kcjenkins

Good one.

Probably won't be there that long, I bet they close in March. I suggest you take a picture of that sign, now, with a newspaper near it to date the photo, so you can point out to anyone who asks you about them just how unprepared they actually are.

Not really, Tom. The law clearly does make a distinction between 'preparing' and 'filing' a return. However, it is also clear that if you take the position that you are not covered because you just 'prepare' the returns, and the clients then mail them, you better be prepared to deal with the IRS. Because they are now saying silly things like, if you give the client an envelope with the address preprinted, etc, that constitutes 'filing'. As opposed to just giving them the return and a cover letter that includes the address to mail it in to, which is not 'filing'. I know this is stupid, but that is the sort of thing being said in IRS Liaison meetings, etc. Frankly, I love efiling, and I do NOT think it in any way harms the client, or increases his risk of anything. But I still resent being FORCED to do it, which I personally think has more to do with the IRS increasing CONTROL OVER THE PREPARERS than it does with the wish to increase efiling, which has increased every year, without any coercion needed. Think about it, if all returns must be efiled, then the IRS can put ANYONE out of business in one day, just be turning off their EIN. And current law gives them that right, with NO PROVISION FOR APPEAL OR REVIEW BEFORE IT IS SHUT OFF.

Here is a good article about the new Preparer Visits, that I would encourage you all to read. Link to article The IRS plans to visit 2,500 tax preparers in 2011 under its Preparer Letters and Visitation Program. The 2,500 tax preparers will be chosen from among 10,000 preparers to whom the IRS sent letters in late November. “If the Service believes they have the authority to review client files during a compliance check, this request may be unreasonable in light of the size of the preparer’s practice and overly burdensome in terms of the time and effort that the preparer must undertake to prepare for a compliance check,” wrote Thompson. “Further, it will likely create tension between the CPA and his or her taxpayer clients that undercuts the IRS’s policy objectives.” Furthermore, the AICPA said its members believe that requiring tax preparers to have all their 2009 files available for review is “unduly burdensome” and that if the IRS “insists upon review of the actual client files, these files should be identified and agreed upon prior to the office visit.” For CPA firms that are completely or partially paperless, the AICPA said it is difficult to make electronic client files available without giving the IRS access to the firm’s computer systems. The AICPA said the IRS visits would be more productive and efficient if the preparer has advance notice of the likely topics of focus so that tax preparers can be ready to answer questions about a specific return.

Hey, glad to share that, it's something that is often missed, especially in the less rural states where many tax professionals and accountants seldom deal with such issues. On a large salary, it can make a nice little difference to the employer, frankly, while making the employee happy too, if it is explained to him that he's getting, in effect, that extra income with ONLY the INCOME TAX owed on it. I often prepared a letter for the client to give a copy of for each employee, explaining the benefit TO THE WORKER, of doing it that way. This not only reduces the problem of the worker later thinking his W2 is wrong, but also giving the employer credit for the benefit, which otherwise the worker might not even appreciate.

Thanks, Tom.

Well, a lot of us can say that we sure helped take that sign down, back on Nov 2, right?

Well, ranch and farm have same rules, so in that case the employer CAN pay the employee share WITHOUT grossing up the salary FOR THE PAYROLL TAX. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p51.pdf Page 10 Employee share paid by employer...... the part you pay IS income to the employee, but is NOT SUBJECT TO SS AND MEDI TAX, SO IS NOT INCLUDED IN BOX 3 AND 5.

I was not going to reply, to keep down the "unnecessary" posts, then decided to do it this once just to say that I will try to skip the 'me too', 'I agree', and 'atta boy' posts in future. Unless it's just SO funny or apt that I feel COMPELLED to respond. But thanks for all the nice posts about me that I have today resisted responding to. I do appreciate my friends on this board very much.

(Thanks to Missionary Randy Roberts for today's humor.) Our teacher asked us what was our favorite animal and I said "fried chicken." She said I wasn't funny, but she couldn't have been right, everyone else in the class laughed. My parents told me to always be truthful and honest, and I am. Fried chicken is my favorite animal. I told my dad what happened, and he said my teacher was probably a member of PETA. He said they love animals very much. I do, too. Especially chicken, pork and beef. Anyway, my teacher sent me to the principal's office. I told him what happened and he laughed too. Then he told me not to do it again. The next day in class my teacher asked me what my favorite live animal was. I told her it was chicken. She asked me why, just like she'd asked the other children. So I told her it was because you could make them into fried chicken. She sent me back to the principal's office again. He laughed and told me not to do it again. I don't understand. My parents taught me to be honest, but my teacher doesn't like it when I am. Today, my teacher asked us to tell her what famous person we admire most. I told her, "Colonel Sanders". Guess where I am now.....

