Gail in Virginia

I agree that 6 million is not a small number but I tend to agree with John that IN MY PRACTICE it is not going to be a huge number either. I will have a few that will have to pay the penalty. I will even have a few that will have incomes low enough that they don't have to pay the penalty even though they don't have insurance. But by and large, my clients have insurance. They have assets to protect, so they are going to do what is necessary to protect those assets by having insurance. And even though next year they will have to bring me in an extra form, whether from their employer, insurance company or the market place, they will do it because I am sure that it will come in an envelope marked "important tax information" and therefore they think they know to bring it in. Yes, it is one more thing I have to be sure is covered, but it is not going to be that big a deal. I am far more concerned with trying to figure out the repair regulations and when I need an election or have a change in accounting method (is from none to some a change in method?) But depending on the type of practice you have, your mileage may vary.

As far as tax reporting, Virginia treats LLCs the same as the federal - it ignores them. As long as you report the federal income as sole proprietor, the state takes that for LLC. They do require the registration statement once a year with the appropriate fee to the State Corporation Commission. And if it is a multi-member LLC filing either a 1065 or 1120S you have to do the Virginia Pass Through Entities return, Form 502. I hope that helps.

I feel more like the mine-sweeping unit. *sigh*

I am referring to the Health and Human Services website, healthcare.gov. https://www.healthcare.gov/fees-exemptions/hardship-exemptions/ There are quite a few exceptions, and the last one is just you experienced any other hardship. I would at least try that avenue.

Was he separated from service?

Or if one member is continuing in the same business,it is possible he or she might want to buy some of the assets, which might or might not include the receivables. But then we are back in convoluted territory.

Or they can apply for an exemption on the HHS site. As far as I can tell, they actually have a lot of leeway to grant exemptions on an individual basis. If he lived in a state that did not expand Medicaid, and his income was less than $1,000 for six months I would think this would be a slam-dunk. BUT in looking at income for the first 6 months while he was in school, was he a member of his parents' household? If they could have had him on their insurance, and chose not to for some reason, he would have a harder time claiming hardship.

I think it may be even worse next year. If they signed up in November 2014 for 2015 insurance and subsidy, they are probably basing the income numbers on 2013 figures. Now, they should be able to go in and adjust it once we get their tax return done for 2014 but will they? I hope no one is holding me responsible for reminding them - I am NOT in insurance business.

The uninsured taxpayer might be able to apply for an exemption for the first six months from the marketplace. More than likely, if her income was only a little over $2,000 per month, the lowest cost bronze plan would be more than 8% of her income. Since that is not true for the entire year, I think she would have to apply for a hardship exemption to the Secretary of HHS. Also, if you are in a state that did not expand Medicaid, and her income would have been low enough to qualify for the expanded medicaid prior to her marriage, she might qualify to apply for a hardship exemption on those grounds.

Do they own any property - common areas, club house, etc.? Or do they just provide maintenance on grounds? I would think that if they own property they should have a capitalization policy and depreciation even though they are exempt. And if they don't own any property, what would they have to capitalize? Sorry I don't have a good answer for you. I don't personally handle any condo associations.

Ms. Hawkins seems to have re-considered her statements at the Forum. It is my understanding that the most recent webinar she did about ACA she recommended that preparers keep a copy of the insurance cards for out clients to show we had done our due diligence about their insurance status. Now personally, I don't think a copy of the card proves a thing. It usually only has an effective date, and is issued early enough that the person may have never actually paid the premium and therefore may have not really had coverage at all. But at our most recent EA meeting, someone who had watched the webinar told us that Ms. Hawkins made that recommendation and that she said she had reconsidered her earlier position.

I just tried it, Judy and it seemed to work for me. I put in my zip code, a taxpayer age 55 with a spouse age 50 and got a bronze plan rate of 686.90 per month.

Couple of points: if client is accrual rather than cash, then if the money is ever coming out of the bank he should definitely go ahead and take the deduction in the year it was incurred. Assuming that he is a cash basis taxpayer, items charged to a credit card are deductible when charged, not when the payment for the credit card clears the bank. I would not see this as much different if the bank has paid the check without deducting it from his account but intends to deduct it at some point. So that leaves they have paid the check out of someone else's account and are really not interested in tracking and correcting the error, and therefore your client is never going to pay this money. In that case, it would be best to not recognize the expense since it will never really be incurred. That's just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

Is there anything else included in the bill? Often what keeps a perfectly sensible piece of legislation from passing is that something totally unrelated gets tacked onto the bill because it otherwise doesn't have a chance of slipping through and then you either pass something stupid to get something reasonable or you vote against something you might want to pass. I would say there ought to be a law, but we already have too many to keep up with.

Actually my husband's battery for his pacemaker is very close to the surface. I don't know if they have always been just barely under the skin, but his was put in last summer and I can feel it easily. So that is not so far fetched, Eric.

I love how they call these wordy, contradictory statements "guidance." I did notice this statement in the Forbes article: "The guidance makes clear that the penalty does not apply to a plan that has only one participating employee." Now I am not sure which guidance it refers to, but if the church's plan has only one participating employee (the pastor) and only one eligible employee (since everyone else works less than 30 hours per week), does that mean you are okay? I don't know.

I think the purpose was to prevent employers from having their employees buy insurance on the workplace that was subsidized by taxpayers, and then reimburse them for that cheap insurance with tax free dollars. Or maybe they intended to make my head hurt. I get paranoid this time of year.

Until we see how long this is going to take and where most of our customers fall, we are going with our hourly fee.

Rita, I am not as sure as Jack. If the pastor is the only one that qualifies as a FTE, then paying his insurance could be considered a group plan. However, if the policy he has is not MEC and/or was purchased on the exchange, I don't think it would qualify as a group plan no matter what. This article, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-employer-reimburse-employee-health-insurance-20554.html seems to say it is okay but this is not substantial authority and I just don't know. I am not nearly as worried about doing tax returns this year as I am about preparing W-2s. Fortunately, the one church that I do W-2s for does have group health through the conference. Can you even purchase a group plan if you only have one employee that qualifies? I know that you used to be required to have at least two employees that took insurance through the plan to be able to get group coverage. I would be inclined to give you at least a definite maybe.

I don't know what I can add to what everyone else has said. I cannot imagine the pain of making that decision for a spouse; but as John said, your wife actually made the decision and you are simply honoring her wishes. Sometimes all that we can do is cope the best we can one day at a time, and depend on our friends, our family and our God to get us through the process of grieving. This is not something that you will get over, but I trust that you will learn to live with the pain and to remember the good times. What an honor that you choose us to share your pain.

In Virginia, SOL can be either the steaming pile or the Standards of Learning. Wait - is that the same thing?

What a stressful time of year to be dealing with an illness in your family. I will also pray for you and your wife.

Ain't we got fun? I can't imagine why everyone doesn't want to be in this profession!

Judy, the only thing that I see on the right when I click more reply options is -Enable emoticons? -Enable signature? -Follow this topic? with the appropriate check boxes. Is this where you see the option to start a poll?

Usually check the box authority works with IRS as long as you are calling before the due date of the next return. Unfortunately, as slowly as they send out notices that rarely happens. Even with 2848's I have heard horror stories from other EA's about agents that look for any reason not to talk to us about the return. For example, the box for licensing authority should be blank for EA's, but occasionally an agent will refuse to accept the POA because it is blank. Another EA told me of having a POA rejected because they signed before the client did according to the date (you can't accept appointment before being appointed.) Anything to avoid talking to us.