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For any of you that have recently taken the CPA exam (it's been almost 20 years for me), what's a good study course? Have an employee who's trying to study up. Thanks
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Nov 4, 2015 23:47
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I just passed the CPA exam using Gleim. It's a lot cheaper than Becker, and I found the videos and online practice exams very helpful. EDIT: The "Tell me about an accounting career" thread may also have some useful opinions.
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Nov 5, 2015 04:14
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When I took the exam a number of years ago, I used Bisk books (and a copy of the video lectures disks from my former boss for FAR).
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Nov 5, 2015 13:07
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JohnnyPalace posted:I just passed the CPA exam using Gleim. It's a lot cheaper than Becker, and I found the videos and online practice exams very helpful. I glanced for it but couldn't find it. Guess I was looking for something with CPA in it. Edit: Thanks for the info guys. AbbiTheDog fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Nov 5, 2015 |
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Nov 5, 2015 17:49
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A probably simple question about health insurance and taxable income. I'm going to go off my insurance plan at the end of the year and go on my girlfriend's (her health plan allows for "co-habitats" to go on her plan even if not married or family.) The actual premiums are almost the same, except that now I am paying for it post-tax. So on paper, I will make an extra ~$2500/year, even though like 90% of that will just go to paying her back for health insurance. I assume this is tax deductible, right? And probably only if I itemize?
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Nov 5, 2015 22:03
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I'm pre-doing my taxes for 2015 and wanted to get a sanity check on what my plan is. I think I have things right, I just want to make sure. The plan is: I will have an AIG of $25000 after all adjustments/deductions. So I'm in the 15% bracket, with $12450 space left in it. I sell stock so that I have $12450 of gains realized. I pay no long term capital gains since it all falls in the 15% bracket. If I go a little over it doesn't mess everything up though right? I only get taxed the normal 15% LTCG for being in the 25% income tax bracket on the amount over $37450 AGI? I know regular income tax is progressive like this, but want to make sure its the same for capital gains. fake edit: I'm just rebuying the same stock the next day by the way. This is just to re basis it and save ~$1800 in the process.
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Nov 5, 2015 22:07
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Xenoborg posted:I'm pre-doing my taxes for 2015 and wanted to get a sanity check on what my plan is. I think I have things right, I just want to make sure. A) Watch for state taxes B) If you're getting insurance through the exchange it might mess up your ACA credit.
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Nov 5, 2015 23:19
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DrBouvenstein posted:A probably simple question about health insurance and taxable income.
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Nov 6, 2015 01:09
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AbbiTheDog posted:A) Watch for state taxes State taxes should be fine as I have a 5k credit that I wont be able to use up anyway. Insurance is from work so no issues there either. Thanks.
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Nov 6, 2015 01:47
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SiGmA_X posted:Question, why would you do this? What's the benefit? Because her insurance is a LOT better than mine. I have a high deductible plan, so in an average year, I don't even make use of it. Her plan is no deductible and small co-pays.
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Nov 6, 2015 16:24
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DrBouvenstein posted:Because her insurance is a LOT better than mine. I have a high deductible plan, so in an average year, I don't even make use of it. Her plan is no deductible and small co-pays. So what's the qualifying life event that allows you to change coverage? One of you moves out?
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Nov 6, 2015 17:07
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DrBouvenstein posted:I assume this is tax deductible, right? And probably only if I itemize? Post-tax insurance premiums count as medical expenses. However, you can only deduct the cost of medical expenses that exceed 10% of your AGI for the year, and only that if you are itemizing. So if you are paying $2500 in health premiums a year, you would only be able to deduct a fraction of that (if at all) and it will only benefit you if your itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction. This is why pre-tax premiums are a thing and considerable benefit.
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Nov 6, 2015 18:05
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NancyPants posted:So what's the qualifying life event that allows you to change coverage? One of you moves out? He's just switching over during the annual re-election period, no qualifying event needed.
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Nov 6, 2015 20:51
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At my work a domestic partner can be covered but the employee pays tax on the portion that the employer pays. At least that was how it worked for the guy that is on the cube next to me.
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Nov 6, 2015 21:13
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baquerd posted:He's just switching over during the annual re-election period, no qualifying event needed. I understand that. I mean when they break up and someone has to change their insurance.
