ILLMAS

Homebuyers who purchased a home in 2008, 2009 or 2010 may be able to take advantage of the first-time homebuyer credit. The credit: Applies only to homes used as a taxpayer's principal residence. Reduces a taxpayer's tax bill or increases his or her refund, dollar for dollar. Is fully refundable, meaning the credit will be paid out to eligible taxpayers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more than the tax owed Source http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204671,00.html

Try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axwO6BkCtIo

I thought this was funny, I don't think Leno was too happy. http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=68aabfbf-00b6-46ab-b1c7-ef4201ee8b46&isShareURL=true

No, I re-enter everything for a client of mine that has two employees (no biggie), but if there is a way, I am willing to learn how to import it from QB. Please teach :-) MAS

I finally was able to do 1 W3/W2 efiling, very simple now that I know how, hopefully my final question, is there any form I need to get my client to sign to keep in my records, like when I efile a personal tax return? Thanks MAS

Thanks for the info, one question, do I have to fill the preparer info, or that is taken care once I uploaded to SSA website? Or how can I my preparer info to flow into the form for efile of the W-2/W-3.

Ah that PIN again, then it's paper returns for the 941's. "W-2/W-3 are easy -- it's all built into the ATX program. (Working from last year's memory - none from this year are ready to go yet.) ATX creates the file you need to upload to the SSA. Log in to SSA and pick the right file -- go back the next day to make sure they're accepted. Poof. Done except for the client copy and mailing individual W-2's (which I usually give to the client to mail to the employees)." Good I will at least efile the W-2//W-3 and 1099's through ATX. Thank you friends!

Can someone share the steps needed to file year-end quarterly returns and W-2's, W-3 etc.... I already register with SSA business services, so I have a user id number. I cannot figure out how to efile, sorry, its my first time efiling payroll forms. I was going to use quickbooks to efile, but I need to register every single client of mine to get a PIN and I cannot wait to get the PIN letter from the IRS. Thanks

I don't doubt your client as a new accountant, like every accountant here on the forum "we don't like duplicating work" when we can get it from the prior accountant. Send this client to the crapper, tell him the BS is on last year tax return (if it's a corporation), have his new accountant work for his money.

Nevermind, I called the SSA and they were able to add my business info.

I want to efile my clients W-2 either through QB or ATX, it seem both require to register under SSA. I am in the processing of registering, but it seems that I have to put myself as a employee for all my clients that I want to efile, plus I want to register under my business not me. What did I do wrong? Can someone help me. Thanks, MAS

Just a question, what do you use (system or manual ledger) to handle their bookkeeping?

If there were zero wages for the year and they checked off exempt, I don't see it as a problem, the IRS would know they are not exempt unless they meet any of following: Like other employers, exempt organizations that compensate workers are generally subject to employment taxes when the compensate workers. The following exceptions may apply, however: Exemption from FUTA (unemployment) tax for section 501©(3) organizations An elective exemption from FICA (Social Security and Medicare) for churches and certain church-controlled organizations Exemption of payments for certain services performed by ministers or members of religious orders from FICA and FUTA taxes Exclusion from FICA of compensation paid to students

I cannot get the preparer info to transfer over from last year, do I have re-enter manualy every year, also how do I test the efile connection? Thanks

Thanks, I will look into QB then. Another question, would there a problem (efile rejection) if some of my client employees don't have a valid SS# or use a ITIN for work? Or is it better to just to send them by mail?

First of all, Happy Year to all!!! I know many accountants/tax preparers are efiling their clients 941's, W-3, W-2, 1096 and 1099 etc.... I haven't efiled any of these types of return before, I usually prepare paper returns, this year I would like to start doing so. What are the pros and cons of efiling payroll forms and do I need start efiling. I have have a EFIN already, since I efile tax return using ATX, but I also use quickbooks and just recently Medillin, I really don't mind using ATX if it can do it all. Thanks

Talk to me about running ATX on a MAC, that is how I roll.... I have a 20" iMac and a Macbook Pro running XP Prof on boot camp. I tried VM Parallel at first, but it was crashing constantly so I went with Bootcamp plus its free with any Mac. I am retiring my 20" iMac in a few days, I bought a 27" iMac with 1TB hard drive last week, and I am going to transfer my complete XP installation + all my installed application to the new Mac (no need to reinstall any software, now this is a plus). How much HD space do you have on your MBP? I can help you or advice you if would you like. MAS

He did in our case, both for the 3 shareholders and the corporation, client only paid for the additional tax + interest. So it wouldn't hurt to ask to abate the penalty, saving your client 6K would be nice.

