Medlin Software, Dennis

As we have seen, the rules are complicated, and have to be read, like most, in a way to get the desired end result if possible. The rub for 1040 dependency will be any foster care payments and/or medical coverage. Residency and other items are separate issues. With adoption sounding like the goal, the parents need to do things such as preserving payments (adoption assistance), preserving medical coverage, preserving/obtaining SSI (if eligible), etc. The first two are negotiated items and not always automatic. The last is easier done as young as possible, and as close to adoption date as possible. There are many more things which could come up, benefiting the child and family, and there are few who figure out all options their first time. Most areas have foster/adoptive family support groups which are a great resource.

Could be the family is receiving monetary assistance and the child may be receiving medical benefits. Unlikely the family can show they provide enough to make the child a dependent, unless some sort of unpaid placement. On the other hand, any foster payment is likely not reportable as income. This assumes it is not a business setup, such as a group home of some sort. The letter may just be a confirmation of the time in placement, which comes in handy showing de facto parent status if the adoption is contested. Just my personal experiences…

Many processors will refuse to file, thus sign and accept at least partial liability, for anything they did not handle. I am somewhat shocked the second processor filed anything including checks they did not create. If the services handled the money, they will likely insist on filing the forms, and will usually not include anything they did not handle. Could be both are just paper processors, or even straw processors. for expediency, the employer, or their current representatives, can handle the corrections.

I get asked, really, if it is acceptable to pay in cash. I suggest it is a good idea to be prepared to pay in cash, in case they have no power or have some other issue where checks or other electronic means are not available. While rare, this does happen. Or, to be ready to cut some checks using the prior figures, or give some sort of flat amount, to get employees something for a few days.

Employers can also be at risk of they allow DD to something other than an account only their employee controls. (Not something most consider until a second person gets the wages and the employee says they were not paid.)

Yikes. Employers are ultimately liable as they cannot third party their liability away. Both the employees and employers will spend some likely uncompensated time investigating and resolving. It is one of the risks of using a third party.

I cannot speak with IRS personal knowledge, but many who I have come across over the last few decades, will share generalities on actions which are done to protect self/department/office interests versus "real world" needs. In the "old days", many thought this was because some who even made it to decision power were biding time / building resume, towards personal practice. Complication/Byzantine means profits in PP, and life time employment whether in PP or not. An example is 94x electronic filing "ease". Over complication and lack of accepting and using de facto standards is a real issue. IRS is not alone, see examples in CA such as their payroll process, EDD process, etc. Contracts for custom software which, after many years, is not completed/functional. SSA, on the other hand, has easy efiling, and their MMREF file structure has been adopted (albeit sometimes oddly altered) by many other tax agencies.

Customer asked us to print the full SSN on a pay stub for use with ID.ME. We mask the SSN on the stub, per CA regulations, per common sense, and since no state (which is where the stub regulations come from) requires the full SSN. It is normal, but still shocking, a stub, which anyone can "create" on their own, or via app, can be any sort of identification for any purpose. The one exception I could even envision is TX, where the stubs are supposed to be signed by the employer. ID is more subjected than some realize. Example, for my software downloads, we obtain and use a "code signing" certificate, to avoid the "unknown/possible dangerous" app warnings. There is a simple (cheaper) option where it is likely only automated identity verification is performed, such as looking at a business name in the DUN database, and access to the designated email. There is an "extended" verification which is supposed to be more thorough. I suspect it is still automated, as it did not require anything further from me than the regular method. The difference is for the signing process, I now have to use a secure USB stick, which contains my "key". The theory is I have to know who I am, the password, AND have the secure stick, to be able to sign my file. Granted, the stick means no one can copy my signing certificate, but it can still be lost or stolen. The whole identity "thing" is interesting to play with. When I have to give ID, sometimes I use my BIA ID or my passport card, just to see what the person looking at my ID says. Until my next BD, my state DL is still the "old" style, not a real ID, nor does it say not federally accepted. This puzzles some as they expect one or the other to be noted in the upper right. IN any case, the ID.ME process is another case proving privacy is a fallacy.

Those that properly reported all earnings were better off getting Covid relief, compared to those who are/were skimming. Same for those who want to show full income for things such as a home loan. Also, I usually mention things like not having artificially low earning years with SSA in case they or theirs need disability, survivors, or retirement payments. Written as I get ready to take our DD to her hair person this afternoon.

For other reasons (allowing auto failover or sharing between two connections) I started using a Firewalla router. Great stats, don’t panic at how many incoming hits you will get. Plenty of security options including vpn support. No fees after purchase of the router (unless you need something you cannot setup on your own such as a vendor vpn). Personally, I don’t use a vpn. I also do not use public connections. I am not worried about the isp selling the ip addresses I visit. Frankly, privacy is unobtanium, but security is still easily obtainable starting with monitoring what the grey matter tells the rest of the body to do. Software and hardware can help when the grey matter slips up.

What a message to send to their clients. Wonder how they will "spin" this one. Totally agree about having all eggs on one basket leads to cracked eggs...

As distasteful as wide net casting collection is, like many things, there are two sides. Low collection rate or not, it makes some business sense to farm out collections for whatever fee they get for assignment, rather than taking a zero. The IRS is a business too... as are all tax agencies. (such as how many are looking at forced taxes, such as retirement deductions, as a profit generator with several companies offering turn key "solutions"). If not liable, and the letter is not backed by a court order, it could be a valid action to ignore it. In some ways, no different than the number of email and mail "junk/fake/fraud invoices" most receive on a regular basis. I try to remember to fall back on not volunteering anything to anyone. I just listened to a VM stating it was a courtesy call before receiving a registered collection letter tomorrow... I bet there is no letter arriving tomorrow.

