schirallicpa

I was asked a couple of years ago to help our local library bookkeep a capital expenditure that they had rec'd the funding thru the state. Upon looking thru there books, I knew that they should have been filing a 990 annually, at least for the past few years. They didn't have a clue about the 990. Come to find out, they had never registered with the IRS to get their exempt status either. So we filed the 1023. So - we have received our letter that they are now approved for tax exempt status. How far back must we go filing old 990's? I'm not trusting that their bookkeeping is very accurate. Is there any break for this???? I hate to see to penalty notices that we will be receiving. Any input?

NYS is a mess. The w/c insurance fund that a group of nursing homes belonged to went belly-up. The former partnership dissolved before the ins. fund folded. The former partnership had no idea that all this was going to happen. 3 years later, NYS steps in and says that every nursing home that had been part of the group must pay in to cover claims that have been made. My client, who is now the president of a different company (which is an adult care home, not a nursing home) paid the assessment. He really didn't have a choice with NY. He had his new company pay him a management fee, that he turned around and used to pay NY himself. He will obviously get taxed on the mgt fee. If the former partnership was still in existence, it would have been paid and expensed by the partnership, and he would have received the pass thru benefit of the expense. Like I said, the partnership is dissolved. So I'm trying to figure out how my client can receive any tax relief from making this payment. My client has not been fraudulent. Other companies involved in the group fund were fraudulent.

Still no takers on this one?

thank you.

thank you.

We have here in our nowhere little town a championship body builder and the former front man for Mattel toys - HeMan himself, Larry Opiela. No long blonde locks anymore, but in his mid-50's he's in awesome shape. He has been an awesome trainer for this mid-40 fatty, and I am proud to say that I have lost about 20 pounds since last year. (Well- give or take a little over the holiday....) I have made working out each day a priority and I feel better and have been less stressed. I go every day at lunch. (And hope I don't smell too bad in the afternoon.)

My password had expired and I was locked out of the myatx website. I might as well have been Al Capone trying to get a new password.

Yes - trades and business clients are the ones who must issue 1099s. A lot of which are small proprietors that just do not like spending more money. We also had to hit our payroll clients this year with extra paperwork and associated fees. I know - I'm grumbling! It is money in my pocket. But it just seems so unnecessary. Say - do estates or trusts need to issue 1099s to me? Hadn't thought about that yet?

I taught a tax class this past fall, and dependents questions became our weekly thing. It was great. It is so confusing at first, but after you hammer through it 25 or 30 times, it comes together. My students went from hating dependents, to wanting some of their own! Pub 17 gives a lot of examples to review. Yes - they are all dependents. No - he does not qualify for EIC. My students will now tell you that she should get a part time job and scrape in a couple bucks, so she can get a ridiculous EIC refund!

This is my first weekend. Tax season officially began! And I have a lot more clients already chewing at the bit early this year. I think its the good weather that were having that keeps people motivated and busier. When it gets cold, we tend to "hole-up" and watch TV. Well - I use the word "we" loosely..............You and I go to the office.

I have a number of clients who have paid me more than $600, which is not new this year. But because I just had a client audited, and the IRS was all over the fact that 1099s had not been issued to me (this was a 2008 return) I am really wanting my clients to issue 1099s like they are supposed to this year. But - maybe I'm just not a good sales person - I hate contacting the client to say - Hey you need to give me a 1099, and then sticking them with another fee to do it for them. But I sure am not doing it for free. And when they say - "What? What do you mean I have to pay you for you to give yourself a meaningles piece of paper. Aren't you the accountant? Don't you keep track of those figures? Why should I have to give you money for what you already know and have?" right - good point. Weren't CPA's once exempt from having to receive 1099s? Didn't the IRS once trust us? It's very frustrating. I'm trying to come up with a form letter to sent out to these clients. If I were the client though, I would be P-O'd.

I think this is going to be my year for off-beat questions. Village received a grant that they disburse to residents for improvements to their property. The resident applies to the village, the village approves, the resident makes improvements and then submits proof of expense to village. Village hires someone independently to inspect property and "audit" the expenditures, and then issues a check payment to the resident. Does a 1099 need to be issued to the resident for that payment? I am thinking no, but I have seen it done before.

I thought if I put a blub here I'd get this back towards the top and see if anyone else now logging on would have any suggestions.

I use Medlin for payroll - we don't do that much. Frankly, I hate payroll, but we have a handful of clients that we help out. As far as QB goes, I've been trying to convince my clients to go with the online version. Then they just give me a password to access anytime. No need to get backup discs, or stix from them. No worry of which version it is. I make my changes and they don't have to go thru the trouble of making entries or getting a backup from me again. Works great. And I don't have to keep buying the new versions.

