Catherine

Thanks, windmill -- will pass that name along. Catherine

MA - while backwards in many respects - allows filing of back annual reports.

Bumping this up the queue -- still looking.

Elderly client needs an estate attorney. She is north of Santa Fe, NM but can get there with no difficulty. Anyone have any referrals? Thanks, Catherine

An acquaintance from contra dancing has need for an EA to help his elderly mom, who is moving/has just moved to PA. In or near Reading if possible, if not then Lancaster, Allentown, and Harrisburg also acceptable (in his order of preference). Anyone here interested? Send a PM. Thanks, Catherine

Very nice!

anytime!

Thanks for confirming!

Form 3 is under e-file mandate BUT they still won't take prior-year returns. So you'll have to paper file. There is no check box to opt-out, to my knowledge. No e-filing of prior year returns, at all.

Is the $10,000 exclusion from the additional 10% penalty for early IRA withdrawal per person - or per couple? IRA's are individual - but home purchases are done by couples. So does the couple get $10,000 withdrawal excluded, or $20,000 withdrawal excluded, from that additional 10% penalty? Every client before these folks have been individuals buying houses... TIA, Catherine

No. Anything after 10/15 MUST be filed on paper. Don't forget to check the stupid little box on the bottom of page 1 on Form 1,and get your client to sign the EFO (please do not e-file my return) form. Also please note that Massachusetts will take ANY payment received as estimated tax after 1/15, and apply it to the then-current year. They will never apply it to a prior year. If you want money to go to a prior year, wait for a bill.

Thank you, ILLMAS -- That works for the loan he made to the business, and his investment in it as well -- but I don't see that this applies to deferred wage/salary income that was claimed, and taxes paid on it, and now cannot be received.

New client has income "paid" by a prior employer (deferred, actually, but he claims he claimed it as income and paid tax on it in the year earned). That company is now defunct, and he will never actually get the money. How does this get accommodated on a tax return? Not one I've heard... amend the prior year as long as it's not out of statute? If it is out of statute, then what? Business capital loss, long-term (but it's not)? TIA, Catherine

Am working now (post-trauma clean up only) with one firm that had the bookkeeper - who had a hidden drug problem - steal from them for several years. They let the person go and will not press charges because of concerns that *their* reputation will suffer for being known to have been stolen from. It is a concern, too! Rock. Hard place. Where does one stand? Lots of companies have rules - because of fear of litigation - where the ONLY reference they give is confirmation of dates of employment. They don't want to hire a slacker, fire them, tell a reference check they were let go for non-performance of duties - then end up being sued by the slacker as preventing them from getting a new job. Good employees lose, too, because if the only references given out are good ones, lack of a good one is tantamount to a bad reference. So they won't give any.

Yes; I have a "welcome to tax season" letter that mentions anything new -- such as, a couple years ago, the new foreign holdings reporting forms. This year will talk about the new office location and ACA issues. The engagement letter - straight from Drake, for each client - goes out in that same mailing as well. So it's still a pretty full envelope but it's 4 pieces of paper not 16. Welcome letter, engagement letter, document checklist. In the mail second week of January.

Here is the checklist -- NOT yet edited for ACA requirements or 2014 tax year. Uploading as a word document; edit it as you will; cut, paste, amend, draw smiley faces -- just remember to put in your own contact info! 2013 Checklist - short organizer.doc

I cannot fathom having an employee whom I could not/would not trust. We deal every day with super-confidential information that could ruin peoples' lives -- having folks around who cannot be trusted to deal safely with that information (from stealing it themselves to "just" not shredding papers that need it, or - in a larger office - leaving things out for the night cleaners to glean) is unfathomable. That said, sounds like your (now-ex) client is a good loss. NO password can be guaranteed to keep out someone who is on-site, has access to the computers, knows your patterns for password-protection, and has the time to tinker until they can figure it out. The client who asks for that guarantee is looking for someone to BLAME when their own wimpy password is breached. There are spyware programs people use to track employees' actions. (Heck, some folks use those programs to track their kids!) Works in arrears (catching not preventative), unlikely to be accepted as evidence in court, doesn't protect the firm's reputation, and tend to be memory hogs, and doesn't solve the essential problem of untrustworthy employees. If that is SUCH a danger to these folks, best to do payroll on a standalone computer at home that no employee has access too -- or farm it out to one of the service specialists. And keep the company checks under lock and key, as well. Still sounds, to me, like he's looking for someone to blame, though.

I send out my letters the 2nd week of January, with a document checklist. I don't use organizers; I want to see the originals. Nor do I want to pay to print and mail out 8 or 16 pages to every client, to get most of it back blank and annotated "see attached" with the original documents appended.

So, as the post just above Debbie's said, the employees get the cash and can use it for whatever they want. If they choose to use it to buy health insurance, that's their choice. As long as it isn't tied to insurance cost or made conditional... basically they all get a raise and spend it on whatever. And it goes on the W-2.

I think I'm going to go whimper for a while, now...

I must admit I've been ignoring it, under the heading that here in MA we've had a mandate for some years so I didn't think it would affect me much. No questions from ANY client - individual or corporate - on the law. A couple of folks who either get MA-subsidized coverage or who skip it (really can't afford it) and we appeal the penalty each year and win. I do have CPE scheduled on this -- maybe even this weekend. Hmm... I had better check my calendar on that! Rita - am with you on repeal. Jack - am with you on the unlikelihood of that. It was a stupid decision back in the 40's to give businesses a tax break for providing insurance to employees; it caused the whole industry to grow up around this employer-sponsored model, back when most folks (=men, mostly) worked for ONE employer their whole lives, retired at 65 and died by 67. Plus the exemption from the Sherman-Clayton Acts in the medical field as a whole, and we end up decades later with a government-sourced mess. Blech.

The Russians have a term that translates roughly to "I am over-cuted". It applies here. http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/11/08/a-heart-warming-christmas-commercial/

I inherited a PR client - one employee, weekly. I kept the prior guy's fees of $95/month for PR & PR tax pmts, plus $75/qtr for Form 941 (mailed to client to sign and send in himself; I won't do e-file of 941's).

Oh believe me I haven't lost any sleep over it!

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