenue generators.” The junk fees include bogus charges for: “service bureau,” “document preparation,” “refund estimate,” “technology/software,” “account set up,” “check printing,” and “Efile/electronic transmission.” Collectively, the tax preparation and junk fees charged by Instant Tax Service typically average $400–$500, and sometimes run as high as $1,000 or more, for as little as 15 minutes of return preparation. Although Instant Tax Service boasts of being one of the fastest growing tax preparation franchises and “Entrepreneur Magazine’s top new franchise,” it has been overwhelmed for years with complaints from taxpayer customers about poor service, incompetence, and most predominantly, fraud. For instance, in the past 36 months consumers filed over 900 complaints with the Better Business Bureau in 48 service areas across the country covering Instant Tax Service stores nationwide. Hundreds of additional complaints have been posted to online consumer protection forums such as “The Ripoff Report.” And Instant Tax Service offices nationwide have been the subject of numerous local TV news consumer fraud reports. Most of the complaints focus on Instant Tax Service stores filing tax returns without the customers’ knowledge or consent, making false and deceptive representations to customers, and charging unconscionably high and undisclosed fees. Moreover, IRS audits of individual Instant Tax Service customers, as well as other efforts by the IRS to monitor Instant Tax Service’s compliance with the internal revenue laws, demonstrate systemic misconduct by Instant Tax Service locations nationwide. And the funniest part of this order, to me, was the last line of this section: Despite knowing of these widespread and pervasive complaints, as well as having actual knowledge of much of the franchises’ illegal conduct, defendants have not taken any meaningful steps to stop the misconduct. Indeed, defendants deliberately and purposely ignore their customers’ protests because, claims Ogbazion, if he or his company monitored them, he “wouldn't be able to sleep” at night. Moreover, ITS Financial has little incentive to stop the wrongdoing, because it directly profits from its franchisees’ misconduct by taking a percentage (approximately 18%) of all franchisee gross revenues. And all or most of the junk fees for “transmission,” “technology,” “account set up,” and “check-print” are ITS Financial and/or Tax Tree fees, not franchisee fees, that ITS Financial and Tax Tree retain.