joanmcq

Chinese takeout is made with peanut oil which does not include trans fats. Actually, peanut oil is monounsaturated so its a 'good fat'. Eat away. Chicken nuggets can be fried quite easily without trans fat (any liquid oil doesn't contain them). So you are panicking for nothing. Twinkies may have to be imported, however. NY banned trans fats some time ago, and except for pastries, most users didn't have a problem switching. What did people do before Crisco and margarine were invented? You guessed it....butter and lard and other animal products. Don't worry, no trans. lots of saturated fat, but no trans.

If mom set up custodial account, didn't daughter own the account? How did mom cash daughter's account? But aside from that, simply explaining two names were on the account should be enough...you should not have to get a copy of mom's return, just give the SSN it was reported under.

God help us.

Does anyone else have a comment on this??? I am trying to advise this guy, but I can't figure if the whole plan is now whacked or if he can move the overcontribution to 2008 and save the rest.

yea, just what was he doing when he went out for those cream puffs? Walt does nice stuff....one I was particularly drawn to...not sure if it would fit in the office but would go with the decor! really nice to finally meet you!

I'll stop in....2nd Saturday gains a foothold in Tahoe Park!!!

He is the only person; its a solo 401(k) for a Sch C. He tweaked the program calculation to fit what he thought was the max he could contribute, but overccontributed to the er portion by 5%. Highly compensated isn't the issue; the fact is he used the employee percentage of contribution instead of the SE rate, and didn't subtract the SE tax deduction from the net income to calculate the max contribution either. So he's got about 7K extra and its been in there since 4/15/07 for tax year 2006. What happens?

SP did his own calculation for his solo 401(k) (thought software was calculating it wrong) and we found this out when audited for another issue. Overcontributed for 2006 for about 7K. I am reading that if an overcontribution is not fixed within a year, the plan is disqualified for the year the overcontribution was made and remains so until the overcontribution is removed. However, the only info I could find was on overcontributions due to highly compensated employees, and not in regards to a solo K. Does the whole deduction become taxable (we are talking over 42K here), or does he get a penalty or both? He also has a SEP, but did not contribute to the SEP in 2006. He did not contribute to the 401K in 2007 or so far in 2008. Does having two retirement plans concurrently pose any problems?

Another reason I'm happy to be a tax geek with no desire to do financial statements!

He is ordained. In fact I'm invited to his 25th aniversary of his ordination this summer. His order split from a larger one (I can't remember which one it is) due to disagreements over homosexuality. I've also been asked for consultation regarding their finances and how to structure the various chapterhouses, etc to benefit them.

New client is a retired counselor and joined a small religous order that provides care to the sick and dying. The order is worldwide, but he is pretty much it in my city. He does mostly administrative work for the order, but does some counseling, and provides support to others in the order. He is not paid, but gives much of his pension and social security to the order. Part of his home is used for storage for vestments, etc and for admin duties. When other members of the order come to town, they stay at his residence. He owns the property, not the order. Some questions: Does anyone see how a designated housing allowance could help him, or would donation to order, then housing allowance back be fishy? I've told him I need a letter specifying a dollar figure for how much he's given to the order for charitable contributions. He has sometimes taken money back to pay the mortgage, etc. If they designated a housing allowance, is it subject to SE since he is not retired from the order? Is there a way for the church to pay for part of the house, or have him deduct the part that is used for the church? He brought up OIH, but it doesn't seem appropriate. I've quizzed him as to how monks, nuns, priests handle returns when they have taken vows of poverty and live at a monastary, since this model seems to fit better than the model of a pastor/church.

I did check to see if it updated to another title, but noticed it hadn't. And then the thought promptly vacated my vacuous brain which desperately needs a vacation and I went on to something else. Next week! I can't wait. God I hope there isn't any smoke where I'm going!

I don't get any emails at all, nor do my clients. It would be nice; then I could do as you do.

I'm off to do yard work myself. Congrats to you both!

