by Leif Jensen | Apr 13, 2020 | Taxes |
Pass-through entities can expect to see more IRS audits in 2020 and more over the next few years. That’s in part because audit rates for pass-throughs have been dismally low in the recent past. The 2017 overall exam rates for partnerships and S corporations were 0.4%...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 8, 2020 | Tax Court, Taxes |
A retired Mary Kay consultant owes self-employment tax on deferred pay that she got after she retired. During her tenure with the company, she was treated as an independent contractor and was compensated with commissions. The payments that she received under the...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 7, 2020 | Tax Court, Taxes |
S corporations that file late returns face a stiff fine $205 for each month late, up to a maximum of 12 months, multiplied by the number of shareholders in the firm. Prior to 2014, the penalty was a mere $195. In this case, in which a nine-owner S corporation lacked...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 6, 2020 | Money Management, Rant, Running a Business, Taxes |
The IRS’s private tax-debt-collection program is raking in the dollars. From its April 2017 start through Sept. 30, 2019, four private firms have collected about $300 million in revenue from seriously delinquent taxpayers. Compare this with the program’s $132 million...
by Leif Jensen | Apr 1, 2020 | Tax Court, Taxes |
The IRS remains committed to combatting payroll tax fraud and has it as a high priority The Justice Department is pursuing an increasing number of civil injunctions against businesses, and their officers whom have repeatedly failed to deposit taxes withheld from...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 31, 2020 | Running a Business, Taxes |
Remember, if you are an employer that outsources payroll you retain all tax roll tax liability responsibilities and remain liable for unpaid taxes. So, take these steps to protect yourself if your business uses a payroll agent, enroll in the Electronic Federal Tax...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 30, 2020 | Employees |
An employer tax break has been extended. The work opportunity tax credit or hiring economically challenged employees will be available throughout 2020. This credit is for employers who hire qualified veterans, ex-felons, certain youth, the long-term unemployed and...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 25, 2020 | Corporate Entities |
Want your calendar-year firm taxed as an S corporation for all of 2020? Then you need to file to elect S status by filing Form 2553 with IRS by March 16. The IRS has a simplified method for businesses to handle late S elections. Generally, firms have three years and...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 24, 2020 | Employees |
This election season, many people will get part-time jobs working at the polls. This compensation is taxable, as is all earned income. But income tax withholding is not required unless the worker requests it by giving a completed W-4 to the state or municipality. FICA...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 23, 2020 | Taxes |
Now that the deduction for private mortgage insurance premiums has officially been revived. You can go back and claim it on my 2018 return? You will need to file an amended return on Form 1040-X and attach a 2018 updated Schedule A, which IRS is revising. The new...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 18, 2020 | Running a Business |
New research proves that conducting a meeting while walking has clear health benefits for the participants, but it turns out it benefits the meeting, too. The research from the University of Hong Kong shows that walking side by side helps people connect to each other....
by Leif Jensen | Mar 17, 2020 | Uncategorized |
I was curious of the historic tax rates for the wealthy, or at least the highest levels of taxation. Some of the rate jumps seems arbitrary, others are simply explained by WWI and WWII. But the jumps before our entry seem to be harbingers of our path. 1913...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 16, 2020 | Investing, Money Management |
Surprise, the IRS is intensely interested in filers who transact in virtual currencies. They are requiring more disclosure. Starting with returns filed this year, people must answer on Schedule 1 of the 1040 whether they’ve received, disposed of, sold, exchanged or...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 11, 2020 | Tax Court, Taxes |
Distributing bequests to beneficiaries before paying IRS costs an executor, according to a court ruling. The executor of a big estate knew additional estate taxes would be due after IRS audited the Form 706. He signed an agreement with IRS consenting to have the...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 10, 2020 | Tax Court, Taxes |
Ownership by tenancies by the entirety cannot be used as a defense to defeat IRS tax liens, an appeals court confirms, even when only one spouse owes the taxes. This precedent was set by the Supreme Court in a 2002 ruling. In the current case, only the husband owed...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 9, 2020 | Banking |
Banks always had an unusual way of doing things. Especially growth under the control of Glass-Stegall. The Glass–Steagall Act was a 1933 law that separated investment banking from retail banking. Investment banks organized the initial sales of stocks, called...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 4, 2020 | Banking |
A venture capitalist (VC) is a private equity investor that provides capital to companies exhibiting high growth potential in exchange for an equity stake. This could be funding startup ventures or supporting small companies that wish to expand but do not have access...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 3, 2020 | General, Rant |
First Industrial Revolution, was a time of transition for new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States, in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. The First Industrial Revolution, which ended in the middle of 19th century, was...
by Leif Jensen | Mar 2, 2020 | General |
The current state of unemployment is not quite the rosy picture that everyone wants us to believe. I like looking at the U-6 rate and not the U-3 or official rate, because U6 is the whole picture. Not a fractional picture. U-6 is the total unemployed, plus all...
by Leif Jensen | Feb 26, 2020 | Rant |
As you can probably tell by my writings that I fall on the conservative side of the world. Like most CPA’s I know. But I have had many a lively conversation with clients who fall into the liberal camp. But now I have proof or what I suspected all along. Being a...
