by Leif Jensen | Jul 23, 2011 | General |
Having a large dollar volume of stock purchases does not always make you a trader in the eyes of the IRS. in this case a businessman who had 313 transactions for over $20 million in securities during a year; but he traded only on 29% of the available days and rarely...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 23, 2011 | General |
The IRS is investigating the paid preparers who continued to utilize their Social Security numbers or invalid pin last tax year instead of a valid tax preparer pin. The IRS has begun mailing letters this month to 100,000 or so of these preparers. The notices tell...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 22, 2011 | General |
According to Labor Department data; thirty percent of America’s jobless, 4.4 million people, have been out of work for more than a year (these are U3 statistics not U6, where the numbers will be higher). “It really is going to take a concentrated effort of employers...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 22, 2011 | General |
made the payroll tax payments as required. But, they had notified management that the payments were done for the 4th Qtr. With that person no longer there, I was working with the new bookkeeper and discovered the non-payment. After verifying that they were not done,...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 21, 2011 | General |
Fiscal 2011 bring with it the creation of the 1099-K. The IRS has created this form for reporting Merchant Card and Third-Party Payments made with your tax id (social security number or FEIN). Now before you say this obviously is not me, what they are referring to is...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 21, 2011 | General |
The IRS has been very busy creating new forms and altering old ones. For Tax Year 2011 the IRS has eliminated Cost of Goods Sold from the 1120S, you will not find it on page 2 under Schedule A. I am sighting this example since more of my business clients are...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 18, 2011 | General |
When we hear what the unemployment rate is we only hear about those whom have been actively looking for the last 4 weeks. This does not included those who have settled in underemployment, gave up, looking for more hours etc. This is referred to as the U3...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 18, 2011 | General |
According to the WSJ; the size of the country’s fastest-growing aspect of the population has increased 43% since 2000, and more than doubled since 1990, to 50.5 million last year, when Hispanics accounted for nearly one in six U.S. residents and for 23% of people...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 14, 2011 | General |
The Internal Revenue Service continues to fail in stopping many bogus claims for residential energy credits, according to Treasury inspectors. They found that the Service didn’t balk at credits taken on returns by people who didn’t own a residence, were under the age...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 10, 2011 | General |
A donor who didn’t meet the substantiation rules for a charitable contribution of a land easement pursuant to a settlement agreement he reached with a county to limit any future development of his property. The Tax Court denied his write-off because he did not get a...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 10, 2011 | General |
The IRS will not allow preparers take their fees from taxpayer refunds after all. This would put preparers at odds with their clients. We spend time with our clients trying to determine if they are withholding too much to begin with. If we expected to get our fees...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 10, 2011 | General |
Had you settled for a job just to have one? And have been able to finally find another job midyear? you may have overwithheld Social Security tax. If your pay from two or more different employers exceeds the Social Security withholding limit of $106,800, you can...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 10, 2011 | General |
Tax preparers with no credentials who pass IRS’ competency test will be able to prepare all types of tax returns, according to the the IRS. Even though the upcoming testing will only cover only the 1040 series of returns and their schedules, folks who pass the exam...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 10, 2011 | General |
A financial professional’s bad advice was grounds to waive the 60-day IRA rollover rule, IRS stated privately. At retirement, a couple transferred their 401(k) balances into IRAs. Their financial adviser stated that they should take the amounts in their IRAs and roll...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 10, 2011 | General |
The IRS will not consider further increases on filing extensions for partnerships, estates and trusts. The current five-month extensions will be granted, but nothing further. The rational is that individual partners, heirs and trust beneficiaries who requested filing...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 10, 2011 | General |
The Tax Court has ruled that a taxpayer’s poor investment decision doesn’t lead to a theft loss write-off. On a parishioner’s advice, a filer took funds from his IRA and bought stock in a company. The firm delayed issuing stock certificates to him, so he feared he had...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 4, 2011 | General |
I found this little article on the Chicago Bar Association website regarding how Cook County Property Taxes are calculated. Your Cook County real estate tax bill is the result of the assessed valuation of your real estate multiplied by an equalization factor and then...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 4, 2011 | General |
Cook County Illinois Having recently lost a property tax appeal, I was commiserating with a client whom had also failed in their appeal well. They had been informed that the foremost reason was that they were still paying their property tax bill and the county will...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 4, 2011 | General |
It seems it may be time to start looking like a stereotypical accountant. According to the Vision Council of America, approximately 75% of adults use some sort of vision correction. About 64% of them wear eyeglasses, and about 11% wear contact lenses, either...
by Leif Jensen | Jul 3, 2011 | General |
In government parlance, the “tax gap” is the difference between the taxes owed and what’s actually paid on time. In their most recent analysis, from 2001, the Internal Revenue Service estimated that only about 84 percent of federal taxes were voluntarily paid on time...
