JohnH

Gregorian, but I see your point. It isn't 2 pi days - it's 1 Pi day every year and 1 Pi month every 100 years.

This was interesting. Whether or not it is illegal depends upon which state you live in. According to a source I checked, this is the list of states which make it illegal (I don't know how current this is): California Colorado Connecticut Florida Kansas Maine Massachusetts New York Oklahoma Texas Otherwise, it's just a violation of the agreement with the credit card company. Not illegal but possibly making one subject to cancellation of the agreement. This probably would never be an issue with low-volume transactions.

So how often do we have two Pi days in the same year? I say every 100 years - anyone have another suggestion?

I don't think it is illegal to charge more - it's just a violation of part of the credit card agreement with most issuers.

Speaking of tax prep ads, how about this sign I saw stuck all around a local shopping center today?

that's correct

I'll bet if you talk with the W/C Auditor you'll get a different story. They may need prior year gross receipts because the policy also covers General Liability. In most cases, they can accept a statement of the amount which will appear on the return. Or they may need a copy of a prior-year return to verify that it's an S-Corp, or to verify that the owner-officers who are claiming exclusion are really who they say they are. In these cases, they will usually accept a return from a couple of years back. Clients don't usually know or care about those distinctions, so they make requests that are unreasonable. This is one reason I always insist on speaking with the auditor myself.

Most of my macros are specific to my states and other things unique to my practice, but here are a couple of them, just to provide an idea of how they work: Alt-C: 8888>Y>>>>>>x>~ (Fills in blanks on the Fed Refund Deposit field, so the client can enter their info by hand, if they wish) Alt-W: SC>1>>>>>>x>~4>>>>>>>>>>>x~~ (Goes to the South Carolina return to check a box to request a paper check rather than a debit card for the refund, then checks a box that says they have no sales tax to report for internet sales) Alt-Z: 99G>>>>56-1611838>State of North Carolina>Department of Revenue>PO Box 25000>Raleigh> NC>27640-0001>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>2012< (Goes to the State Tax Refund screen, fills in all relevant data, then backs up to the "Amount" field to wait for input for state tax refund) Alt-X: 8948>>>x>20130nnnn>02202013>~ (Fills in the 8948 for me - I redacted my actual e-flinging exemption number with the "nnnn) All my Alt-(?) macros launch from the "General" screen. They usually return there as well, except for the ones which pause to wait for input, such as the Alt-Z. Incidentally, a nice variation of the Alt-Z can be done for reporting unemployment compensation.

Yes, if the vendor is not a corporation. Get a W-9 from the vendor.

Just keeping you on your toes. We need to stay alert this time of year...

Mike: Maybe not so unwieldy at an attendance figure of around 100 or so. In some churches, that would still only work out to around 20-30 giving records they would have to keep. :(

Quickbooks does a terrible job of tracking contributions. It's cumbersome and sloppy. This is true even for the Non-Profit version. Here are three possible choices - each has its strengths and weaknesses. 1) Elexio - my church uses this one 2) Fellowship One - my church is considering changing to this one 3) Power Church - I have limited experience with this one, but it seems to have lots of features.

Good students are the product of good teachers.

I can sense we're going off on a tangent.

Rita: You're off just a tiny bit, but I'm betting you got that percentage from a Pi Chart.

Most of them will balk if you tell them you would need to file an extension and may not be able to get to it until Aug or Sep. And you'd still need to invoice them for your work & in turn pay them for whatever they want to sell you (if you happen to need it).

I'm not familar with all the details, but here's a link to a very thorough discussion of the credit and how the qualifying process works. This source seems to say there are no exceptions to the "initial qualifying" process. You may have a situation in which the NCDOR contact gave out incorrect info (not unheard of at all). http://www.autismsociety-nc.org/index.php/presets/public-policy/north-carolina-education-tax-credit-questions-and-answers the part that caught my attention was this: Q: Can I claim this credit on my taxes if my child is already in a private school or being home schooled? A: Currently, to initially qualify for the credit, the child must have been in a public school for the two semesters prior to the passage of the law in July of 2011, or simply the previous two semesters for those seeking to qualify for the tax credit after July of 2011. Those who were in public school in the spring of 2011 for less than 70 days would not qualify for the credit. The law does not have any provisions for exceptions to this qualification.

I have AVG, but it didn't stop them. I installed and ran Malwarebytes (freee version) and it looks like it solved the problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

Well, technically you won't be making a profit until you get past "Tax Freedom Day", but that's another subject entirely.

I started getting them yesterday as well.

"We don’t mean to be driving preparers out of the preparation of EITC refunds. And there’s been a trend in that direction. There’s a somewhat smaller percentage of those returns that are now coming in through preparers as opposed to people doing them themselves, and we certainly didn’t intend to have preparers decide that it’s not worth the effort. " That horse is already out of the barn.

The interesting thing about the "Free Spousal Benefit" is that it truly is free. Everything else about delayed benefits is actuarily sound right down to the month. But the Free Spousal Benefit violates all those rules. I really don't understand the logic behind it, but it's there for the taking.

I don't need to know WHEN I'm going to die. I'd like to know WHERE I'm going to die. Then I'd just make sure I never go there...

I never paid much attention to Social Security strategies until the past 4-5 years, as I began to approach time to make decisions. Any time a client would ask for advice, I'd tell them they need to speak with a financial advisor or do their own research. I've slowly come to the realization that most people don't bother - they just listen to whomever happens to cross their path. And I've come to realize that MANY people make major mistakes when it comes time to begin receiving benefits. It's good you and your husband are investigating it yourselves.

I think it has to be done by calling Social Security Admin. My situation is somewhat similar to yours. But if your husband begins drawing Free Spousal Benefit before he reaches age 66, there is a partially ofsetting reduction of some sort in the long run. You will definitely want to check out the financial implications of that. As I understand it, the strategy is age-neutral and the FSB is truly free only if the spouse applying for the Free Spousal Benefit has also reached full retirement age. In my case, my wife is already receiving benefits at full retirement age. So I will receive my Age-66 Full-Retirement benefit for the next 5 months. Then (assuming I don't develop any life-shortening health issues during this time), I will suspend my own filing and apply for the spousal benefit. A little quirk here is that I have to repay all that I have received in benefits during the 5 months and then wait for them to send me a make-up check for the lower benefit, but that's basically just a timing issue. That puts me back in the pool for the increasing benefit between age 66 and 70 (about an 8% return on invested funds, by most estimates). My monthly benefit decreases by $400 during this time, but for each year I wait, the ultimate monthly benefit increase by over $100/month. So as I see it, this distills down to the equivalent of paying $4,800 for an annuity which will pay me $100/month for as long as I live. (It's actually better than that, because I'd have to earn over $7,000 to have enough after-tax money to fund the $4,800 annuity) If I die within 4 years, Social Security Admin wins because I left money on the table. If I live beyond 4 yrs, I win. I'm planning to win. If you and your husband do this, I think the most important thing is to be sure the person you speak with at SSA fully understands the strategy. Keep in mind that the Free Spousal Benefit can only be claimed for a maximum of 6 months back - two people I spoke with at SSA didn't know that. Here's a link to a sort discussion on this, but it isn't comprehensive. http://www.socialsecuritychoices.com/info/freespousal.php