Lee B

I do live payroll processing. Never heard of them. Nice website which is short on details and examples of reports.

There was a lengthy discussion about this that started on May 24th.

I use Login.gov to access the SSA and EFTPS. I am concerned about how ID.me handles personal privacy so I haven't used it so far.

I have clients under 75 that I would never suggest that they set up their own online account.

I really have mixed feelings about whether or not I should encourage my clients to set up their own online accounts. We may end up with phone calls from clients while they are logged into their online account who do not understand what they are doing.

Copied from IR 2014 - 196 "The IRS continues to expand the functionality of its online platforms, including several new features in Individual Online Account that give taxpayers the ability to: Retrieve all their tax related information from one source, including Wage & Income, Account, Record of Account, and Return transcripts; Request an update to their Identity Protection (IP) PIN using their smartphones or tablets; View information about the status of their audit at their convenience, instead of having to call the IRS to obtain audit information; Use a Lien Payoff Calculator to access lien information, calculate their lien payoff amount and generate a letter for download/print; Complete the Pending Installment Agreement process within Online Account without having to be re-routed to a separate application and View a comprehensive overview of their account information, including the status of their tax refund as it’s being processed. " It will be great if all these features work

The IRS is really cracking down on "offshore tax schemes" and your client was caught up.

Well the Windows 95/Windows 3.1 stories are debunked: Thom Holwerda 2024-07-23 "Let’s start with the actual source of the claim that Southwest Airlines was unaffected by CrowdStrike because they’re still using Windows 3.11 for large parts of their primary systems. This claim is easily traced back to its origin – a tweet by someone called Artem Russakovskii, stating that “the reason Southwest is not affected is because they still run on Windows 3.1”. This tweet formed the basis for virtually all of the stories, but it contains no sources, no links, no background information, nothing. It was literally just this one line. It turned out be a troll tweet. A reply to the tweet by Russakovskii a day later made that very lear: “To be clear, I was trolling last night, but it turned out to be true. Some Southwest systems apparently do run Windows 3.1. lol.” However, that linked article doesn’t cite any sources either, so we’re right back where we started. Southwest uses internally built and maintained systems called SkySolver and Crew Web Access for pilots and flight attendants. They can sign on to those systems to pick flights and then make changes when flights are canceled or delayed or when there is an illness. “Southwest has generated systems internally themselves instead of using more standard programs that others have used,” Montgomery said. “Some systems even look historic like they were designed on Windows 95.” SkySolver and Crew Web Access are both available as mobile apps, but those systems often break down during even mild weather events, and employees end up making phone calls to Southwest’s crew scheduling help desk to find better routes. During periods of heavy operational trouble, the system gets bogged down with too much demand." ↫ Kyle Arnold at The Dallas Morning News "That’s it. That’s where all these stories can trace their origin to. These few paragraphs do not say that Southwest is still using ancient Windows versions; it just states that the systems they developed internally, SkySolver and Crew Web Access, look “historic like they were designed on Windows 95”. The fact that they are also available as mobile applications should further make it clear that no, these applications are not running on Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. Southwest pilots and cabin crews are definitely not carrying around pocket laptops from the ’90s." A classic example of online media repeating misinformation. It's getting really hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction

The point is that SWA has a decades long history of under investing in IT technology which has been widely know throughout the airline industry for many years.

Now here is a quote that emphasizes the "single point of failure" problems of our current world wide IT infrastructure: "The reality is despite CrowdStrike's epic failure last week, there are few alternatives to CrowdStrike and the switching costs are high," Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, which is known for its tech investments, wrote on social media."

"Delta Air Lines has canceled hundreds of flights for the third day in a row, as the airline is struggling to recover from Friday’s global software outage — even as other U.S. airlines are bouncing back and returning to normal operations." CEO Ed Bastion: "In the public letter, Bastian wrote that several Delta applications run on Microsoft Windows, resulting in many tools being impacted in the outage. More specifically, one of the airline’s crew tracking tools was deemed inoperable and “unable to effectively process the unprecedented number of changes triggered by the system shutdown,” Bastian wrote."

Our CEOs and Board of Directors are trained at the elite business schools to consider IT and IT security as a controllable expense since it doesn't produce any revenue. As a result many IT functions are subcontracted out too often to the lowest bidder.

I have read multiple articles saying that SWA has been using a mixture of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. I have read airline industry articles over the last 3 or 4 years criticizing SWA for not updating their IT infrastructure. The most amazing thing to me is reading that some IT departments are having to deal with this faulty update one computer at a time. Read a very interesting article saying that most of our IT systems have multiple "single points of failure" , explaining that similar outages will happen again in the near future.

According to local news reports, Alaska Airlines was flying in and out of Portland with no delays.

If I went to my bank and asked my bank manager, she wouldn't even know

It's kinda difficult to avoid cloud software. Your use of your browser is cloud based. You're on the cloud when you post to this website. Do you paper file all of your tax returns? E-filing is cloud based. Do you really think ATX or Drake has no exposure to the cloud?

Well my online accounting program is working again. I have had problems logging in to this program several times in past years due to problems with their use of a third party log in service Three or four years ago this program was down for 3 days due to problems with Amazon Web Services who hosted the program. We as end users have no idea how many third party services are being used.

The word wide computer outage caused by a faulty update from Crowd Strike, a third party security service used by Windows has taken down the online payroll service that my largest client uses and the online accounting program that I and my monthly write up clients use. Hope they get it fixed by Monday morning.?

Copied from IR 2024 - 190: "Specifically, Treasury and IRS reviewed comments suggesting that a beneficiary of an individual who has started required annual distributions should not be required to continue those annual distributions if the remaining account balance is fully distributed within 10 years of the individual’s death as required by the SECURE Act. However, Treasury and IRS determined that the final regulations should retain the provision in the proposed regulations requiring such a beneficiary to continue receiving annual payments." Well this issue is finally cleared up

Copied from IRS CI: "Craig Anthony Reynolds, co-founder of a supposed Christian health-sharing ministry in St. Joseph, Missouri, was sentenced to 17 years and six months in federal prison for his role in an $8 million wire fraud scheme and making false statements on his tax return. He was also ordered to pay over $8 million in restitution to his victims and the IRS. Reynolds and his co-conspirator, James McGinnis, marketed their organization as a healthcare sharing ministry but paid only 3.1% of the $8 million they collected in member contributions. From 2014 to December 2022, Reynolds and McGinnis mislead their members through false promises and fraudulent marketing and used the contributions for their personal profit. Both men pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making false tax statements. Reynold’s fraudulent activities also included filing false tax returns and improperly claiming COVID tax credits. This case was investigated by the IRS CI St. Louis Field Office." All fraud is bad, but this kind is especially disgusting!

I wonder, can you gift a portion of an installment contract?

On July 8th, FINCEN updated their 49 pages of FAQs, especially related to situations where BOI Reporting could apply to Trusts. For example, I have a client where a Trust has 50 % ownership of an LLC who files as a partnership, in which case the Trust would be a reporting entity and the individuals with a beneficial ownership in the Trust would be required to report. That's my take after skimming the revised FAQs.

Copied from Current Federal Tax Developements: https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/blog/2024/7/12/new-jersey-committee-on-unauthorized-practice-of-law-issues-guidance-applicable-to-cpas-and-eas-who-prepare-and-file-fincen-beneficial-ownership-information-reports This ruling has some similarities to the Maryland AG ruling with some differences. For example this ruling only discusses the question of whether CPAs and EAs can assist their clients with BOI reporting. It will obviously take some more time for these questions to be resolved.

Intuit announced layoffs for 1800 employees reinvesting the savings in generative AI.