jainen Posted January 3, 2009 Report Posted January 3, 2009 Whatch y'all think about California changing requirements for ES payments to 30/30/20/20? Technically that means withholding will generate a penalty since it is allocated equally to each quarter! Does everybody have to annualize now 'cause that still goes at 25%? Are other states and the IRS going to seek accelerated payments too? Quote
David1980 Posted January 3, 2009 Report Posted January 3, 2009 Whatch y'all think about California changing requirements for ES payments to 30/30/20/20? Technically that means withholding will generate a penalty since it is allocated equally to each quarter! Does everybody have to annualize now 'cause that still goes at 25%? Are other states and the IRS going to seek accelerated payments too? I'm not sure about California, but the IRS views withholding as paid on time regardless of when it was withheld. So you could have 0 withholding for the first 8 months of the year and then have an employer withhold a really high amount the final 4 months and get away without a penalty.Allows you to do things like check withholding against estimated tax in September and adjust withholding to cover it whereas if you were making estimated payments there would be a penalty. So if I were to guess, I'd guess CA's change would apply to estimated payments only and not withholding. Quote
ed_accountant Posted January 3, 2009 Report Posted January 3, 2009 I think California has budget / cashflow problems and of course is desperate for cash. California needs cash. California is also requiring high income taxpayers with Ca tax liabilities of 80K or more to pay estimates by electronic payments. Quote
jainen Posted January 3, 2009 Author Report Posted January 3, 2009 >>high income taxpayers<< High Income taxpayers have also lost the safe harbor of paying 100/110% of prior year tax. There are also some new "incentives" for withholding. Note that these rules are all about payments; none of these are tax increases which is why I expect they will be easily adopted nation-wide. Quote
joanmcq Posted January 5, 2009 Report Posted January 5, 2009 I'm going to my Spidell update tomorrow so I guess I'll find out what is up then. Went to a CPE class presented by CA's Taxpayer Advocate and he thought that for CA, withholding could be a problem if not frontloaded; one of the things our oh-so-efficient legislators didn't really think of when they passed this crap. At least I left the presentation with the guy's phone number, so if things get too bad I call call and complain. So far, CA is the only state inane enough to try to cook the books by accellerating estimates. I guess it goes along with considering loans 'revenue' & all the other patches, workarounds, etc they are doing instead of cutting programs and raising taxes. Quote
tilt Posted January 6, 2009 Report Posted January 6, 2009 Jainen, This is the first I've heard of this. Checked the FTB website instructions and sure enough, there it is. However, have you noticed that ProSeries still shows all 4 quarters equally divided? This could get nasty. Quote
jainen Posted January 6, 2009 Author Report Posted January 6, 2009 >>ProSeries still shows all 4 quarters equally << I'm so lazy, I haven't even loaded the new disk. Quickfinder arrived just yesterday, and that's where I get my organizer to send out someday. Business doesn't really pick up for me until February. As for Proseries, it's a forms-based program. CA 2008 Form 5805 still offers the short method without reflecting the requirement for accelerated estimates. And the new rule doesn't apply to the annualization method. So I don't know what it means. Quote
joanmcq Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 I haven't checked ATX's estimate calcs yet. Spidell raised the same questions as the Tax Advocate did regarding withholding. The law was written without addressing the fact that withholding is applied on the same basis as federal. What a mess. Is it time for an armed revolution yet? shall I storm the capitol with torches and pitchforks? Quote
Gail in Virginia Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 I haven't checked ATX's estimate calcs yet. Spidell raised the same questions as the Tax Advocate did regarding withholding. The law was written without addressing the fact that withholding is applied on the same basis as federal. What a mess. Is it time for an armed revolution yet? shall I storm the capitol with torches and pitchforks? How many torches and pitchforks can you carry? Maybe the state can sell them to raise enough money to issue refunds! :spaz: Quote
jainen Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Posted January 7, 2009 >>the state can sell them to raise enough money to issue refunds<< Would pitchforks be deductible as a cost of determining one's correct tax, like tax preparation fees? Quote
kcjenkins Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 "torches and pitchforks " ? You used to watch the Glen Beck show on CNN, didn't you? I wonder if they let him take the pitchforks with him when they killed his show? If so, would that be considered a taxable perk? Since they were gifts to him from viewers, seems to me they should have let him take them, and they should not be taxable to him, either. Wonder if he'll have them on his new show that starts this month on Fox News? Quote
joanmcq Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 Don't know who Glen Beck is. I'm referring to the villagers storming Frankenstein's castle in any and every movie, spoof of movie, etc. It's the least I can do. I'm just thankful I'm on medication that is allowing me to tune out a lot of politics. At least I think its the medication. It may just be my self-preservation instinct kicking in (keeping me from heart attack or stroke when looking at the latest headlines). Quote
kcjenkins Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 Glenn Beck is a radio talk show host and he started talking some months ago about the need to take pitchforks to DC and get the attention of the idots in Congress who are spending our money like drunken sailors. Viewers started sending him pitchforks, and he put them on his set. But he got so many that he had to ask that they stop sending them. Quote
JohnH Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 They probably wouldn't do anything with the pitchforks in Washington. They never did anything with the bricks we sent them to help build the wall a year ago. Quote
Gail in Virginia Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 Considering the "work" history of most politicians, they only know how to throw bricks, not lay them and probably aren't sure which end of a pitchfork to use :lol: Quote
jainen Posted January 8, 2009 Author Report Posted January 8, 2009 >>most politicians... aren't sure which end of a pitchfork to use<< Both ends are important, especially when you are talking about politicians. Quote
TAXBILLY Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 Now that's an epigrammatic comment! :~) taxbilly Quote
kcjenkins Posted January 9, 2009 Report Posted January 9, 2009 Considering the "work" history of most politicians, they only know how to throw bricks, not lay them and probably aren't sure which end of a pitchfork to use Gail, the pitchforks are not for the 'use' of the politicians, they are to be used on the politicians. Quote
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