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Nov 7, 2015 00:22
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NancyPants posted:I understand that. I mean when they break up and someone has to change their insurance. Getting dropped from an employer plan is a qualifying event
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Nov 7, 2015 02:24
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I'm trying to set up a tentative budget for when I start my new job and I'm not sure if I'm calculating taxes correctly. I'm using the IRS calculator here and the tax calculator here to determine the state taxes for Illinois. Is about $9,000 a reasonable amount of taxes for someone to be paying who makes $45,057 in Illinois? For an income of $45,057, I got an income tax of $4,005, Illinois state tax of $1,560 and social security / FERS withholding of $3,514.45. Total taxes + SS and FERS comes to $9079.45. I'm single, using the standard deduction, and putting $10,000 into a TSP retirement plan. Job location and residence will be in Rock Island IL. Job is a GS 7 position with the army if that matters. I've never made enough money to pay taxes before, but these numbers seem a bit high.
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Nov 9, 2015 00:00
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-Zydeco- posted:I'm trying to set up a tentative budget for when I start my new job and I'm not sure if I'm calculating taxes correctly. I'm using the IRS calculator here and the tax calculator here to determine the state taxes for Illinois. Is about $9,000 a reasonable amount of taxes for someone to be paying who makes $45,057 in Illinois? For an income of $45,057, I got an income tax of $4,005, Illinois state tax of $1,560 and social security / FERS withholding of $3,514.45. Total taxes + SS and FERS comes to $9079.45. I think your federal tax will be more like $3250 instead of $4000, and your Illinois tax should be more like $1165 instead of $1500. FICA tax is correct at about $3500. Edit to add: Taxable income will be $45057 - $10000 TSP - $10300 standard+personal deduction = $24,757. I believe Illinois uses the same number not including your Standard deduction, so $31,057. Droo fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Nov 9, 2015 |
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Nov 9, 2015 01:03
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Droo posted:I think your federal tax will be more like $3250 instead of $4000, and your Illinois tax should be more like $1165 instead of $1500. Thanks.
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Nov 9, 2015 01:08
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I just switched from being an employee to an independent contractor about a month ago and moved around a bit as well (now in bay area). I'm thinking it might make sense to at least consult a tax professional to understand what I should be deducting, what I should be doing for January payment and so on. I was wondering if anyone had tips/advice for finding a tax professional?
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Nov 9, 2015 16:40
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When the IRS asks if you are "covered by a retirement plan at work", what date or time period is this referring to? On December 31, 2015 and for all of 2015 I will have been covered by a retirement plan at work. However, at the time of filing in 2016 I will not be covered by a (US) retirement plan at work. After this year, I will be working for a foreign employer that only participates that country's work plan - a payout at separation from employment based on duration of service. My understanding is that this then means I will be eligible for deductible contributions to an IRA no matter my income. Do I have this right?
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Nov 10, 2015 09:45
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Got a question - how bad is it if you receive a W2 that has the wrong address? (IE: it has the address where you work, not where you live) I hope everything's OK with furushotakeru. 
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Nov 12, 2015 02:10
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If the SSN is correct the IRS doesn't care in the least.
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Nov 12, 2015 07:52
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Three-Phase posted:Got a question - how bad is it if you receive a W2 that has the wrong address? (IE: it has the address where you work, not where you live) Could cause problems in terms of a possible residency audit (i.e., if the office address is in NYC and you residence in Westchester, you might have a NYC residency exam and have to prove that you aren't a NYC resident, which is 'fun').
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Nov 12, 2015 12:39
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Yup, super 'fun'. I moved to DC at the end of the year in 2012 so I filed my taxes there but didn't do my VA state taxes since I only would have gotten a refund of like  ; earlier this year I got a letter from DC government saying I owed them a few thousand in back taxes since the IRS reported me as having lived in DC for the tax year of 2012. I had to file my state taxes for 2012, send them a copy of my newly filed state taxes, and copies of my W2s since I had made all my money working in MD while living in VA... I thankfully haven't heard back from them so I imagine I'm in the clear now.
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Nov 16, 2015 23:15
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Animale posted:Yup, super 'fun'. I moved to DC at the end of the year in 2012 so I filed my taxes there but didn't do my VA state taxes since I only would have gotten a refund of like I'm in the middle of a similar but far worse situation because I may have well and proper hosed myself. I lived in VA part of the year. While there, I collected VA Unemployment at my VA address. I payed no state income tax on this as VA doesn't tax Unemployment benefits. Then I got a new job and moved to MD. I stopped collecting Unemployment and received income and paid state taxes in MD. Now, what do? Do I file a partial year return for MD and leave out my Unemployment? Because MD would bend me over in taxes for that, since none were paid.