I read this in another forum I participate in, very interesting reading. Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers - most of whom are unemployed alcoholics - to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans). Word gets around about Heidi’s drink now pay later marketing strategy and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar and soon she has the largest sale volume for any bar in Detroit. By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively. A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral. At the banks corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS, and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on securities markets worldwide. Naive investors don’t really understand the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, their prices continuously climb, and the securities become the top-selling items for some of the nations leading brokerage houses. One day, although the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the bank (subsequently fired due his negativity), decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar. Heidi demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Therefore, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy. DRINKBOND and ALKIBOND drop in price by 90 %. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80 %. The decreased bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans. The suppliers of Heidi’s bar, having granted her generous payment extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds.. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers. The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by leaders from both political parties. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by a tax levied on employed middle-class non-drinkers.

I do work for a CPA, and over the summer one of his client was being audited, the auditor disallowed about 25% (expenses, auto loan, depreciation) for personal use for each shareholder, the 25% became a constructive dividend, shareholders were happy because the CPA has told them to repay part of personal use of the auto or to report it on their W-2 as additonal compensation. Business owners never followed through until they were audited, the auditor made the changes on both the corporate return the the shareholders tax returns, so I would ask him to make the changes himself, saves you time if you and your client agree to change. The constructive dividend on the shareholder return was tax at 15% vs 35% if they would added as additional compensation. There was some interest, he gave them a break on the penalty.

An attorney refered me a client, so that I can review his tax return and to see if one of the dependents really qualified as a dependent because of his situtation. Well I interviewed the client over the phone and right away he asked me how much I'm going to charge him, because he is not working and does not have any money. So I told him it would be half of what I regulary charge, but I needed to see his return first before I notified the attorney regarding the 1 dependent in question. What a mistake, I have spent so much time on this case, calling him, calling the attorney and the IRS to verify some things. What has my blood boiling is when it was time to pay for my services, he had more the $300 in his pocket + plus another $200,000 in his bank account (I calculated based on his interest he is receiving using a 1%), I am going to stick to him now, because I need to amend 3 years to remove that one dependent, sorry for the rant, but I just dislike people like, no wonder he has all that money in the bank.

What is the proper way of taking a distribution from a S-corp with no payroll? The S-corp had two shareholder at one point, one sold his interest to the other, back in 2003, there after, the only shareholder left gets a k-1 and he pays the tax on his personal return. Payroll stopped when he bought out the other shareholder, he is getting paid from another business he owns, Let's say company A (1120) is a auto repair shop and his company B (1120S) owns the building and rents to company A. Company A pays rent to company B, company B pays the mortgage, insurance, r/e taxes and any major improvement, company A pays the payroll. So far company A has only paid about 4 months of rent for 2009, company B has had enough in its account to cover expenses, as of the end of October 2009, company has a profit (approx. 100K) which is the rent not paid to company B. If company A pays another 4 months of rent (approx. 40K) and the owner gives himself a bonus of about 20K, this will reduce his profit to about 40K, which is an average for this particular company. Here is my delimena, if he pays the rent to company B, there will be enough money for him to take a distribution, there is about 80K in retained earnings, so if he takes about 40K as a distribution/dividends then he will pay 15% of tax and not pay the 25 or 28% rate. Would taking a reasonable amount fly, company A pays him a salary of about 73K, so taking about 40K from company B as a distribution sound reasonable? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TP has not filed his 2007 return, first year of activity, it turns out that we wants a to file as a 1120S and not 1120, we are in 2009, do you know if one can can still file an 1120S and make the election or should the 2007 be filed as 1120 and make the election in 2008 or 2009?

I have a question for any Medlin payroll users, how does the direct deposit feature work? I setup a client a while ago to do payroll using Medlin (check printing), but now they want to set up direct deposit for their employees. Can one print out direct deposit enrollment forms from the program or they have to created? Do all employees have to have the same bank? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks MAS

Jainen, thank you so much, this is great info that I will probably use for the letter. MAS