JohnH

I've been looking for it as well, but it was not in the most recent update. You do have a couple of easy work-arounds if that it all that's holding you up. First of all, you can go to the NCDR web site and fill in a web-fill report, print it, and attach to the return. If all the officer info & registered agent info is the same, you only need to enter the ID numbers and company address info. A second choice is to go to the NC Sec of State web site and file the Annual Report electronically. The filing fee is a little cheaper for doing it this way, and then you don't even have to deal with it on the corp return. You omit it from the return altogether and just enter -0- on the Annual Report Line on the corp return.

We've been having a lot of discussion about the proposal on another forum, but I agree it's probably best to leave it alone until the legislation passes. In the interim, if clients call to ask, you can always tell them the best & most comprehensive information on the rebates is available right now at the IRS web site. http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=177937,00.html

There won't be any 1099-G's for the rebate.

Last year my state forms were late in being approved (North Carolina). This state offers the forms in pdf on their web site with fill-in blanks, so I'd just retype the important info on the form & print it out. Nobody knew the difference and I didn't have to wait to complete the return, give a copy to the client, and get paid. Maybe Oregon offers their forms on their web site as well...?

Don't forget, anyone who doesn't think they should receive a rebate (or thinks they don't deserve it) has the option of sending it back. It will be applied directly to the national debt AND it qualifies as a contribution deduction. Be sure to communicate this to your clients - I always explain it to anyone who complains to me about tax reductions or rebates, or in any way expresses that they think they are not paying enough in taxes. I'm going to keep some preaddressed envelopes ready for them, although in the past no one has ever asked for one after I showed them this very practical way to put their stated convictions into action. Anyhow, I think it's likely that if the next election goes they way lots of pundits are predicting, the Federal Government will take it all back, plus a hefty chunk more. And that won't be a one-time adjustment.

We had a lengthy discussion about this over on the Tax Book Forum, and opinions were all over the place. The instructions are not crystal clear on this, as they only relieve you form sending 1099-Misc to corporations. However, it is worth noting that the W-9 was revised in Oct 2007 and LLC's were given a space to enter their tax status (Disregarded Entity, Corp, or Ptr). That would seem to indicate that IRS is giving us a means of eliminating LLC's which indicate they are corporations from 1099-Misc filing even though the instructions don't specifically state that yet. I just finished a batch of over 160 of the pesky 1099-Misc, and that's the policy I followed. If they told us they are an LLC and received $600 or more, they got a 1099-Misc unless they certified for us that they are an LLC being taxed as a corp.

You can prepare an SS-4 and have the client sign it. With that in hand, you can get an EIN in about 5 minutes online. (Or you can have him come to your office and you can apply for it with him standing there)

All but a couple of my 941's & 940's were completed by mid-month. (But then, I'm still doing them the inefficient way by paper filing them - guess I need to get up with the times)

Could it be that they just have a keen sense of how to appeal to their target market?

If we start getting slack on contributing, maybe erc could send us a subtle hint, like maybe taking the site down for an hour or two. Hey, wait a minute...! Seriously, I just sent in my third payment. Want to be sure this forum stays active.

I receive this email a week or so ago: For those of you who cannot get to the TaxTalk website make sure you are going to the following web address. The old one is no longer working. http://list.kleinrock.com/read/login/?list=taxtalk

You mean they left something out of Cliff Notes? I thought it was just really small type.

Years ago I read a story and I've always wondered about whether it actually happened. A couple of deputy sherrifs in a small town in Texas were questioning a suspect and they told him they were going to hook him up to a lie detector. They put a metal collander on his head and ran some wires from it over to a copy machine. When they'd ask him a querstion they would press the button on the copy machine and it would spit out a piece of paper that said "He's lying". After a half-dozen copies he confessed.

This story reminds me of the guy in Virginia a few years ago who was representing himself in a convenience store holdup case. The investigating officer was on the stand, and whenever the officer mentioned the store clerk in his testimony, he referred to her as "the witness". Finally, in frustration, the defendant/lawyer blurted out, 'Man, why do you keep talking about a witness. There wasn't anybody there but her and me!"

I haven't been able to figure out how to get the data into an Excel spreadsheet to print labels, but one way (very inelegant) is to print an extra copy of each receipient's Uni-Form, cut out the address with scissors, and tape it to the envelope.

Most of the time when someone complains about their fees and I actually review things, I find that I'm not charging them enough.

Marilyn: If the client doesn't know the amount of their Part D premium or if it can't be dtermined, I guess they will have to wait until after Jan 25.

In the past, I've run labels with the required info on them and just stuck them on the outside of a regular envelope.

For someone who has been drawing SocSec for years, you can calulate the SocSec benefit by taking last year's figure and factoring in the percentage increase to arrive at the current year's benefit. So if the client has lost their form, absence of the SSA-1099 isn't a big issue unless they have deductible medical expenses.

Eli: Is it possible that he's trying to set you up as a scapegoat in case he gets his hand called on the 1099's? You know, the old "you should have told me if this was wrong" argument. You might want to make your recommendation to him in writing, and also furnish him a blank SS-8 to look over while you're at it. (Or better yet, tell him you don't have itme to do it.)

Mike: I don't think you gave them any new information. I also don't think they care about your opinion (or mine).

I'd assume there would need to be a phased investment schedule withat least three components - maybe more - based on certain benchmarks. Each phase would be successively less risky, with the initial phase being a big roll of the dice. But anyone putting money into it would need to understand that their commitment would need to be for the entire project, and they should be ready to step up to the plate when called upon to do so as each benchmark is reached. Mel: If you decide to pursue this, I look forward to hearing more about it and I definitely believe you need to set up a closed board - please put me on the list if you do that.

Compared to the price increases we may be facing within a year or two, investing in a startup with people who have a track record and whom we already know might be a real bargain for all of us, even if it took a couple of tax seasons to mature into a top-notch product. We certainly know there are some excellent tech support folks in Caribou Maine looking for work right now. We need to keep in mind that if ATX does try to shift us to significantly higher-priced products with less features in the future (which seems very likely), their competitors are going to notice. We might also see the other companies we've discussed in the past (Drake, Tax Slayer, ProFX, etc) suddenly decide to raise their prices in a significant way since their lower-priced full-featured competition is gone. Personally I'd be glad to invest in a startup, and I wouldn't draw the line anywhere near $250.

I saw one of these a couple of years back. An employee of a client was being audited and he asked me to look over the return. For the year in question he had been working as a taxicab driver, and the tax preparer had claimed a couple of thousand dollars for the fuel tax credit. Of course, the tax preparer was long gone by this time. I asked if he had spent his time driving the cab acrosss parks, woods, and ballfields. When he said he hadn't, I gave his return back to him & just told him he has big problems. I notice that he is still having money garnished from his paychecks each month.

OldJack: I know you have a burr under your saddle about TaxBook, and probably for good reason. But The Tax Book has changed significantly as they have grown - I guess it took them a while to get out from under all the problems associated with the buyout (an maybe some non-compete issues). They are a far cry from just offering a single book. Since the TaxBook is written by the same people who produced the original Quickfinder, I expect them to continue to improve their offerings. Their Web CD is especially nice. I'm not trying to shill for them, but your reaction has the appearance of being driven a little more by emotion than by realities. Only my opinion - others' mileage may vary.