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Nov 17, 2015 05:47
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Toshimo posted:I'm in the middle of a similar but far worse situation because I may have well and proper hosed myself. http://www.tax.virginia.gov/forms/search/individual/income-tax
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Nov 17, 2015 07:06
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Have asked a few questions in thread for friends, time to ask one for me. I hired a CPA to do my taxes last year to avoid some issues I wasn't sure how to handle between states. The CPA filed an inaccurate tax return and ended me in pretty much the exact situation I was trying to avoid but worse. I have been trying to get the issues resolved for months, often taking up to 2 weeks before hearing back from the CPA. At this point I feel like I am going to get my 2015 return before my 2014 - what can I do to fix this? Can I walk into an H&R Block with copies of everything? Do I hire another CPA? Do I take a day off from work and go to the IRS? Are there any repercussions for the accountant who filed the inaccurate return or am I just screwed for having signed off on it after not understanding an explanation of why things were filed the way they were filed? Am I stuck hashing this out slowly?
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Nov 18, 2015 00:00
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Toshimo posted:I'm in the middle of a similar but far worse situation because I may have well and proper hosed myself. Part year return, yeah, you'll mark it on a resident return in the corner and then there's an "income received during period of non-residence" on line 12 of the MD form where you'll subtract out the unemployment income and anything else you earned while in VA. So you include it on line 1 as part of your federal AGI then subtract it out on line 12 and that will report it to MD correctly.
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Nov 18, 2015 21:10
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Nephzinho posted:Have asked a few questions in thread for friends, time to ask one for me. Without really knowing more, it is hard to say how to proceed. Was the 2014 return filed, or has the CPA just been sitting on it? Have you received a letter from the IRS?
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Nov 18, 2015 21:15
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sullat posted:Without really knowing more, it is hard to say how to proceed. Was the 2014 return filed, or has the CPA just been sitting on it? Have you received a letter from the IRS? The return was filed. I paid a return to one state and was awaiting a return from another state. They needed more information concerning the error, a letter was provided to them, and it is unclear what I can do to get things sorted. I have not been contacted directly by the IRS, I found the issue through checking out the return status on the pending return, after which the CPA called in and found out they needed a letter from my employer which was provided ~2 months ago. The CPA has checked in with the IRS since then and they won't even confirm they got the letter, letalone if it is being worked out. I am concerned that they are waiting for a second letter from my previous employer that is never coming, which they may be expecting based on the error in the filing.
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Nov 18, 2015 21:25
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Nephzinho posted:Have asked a few questions in thread for friends, time to ask one for me. You certainly aren't locked to going through that CPA, you can take your materials elsewhere without causing any issue with the IRS. You'll have to pay for any amendment from H&R Block/another CPA of course, and you might need to get them up to speed on the situation, but if you think the delay is due to the CPA being slow/incompetent I'd obviously recommend finding somebody different. You can also contact the IRS (or more probably the state divisions of revenue involved, you said it was a state issue?) yourself if you think it's a problem you understand/can explain, just make sure you update the CPA if you do that so you don't get a right hand vs. left hand situation going where you both say different things. As for the accountant, sorry there's not really any penalties for him unless it was a malicious misrepresentation of the facts or he made very certain screw ups like EIC or failing to sign the return themselves. Your signature does basically mean you signed off on what he said; you would almost certainly be able to argue no malicious intent to defraud if such an accusation is made, but I imagine the tax agency involved isn't assuming fraud, just a mistake. So anything with the accountant boils down to either civil (i.e. you could TRY to sue, not sure how that would go) or anything the accountant offers as part of the service. At a minimum I assume he's not charging you for fixing his error (if he is charging to fix it, run don't walk away), I know H&R Block where I work has a guarantee we'd reimburse any penalties/interest you got charged due to a preparer error (and a certain amount of tax with one option you can pay for), whether a CPA has a similar guarantee is up to them. Apart from that, not much I can say except any preparer can screw up thanks to software error or misunderstanding or just a bad brain fart, unfortunately. Hell, my work right now boils down to helping people with amendment/audit issues, and even when they went to a brilliant guy with 20 years experience they can have something go wrong (or the IRS/state makes a boo-boo, which might even be more common; yeesh some of the odd letters folks can get sometimes...). EDIT: OK, saw your reply while typing this; it could very well be an issue on the IRS end not the CPA, they hacked customer service WAY down so response time can be a cruel joke. Sitting in front of a human being at the local office of the IRS might help if you can arrange it. Failing that, you can try contacting the tax advocate office to see if it's something they can get through for you.