My best advertising when I got started was other tax preparers in town, believe it or not. They were turning new clients to me because they were already too busy. Shortly after that, H&R came to town:( However, I have had much luck as well with other professionals in town, including attorneys, bankers, and real estate profs. Don't waste money on phone book advertising, people use google to find you. I run a weekly ad in our local weekly Moneysaver now. I used to run in the daily paper, but didn't feel that that was beneficial. The moneysaver gets more readers than the daily paper. I still run on the radio only because I am friends with the station manager. Not sure if it is worth being on the local radio or not. I know I never listen to local radio. My 2 cents too.

The deed was set up with mothers life use, to transfer to the 3 children equally at her death. The sisters are not interested in the property, the brother is. So he paid them each $20000 for their share and change the deed so that he is the only person that the property transfers to at mothers death. I am thinking that is a sale. I want to think that he is just gifting some money to them, but he was actually buying them out of their share of a contract. He was pursuing economic reasons, as were they. hmmm......still thinking, and still not liking my answer............

Mother has life lease on house. It will be part of her estate. Originally set up to have the ownership transfer at death to brother and his two sisters. Sisters were not interested in house, and he wanted to get them "out of it" now. So he paid them each their agreed upon share of $20,000 each. Question is, is that taxable income to them. I think he has to issue each of them a 1099 for $20000 and they have to report as other income. They did not wait until it was truly inheritance, they were paid for their rights to it. Am I thinking right on this. (Obviously, I didn't like my answer.) Not sure why he was in a hurry to get them paid off, but I think the sisters were looking to get some money now. We're finally getting some snow up here in New York!

I had thought of that as well, and had also thought that maybe that wouldn't work with the k1 not matching up. Or should I say - no k-1 at all from the partnership. Thanks for your thoughts.

I will need to either put 2010 on my new pc, and then rollover. Or I will have to rollover, and then transfer. I'm confused. Is there an easy way to move stuff, or is my christmas holiday going to be spent at the office moving tax returns...........................................

My client is a small s-corp held by brother and sister. They own an adult home. Previously, the brother, who is the main shareholder of the corp, was a Partner in a partnership with sister and father. This partnership owned a large nursing home. The nursing home was sold a few years ago, the father passed away, his estate is closed, the partnership filed a final return in 2009. In both operations, the adult care home, and the nursing home, were previously under a self-insured workers comp plan, which was a group plan, along with a number of other nursing homes. Alas, someone was not paying their fair share of insurance, and being fraudulent in reporting, and now NYS is digging it all back up while the previous plans go insolvent. NYS is investing the fraud, but first it is assessing fees to all of these nursing homes that belonged in the plan. In 2011 NYS assesses every nursing home and adult care home that was in this plan - and they had to be paid. My client was afraid that his accounts would be seized if he didn't pay. The attorney said to pay. He paid. He took a management fee from his current S-corp to pay the old partnerships assessment. (His sister, who is also involved, is insolvent, and declaring personal bankruptcy. He did not want to "share" the management fee with her, since he was afriad such money would not get turned around to NYS as it was supposed to be.) So - the question is....how should we handle this so that he can at least get some sort of deduction for this. We considered opening up the partnership, and I don't want to do that, especially since it was really entangled with the estate of the father. We considered a new partnership. But without profit motive, that would be a lost cause. The management fee was the best we came up with, since at least the s-corp takes that deduction. However, he personally will pay tax on the fee, and he's the one footing the NYS bill for the old corp. Possible schedule A deduction? I would appreciate any insight on this one.

I'm not a lawyer, but I play one at least once a year in my little office off main street. I have a new client. His mother passed away recently. In 1996 paperwork was filed with the county office to convey house to my client and his sister. James is my client, Kay is his sister, Eloise is mother who died. Here's how the forms read: "Excepting and reserving to Eloise XXX a right of possession of the above described premises for and during her natural life. It being the intent of the grantor to convey to the grantees a one-half undivided interest as tenants in common with the grantor leaving the ownership in the premises as tenants in common as follows: James xxx and Kay XXX (1/2); Eloise XXX (1/2)." Okay - so now he and his sister have whole ownership. And now he wants to buy out his sister. First question is - what is the tax ramifications of all this. Now - I understand capital gains and all. - I think. But, he thinks that the house didn't become his (and sis's) until mother died. And it sounds like it was half his (and sis's) 15 years ago. No money transferred in 1996. Where do I start in calculating a cost basis? I appreciate anyone's help. Thanks!!

The $4500 is completely covered. No expense to show. Certainly not an improvement - not depreciated. No income to show. The extra $400 goes un-reported. Insurance is not taxable income.

A schedule C needs to be filed. If it is reimbursement of expense, then expense is listed to offset income. Remember - IRS says all income is subject to tax unless it is specifically excluded. Babysitting is not specifically excluded. Report it.

you're awesome

Hello everyone: I am teaching a tax class this semester as an adjunct at Alfred University. I am considering having the students do a tax case study as a homework project. Wondered if anyone had suggestions. They are mostly juniors and acctg majors. This is their first tax class. We are concentrating on individuals, and just brushing corps and partnerships late in the semester. I appreciate any input.