I think GW is at least one of the stupidest, ill informed presidents in history. And he has a very smart, very wiley VP pulling the strings. As well as having a plethora of other puppetmasters behind him that pretty much handpicked him for this job. But lots of people wanted to have a beer with him.

I would put my vote in at deferred comp. This is just off the top of my head and with consideration of the prior discussion. He did not actually earn any income in 2007, only sold stock, part of the basis of which, is considered compensation, but was compensation for labor done in a previous year, not 2007.

What IRS email acknowledgement? I look at the ack in my software, and that's it. Have NEVER gotten an email from the IRS.

Not for TP, but the bene's have to take out the deceased's RMD. Then they can go on their own RMDs for 2008 if the account is split. If it isn't split, it goes by the oldest beneficiary's age.

What do you mean they left germany years ago? I was in Germany last September and Walmart was there!

I'm a desert rate and learned that trick in Death Valley. It can be 120 degrees and with a breeze and a wet shirt you will actually get goosebumps from the chill. I know folks that'll put a wet bandana under their hat.

Wal-Mart is not the only reason mom & pop stores close, but what I am saying is it is not a level playing field. If Wal-Mart is given favorable tax treatment and the local hardware store isn't, then the small store has a higher overhead from the get-go and has an even harder time competing. So someone that might pay 50 cents more for an item at a store that is more convenient may not be willing to pay $1 more, and the small store goes under if they have to charge $1. Of course at this point, with gas at $5 a gallon, the Ace Hardware a mile away is a better deal than driving 7 miles to Walmart to save 50 cents on the widget. and I don't shop a Wal-Mart, period.

And in the future, most likely, water rationing. But if your knees are anything like mine, hot summers (and remember NO humidity! you are going to love the lack of humidity) are nothing compared to cold and wet. and in the dry heat, if you wear a wet shirt or hat, or even put a wet towel on your neck, the evaporative cooling effect is marvelous.

Funny it flagged 'chequer' since that is a proper word in some of the english speaking world!

What also could be reallocated is how the jobs are compensated. How does a company justify paying CEOs multi millions or billions per year? Before anyone lables me a commie pinko, realize in the rest of the western capitalist world, executive compensation does not compare to what some execs are paid here. For example, when Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler, the Chrysler execs were paid far, far more than their German counterparts. Which company is more profitable? Wal-Mart in Germany manages to pay their workers a decent wage, and all of the health, vacation & other benefits required by their government, and still remain profitable enough to want to open stores there. Why not here? Could the exec pay and perks be the difference? Also, the mom & pop stores cannot compete on the same terms as the big boxes, not only because of the economies of scale. The big boxes often get huge tax breaks for locating in a particular area, so that the community can get the short term benefit of sales tax reciepts. Wal-Mart isn't paying the sales tax, the consumer is. But Wal-Mart can undercut prices in part because of not paying property taxes or paying reduced property taxes. So in the long run the community suffers because of a short term benefit.

GM could have been at the forefront of the electric car market if they had had even a smidgeon of long term market analysis. Instead, they are going bankrupt by having bet their whole basket on 'big honkin trucks' after burying their alternate fuel vehicle. Toyota did a little anaysis and came out with the Prius, and now can't keep 'em in stock even though the credits are gone for them and they cost more than other comparable products. If management makes asinine decisions a company will go under regardless of what the workers are paid. I think both of you are a bit right. If Tom can't find workers, he is either not paying enough, or the eligible workers refuse to move to Fresno (small dig). Jainen's workers can't afford to live on the wages; either the dole pays more (so no-one except the very proud will take the job) or you have to take the job, double up & give up some of your expectations..take the bus/bike/have a kazillion roommates/eat a lot of pasta. I've been at all ends of the spectrum (except for the filthy rich end; I'm still waiting for that one!), from picking fruit in the summer during college because there wasn't any other work and starving in the process, to my currently fairly comfortable existence. And some young people are useless (as are some older ones) and some young people start Google.