jklcpa

Happy New Year to everyone, and hope you all have a healthy and prosperous 2017! I'm looking forward to it. I've learned a lot from this forum over the years and continue to do so. This year went by really fast. It's hard to believe tomorrow is the last day!

There is another way to use a portable generator to run many of the things in your home without running a bunch of long extension cords and swapping them. You can have an electrician install a cut-off device so that the generated electricity doesn't feed back out to the street, and the electrician also installs a plug that will feed the generator's electricity directly into the home's wiring. The generator may not run the entire house, but you can turn off the breaker switches so that it is running only those that you choose to have "on", and you can switch those on and off as needed.

It wouldn't have any effect on the sec 179 that Rich is attempting to claim.

No problem and thanks for the reply. I put the payment in as 2017 thinking that even though this is a short year ending in 2016, that the 2017 entry in EFTPS is what is required to get the payment posted by IRS into the proper period.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! May you all have a blessed holiday and a healthy and prosperous 2017.

Gah, I know! I called EFTPS and got through quickly but the rep decided it was better to connect me to business services. After selecting the (most) appropriate menu item I got a recorded message that said that live help in that service area is no longer available...and then it hung up on me.

Corporate client with fiscal year end of 3/31 will be filing a short year final return for the period 4/1/16 - 12/31/16. Normally when paying via EFTPS for a fiscal year, it says to enter the calendar year in which the fiscal year ends. What do I enter to make a payment for this company's short period? Do I still enter 2017 as if they would be filing for a full fiscal year even though it will end on 12/31/16, and that will put the payment into the company's proper year? I'm talking myself through this. I guess that is the proper entry since if I indicate 2016 it would incorrectly credit the payment back to the FYE 3/31/16, which we don't want.

No way. You don't really want this client, do you? I would politely state what you have said here, that he never signed engagement letter or any binding agreement and that your monthly reminders did not spur him into acting on them. That being said, even with no engagement letter, unless you specifically addressed his procrastination in those monthly reminder emails and the fact that you continued to send them may have given him the impression that this was business as usual, especially if this was typical of your relationship with this client over a number of years.

The last I read, the business MeF was scheduled to shut down on 12/26, so I think you are ok to e-file, but do be sure to check the status page as cbslee suggested.

All of the net profit will ultimately be taxed at the individual's rate whether or not the income is on a Sch C or is in an S corp. The savings would be on the payroll taxes incurred in the S corp vs the entire profit being subjected to the SE tax on the Sch C's profit. Let's say that the net profit is the high end of $50K you mentioned, and if the client did go the S corp route, let's say she pays herself wages of $40K. In this example there is the SE tax savings on the $10K difference that is roughly $1,300, and the closer the W-2 wages are to the net profit of a Sch C, the less the savings. I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn last night, but this seems like a bad idea to me. It might save that SE tax, but it also puts the client on the IRS radar for that assignment of income, and the client would incur the additional expenses of whatever corporate licensing fees OH imposes plus the additional professional fees of incorporating, accounting and preparing the S corp, W-2s and other payroll filings on top of the individual returns now being prepared. It does not seem worth it to me to save a net of a few hundred dollars, and the lower the net profit we are talking about, the less the savings. Another factor to consider is what each client's situation is for health insurance. If the person is not covered under a spouse's employer plan and is paying premiums individually, the client will lose the above-the-line deduction for self employed health insurance if shifting the income away from the Sch C. I'd have to see a comparison side by side of where there are more savings, including the effect on the state returns. What other savings am I missing in this picture?

It never ends. Today's is a phishing attempt, supposedly from Logmein. It says my user account and IP address are blocked because of too many failed attempts at logging in. Uh, I don't use logmein, never have.

Not sure how the new law may affect the answer, but under existing law found in code sec 5000A, the double dipping you asked about is not allowed. If you look at the article I linked to under the section about "what this means for HRAs" it says that if the employee is reimbursed by an employer then that represents minimum coverage, and that fact will preclude the employee from being eligible for the PTC plus the other rules that I put in bold. The actual quote from that article:

I think the problem is that it is technically considered a group health plan under the rules of the ACA when the company either pays for the premiums directly to the insurance company or when they are paid as a reimbursement like expenses used to be paid using MERPs. I think that now either of these methods make the "plan" noncompliant with the ACA requirements. Plus, if this company has employees, the company could also have descrimination issues. This is an older article that was put out by CCH that I'd saved. Link is safe: http://ftwilliam.com/articles/AcctPlans13-54.html There are references within that article that you might want to take a look at also, specifically, IRS Notice 2013-54 and the DOL regulation 29 C.F.R. section 2510.3-1(j)

About a week ago a supposed attorney sent me an email with a link to documents that he was waiting on for me to sign. I think NOT!

IL Society of CPAs has a link to "Rules for the Administration of the Illinois Public Accounting Act" where it took me to this page: http://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/068/068014200000700R.html On that page I found this: Based on the above, it appears that webinars would count as a "live" program if they are by a NASBA approved sponsor, but definitely check with the webinar vendor. As Black Bart says, they may be able to tell you more. Sorry about the lousy formatting. Once I copied/pasted, this board tried to keep that formatting for my commentary as well.

I'm not sure what IL includes in that ^ , but I was going to suggest webinars too if they are considered group live courses.

What is your reason?

Gail, are you also a reporting agent. My e-services are as ERO and access to transcript delivery services. I don't function as a reporting agent. Is that the problem? Or maybe it's because I haven't used TDS in a long time and might get one of those letters. I don't have any more time for this IRS BS today. Moving on.... Hold time for IRS help is ~ 60 mins.

When I log on to e-services, I've always been a little puzzled by why it has 3 names listed for me, and which one I should select. First is my nmae as an individual; next is my complete firm name; and last is the complete firm name followed by my address. Today I logged on using the third one with the address and tried to apply for the TIN matching service, I didn't get passed the first screen where a pop up box told me I wasn't allowed to use this service or that it didn't like my firm EIN. Now, I'm sure that I entered everything correctly and I think I should be able to apply for the TIN matching. What am I doing wrong besides trying to interact with IRS' computer on a Monday?!

Easytax, you forgot the ornament. Here's one for your new tree:

That's what I was thinking, but then I saw that our information is still all available through the FOIA. I'm still considering it.

When I renewed my PTIN today I noticed that there is a place to opt out of the PTIN directory, and I don't remember seeing that as an option in prior years. Was it there? Did any of you opt out?

Looks good, and the price is too.

Don't make me pull this car broom over.