No, it's not possible to do that here. But keep in mind, during the 'busy' times, the level of 'chat' posts goes way down, it's only in off-season that they predominate. We will try to enforce the rule about using NT or Non-Tax in the headings, so that you can quickly skip over them. Then when you are ready, just mark it to show all posts as 'read' and they will not bother you when you reopen the board.

LOL Sounds great. As for discounts, the Medlin software is so reasonably priced, no one should have a need for a discount, IMHO.

And I'd suggest you look up and print out for the client the rules for 'responsible party' so that he clearly understands them. If he was a signatory on the bank account, for example, even if he never dealt with payroll, he's still considered by the IRS as a responsible party, because he could have paid the taxes. Only if he can prove that he NEVER wrote a single check, can he overcome that assumption. Understanding the rules should take the pressure off of YOU, as clients sometimes seem to think WE make up the rules. [Clearly we don't, or they would be a lot more reasonable, right? LOL]

One reason I download all forms is that when I need them, it may be for a year that is several years old, new client with back issues, etc. I don't want to find that it is 'too late' to be able to download that old year's forms. Ad stated, memory is cheap these days, keeping those extra forms available is not a problem, even if they are never used. The one or two that you do need to use several years later is worth more than the cost of the space to save them. I had a client come in two years ago who had moved to 7 different states over the past 6 years, and had not filed at all for 3 of the years, and needed amending on all but one of the other years. Having the forms for all those states, for all the relevant years, saved me lots of time and aggravation, and impressed the client with the speed with which I was able to get him straight with all the states involved. My fee of course reflected that.

I really think the 'water cooler' aspect of this forum is extremely valuable and helpful, especially to the one and two-person practices, as a healthy dose of 'human contact' from people who truly do understand our business, problems, and stresses during the season. Some days it is the only thing that keeps me sane. [At least, I think I am still sane?]

I just tried the link and got the new version.

Everyone used to be able to pay the employee's share without grossing it up, until Prentiss Hall did a big marketing push on "Tips to save payroll taxes" or some such title, where they pointed out that paying the employee share could save the employer on his share, at which point {late 70's, early 80's?] Congress changed the law. Now only FARMERS can still do that.

But those of us who registered in the first year did not have to submit fingerprints, so I never had to. Just one more PITA step to waste my valuable time and money. Don't know of any way this will help the IRS or the public, frankly.

I think if you do any new topic, "Birthdays, etc" would be the best name for the new one. But personally, I see no real need for that. And my guess is that it would probably not be used that much, if you did. Just think of the number of 'efile' questions that end up in 'General Chat' even tho there is a special forum for that.

If he asked for a tax return transcript, and the return had not been filed by the taxpayer, it would come up blank, BUT the W-2s will still show if you ask for the transcript of all income, since those were filed by the employer.

That could probably be because we have serious doubts about the ability of the government to actually administer EFFECTIVE 'CRITICAL OVERSIGHT'. Frankly, they already had many tools to use against both fraudulent and incompetent preparers, and they have used those tools very erratically and often in a ham-handed manner when they did use them. WE often know who they are in our communities, so why does the IRS not do anything about most of them already? Probably a lot of us feel like I do, that this is not going to change much of anything, except to increase our costs and hassel us if they want to.

He's an "equitable owner", which is the term you need to use. A quick search here for that term will give you lots of info and cites to use in writing the letter.

State laws on corporate officers' fiduciary responsibilities would be where you would start looking. But it is always messy when it involves personal services, so before they go to a lawsuit, they would be much wiser to try to reach some financial compromise. Quite frankly, without some specific contract being violated, the cost of the legal efforts to collect anything would probably outrun the amount collected, if any.

One other advantage of eFax and other email fax solutions is that you have the ability to store ALL your incoming faxes on your computer, as pdfs if you wish, so that you can quickly find any fax from a particular phone number. And efax allows you to send the incoming faxes to up to 5 different email addresses, so you always have that extra backup, if you wish it. And then you can go to any of those mailboxes, to look up a fax. One friend set up a separate Gmail account just for his efaxes. So if there is a question about 'did I get a fax from X?' he can go there, where he archives every fax as it comes in, a gmail option, and he can quickly find the fax in question, or feel real comfortable in stating that he never got it, if it is not there.

I agree with Jainen on this, if the expense is minor, why not just allocate? If you've got three properties, and $360 of admin expense, just put $120 on each property, and move on. If you have a mower used on all three, either set it up as three items, 1/3 on each property, or put it on the largest property, or on the property where it is stored when not in use, and don't worry about it.