I was deposed by IRS investigators in a criminal case. The investigators found a copy of my software on a seized computer and asked what my relationship was with the (now in the care of the government via incarceration). Once I explained the connection, I was thanked and left alone. The person was convicted of fraudulent return as they were filing for their clients (recent immigrants) and capturing their refunds, which has been improperly inflated via EITC. The convicted sent me threatening messages, even though I had no information for or against their case, but which the prosecutor likely found "helpful". The OP is a good reminder to research electronic record keeping regulations, and to try to ensure your actions do not give blanket search and seizure rights to the IRS. Not only for your client's protection, but simply to protect your ability to do daily business. As I have likely posted many times, not being able to provide PRINTED records, or simply acting in a way to show your record keeping is electronic, may (definitely in the past, and possibly with current regs unless they have been revised) give the tax agencies any time warrant-less search rights, and requires proactive notification to the IRS if there is any chance required data is unavailable.

Probably just fishing with a wide net. If anything like payroll processing, anyone with the appearance of access to or control of funds will be looked at, and will likely have to defend.

"Fee waiver – If you facilitate the MarylandSaves program for your employees or offer another qualified plan, your annual report filing fee ($300 for most businesses), is waived each year you participate." MD realizes there is a cost to employers, and/or they want to encourage more employers to use the state sponsored plan... I saw a blurb that OR, being the first to implement a similar plan in 2017, has an average employee balance of $750 after 4+ years.

Looks like MD selected a different management group (which likely means a different reporting and deposit method, increasing payroll costs). Each state seems to have a “board” who manages the management firm… With the management firm taking their cut, and the state folks likely getting something, logically, there may be more fees taken, reducing income for the participant. Unless the profit for the managers comes from “volume”.

At present, there are three states using the same back end provider. It is likely the company managing the process lays out the ease of use for the politicians, and the bites to out in their campaign process. I expect more states will follow this turn key setup. If the company ever goes public, it may be a good investment as these things are likely not to go broke. As you can infer, I am not fond of forcing these things on employers. Employees can already do the same on their own if they wish so this seems like a money grab for those selling the service and managing the funds.

The cost for the employer is compliance, reporting, and the inevitable employee wanting you to explain it to them.

The flaw with paper was having to wait for the Covid based credits. The touted form 7200, for the supposed quick advance, failed in my experience. in regular use, mail is fine.

I doubt they would include a payroll form with general tax forms. Likely separate divisions within the walls of IRS. IIRC the 94x efile data structure is xml. Not the best choice unless they planned on a web based input and read, and even then, it wastes bandwidth with the trade off of having field names, start and stop included. XML is a lose for small uses as no one is going to manually create an xml file, where most can create a csv/txt file if they are inclined to.

I have no idea. Some old timers say the incentive is for complication because some of the decision makers are looking to cash in once they get to private practice. Could be no one has incentive to rewrite what surely is outdated code in a dead language. We have no idea of the actual reason, but the optics sure are bad when a simple text style file works so well for SSA and most states.

Not new. A few years back, I had a significant % (far too many to be a coincidence) of customers asking how to reprint 941 forms... most shared the same IRS 941 mailing addresses. Most were not compliant (in keeping paper copies for the required time frame), but reprinting was not an issue since they were from the prior year. Some had used a third party to efile... Abby Normal: "This is all a prelude to forced efiling of all forms. And really, it's about time. Computers have been part of everyday life since the 80s, or almost 40 years. It's long past time to modernize the entire system." Mailing with proof of mailing AND printing and retaining a paper copy, is not an unreasonable process. I don't know of any truly free efiling method for 94x at present. Vendors (such as those who offer to read payroll data from software) who offer to process such filings have a cost of about $5 per form. The IRS is or at least is not at present, setup (willing?) to adapt to an employer, or even programmer, friendly efile system. They would need, IMO, an easy online method for the very small employer, and an easy CSV, TXT, or MMREF type file structure for the rest (instead of what they offer now. The other issue is those who efile in bulk, like a software vendor, have to go through an "approval" process as the IRS wants to put the efiler, even if a software vendor, in the liability chain. There is a way out, but it still takes time. It has been a few years since I dug deep, but I have not seen any update to the electronic record retention regs. They were onerous enough that non one who read them would ever stray from paper. The flaws were essentially, by not keeping paper records, you are giving the IRS free search and seizure ability because you have to positively prove you can recall any required records, which the IRS can test at will, including access to or seizure of your hardware. Also, you have to positively report any possible data loss, so a computer change would likely have to be reported, power outage, etc (unless you re-verified all data each time). Absolutely, no one likely follows said rules, but those in the business, holding records for many clients, would not likely want to expose all client data to warrant-less search. I remain open to new regulations, as I stopped researching this issue as no one was interested in what I found!

Support wise, likely easier to maintain a web based app, once mature. Of course, data entry is slower and there are outages (both ends) to deal with. Plus, not having direct control over data (which also means the user cannot make it disappear). Many prefer desktop for control and speed reasons. Some still don’t have more than bad DSL connections (just setup Starlink here a few minutes ago). Web based does make the user hardware moot, which has advantages. I get many requests from those who do not want web based apps.

FAQ is about all anyone had/has for things like PPP and ERC.

Anything tied to dealing with government compliance can be lifetime employment. ~30 years for me with programming, 45 dealing with payroll (processed my first payroll when I was 15). I plan to work as long as I am able.