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Nov 18, 2015 23:05
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MadDogMike posted:EDIT: OK, saw your reply while typing this; it could very well be an issue on the IRS end not the CPA, they hacked customer service WAY down so response time can be a cruel joke. Sitting in front of a human being at the local office of the IRS might help if you can arrange it. Failing that, you can try contacting the tax advocate office to see if it's something they can get through for you. Could be both. Basically I had 2 employers in 2014, both of which had me as a resident of state 1. In February I changed employers and shortly after moved to state 2. All of the income from employer 2 was taxed as state 1 while i resided in state 2 and we needed to amend the income as such. The return was filed with the amendment as ALL earnings in state 2 despite employer 1 having been legitimate in state 1. So I filed and paid taxes on all of my income in state 2, and then never got a return from state 1, and have functionally paid state tax on my entire income in two different states. In sorting this out, employer 2 sent a letter to state 1 confirming that I resided in and worked in state 2 for the duration of the year. I'm worried that the IRS is waiting on a letter from employer 1 that is never going to come. Seeing as state 2 has higher taxes by about $6k, I'm kind of kicking myself for not just filing TurboTax with everything registered in state 1 (where I maintained a billing address) and risking the audit. At this point I just want to get everything set straight and am glad that it will not be an issue for 2015 numbers.
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Nov 18, 2015 23:26
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Nephzinho posted:The return was filed. I paid a return to one state and was awaiting a return from another state. They needed more information concerning the error, a letter was provided to them, and it is unclear what I can do to get things sorted. I have not been contacted directly by the IRS, I found the issue through checking out the return status on the pending return, after which the CPA called in and found out they needed a letter from my employer which was provided ~2 months ago. The CPA has checked in with the IRS since then and they won't even confirm they got the letter, letalone if it is being worked out. I am concerned that they are waiting for a second letter from my previous employer that is never coming, which they may be expecting based on the error in the filing. OK, so let's see. You filed one federal return and two state returns. You had taxes due to one state, and were expecting a refund from the other state. You are also expecting a refund from the federal return. Is that correct? Now, both the state and federal returns are held up because the IRS needs a letter from your employer? Is this with regards to health insurance? As far as contacting the IRS, phone is probably better because you're not stuck in some office downtown, but even then, they'll probably just tell you to wait some more. Generally speaking, if the IRS is waiting for something and doesn't receive it, they will simply remove the credit/deduction/whatever from the return, and then either send you the remaining refund or a bill. But it can take a long time for that to happen.
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Nov 18, 2015 23:29
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sullat posted:OK, so let's see. You filed one federal return and two state returns. You had taxes due to one state, and were expecting a refund from the other state. You are also expecting a refund from the federal return. Is that correct? Now, both the state and federal returns are held up because the IRS needs a letter from your employer? Is this with regards to health insurance? I think the issues are identified and being addressed, just not sure what I can do to make sure wheels are turning however slowly that may be. CPA has been extremely slow in responding or providing updates and continues to insist that nothing was incorrectly filed as we slowly move through these steps with the states. I received a Federal Return. I paid taxes on all income to State 2 (none were taken out of my paycheck all year). I was expecting a large/complete return from State 1, they amended my return and taxed the whole thing as if I didn't pay anything to State 2 before issuing a return missing a 0. Have clarified the issues of where the income was earned. Worried they are waiting for a letter from the other employer that is never coming (and I'm now realizing that I have to reach out to State 2 to get another amendment there on the income I paid them taxes on from employer 1). Is there any way to tie my 2015 return into this mess and generate some momentum towards resolving it?
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Nov 18, 2015 23:45
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OK, so this seems like a state issue. I don't think the IRS cares. So calling them or going to their office will probably be a waste of time. Also, this shouldn't affect your 2015 federal return, although if your state refund is taxable income, you report it the year you receive it as opposed to the year it was "supposed to" arrive. It sounds like you're amending both returns so that the income is apportioned between them properly. If that's already been done by the CPA, then yeah, waiting for the states to hand process your return and get the money sent out is a waiting game.
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Nov 19, 2015 00:45
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If I moved from DC to Texas mid-year, should I let DC know that I moved or just file a partial-year return? I've thought about sending a certified letter just to say "hey letting you know" because I'm now an expat living out of country.
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Nov 19, 2015 11:30
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sullat posted:If that's already been done by the CPA, then yeah, waiting for the states to hand process your return and get the money sent out is a waiting game. I'm okay with waiting, despite it being a significant amount of money tied up there isn't a pressing need for it for another 18 months. I just hate the idea that THEY are waiting on something that is never coming and can't even tell me that they have what they need and are processing it. Very frustrating experience that I feel could have been avoided.
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Nov 19, 2015 15:20
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Money I receive from an insurance settlement is not taxable income correct? I got hit by a drunk driver and spent time in a hospital, so I got some (not enough imho) insurance money. My lawyer mentioned in passing that it counts as a financial loss and I don't need to pay tax on it. I just want to be sure that's true Baxate fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Nov 19, 2015 |
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Nov 19, 2015 21:37
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Ludwig van Halen posted:Money I receive from an insurance settlement is not taxable income correct? I got hit by a drunk driver and spent time in a hospital, so I got some (not enough imho) insurance money. It depends on a few factors. This might help answer your question: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4345.pdf
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Nov 20, 2015 00:49
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