|
I thought ca sui was deductible for state but not federal? At least thats how i prep CA returns.
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2016 16:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 19:03 |
|
|
Admiral101 posted:Taxes are deductible when PAID. IE: if you paid that $4.1k of CA tax in 2016, then you can deduct it in 2016. If that 4.1k of CA tax was just withheld from your paycheck over the course of 2015, then it was paid in 2015 and only deductible in 2015. Does that make more sense? that is a much less exciting answer but yes it makes perfect sense. thanks. Admiral101 posted:
Lord of Garbagemen posted:I thought ca sui was deductible for state but not federal? At least thats how i prep CA returns. "The California State Disability Insurance taxes qualify as State Taxes because they are taken out of your paycheck. "
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2016 16:58
|
|
|
NancyPants posted:Nah, it's a genuine question. If you're buying a used car and you don't know about cars, you take it to a mechanic. If you don't know about taxes, you generally take them to a preparer. My experience with other services in life is that paying more is no guarantee they'll do what they're supposed to do, so what should you do to make sure you don't accidentally hire a fuckup (besides avoid chains)? It's all word of mouth unfortunately. I know in my small town here, there's a CPA whose clients adore them but that's due to, shall we say, a highly aggressive interpretation of tax law (we've tried to get the IRS involved, but they just really didn't care and told us that). The rest of the CPAs here in town know this and groan, but if you just looked them up online and went in you'd never know and just love your refund. I also know some tax preparers that do work dirt cheap and do good work, but they are the exception. Most of the low-ball tax prep services we run into are not the best.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2016 18:01
|
|
|
AbbiTheDog posted:It's all word of mouth unfortunately. I know in my small town here, there's a CPA whose clients adore them but that's due to, shall we say, a highly aggressive interpretation of tax law (we've tried to get the IRS involved, but they just really didn't care and told us that). The rest of the CPAs here in town know this and groan, but if you just looked them up online and went in you'd never know and just love your refund. That's not even small market problems, I am in a top 5 market in the US , if I had a dollar for every hack job 1120S where i see 42,000 in O Comp and 200,000 in distributions I would be able to open my own firm. Also the IRS could fix the deficit alone by going after literally the 95% of S Corp owners that pull that poo poo. As far as billing the best line for clients when they groan is to tell them that everyone pays , one way or another. Its either up front and a known amount or later and an unknown amount. That usually gets them to stop groaning.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2016 20:17
|
|
|
Lord of Garbagemen posted:That's not even small market problems, I am in a top 5 market in the US , if I had a dollar for every hack job 1120S where i see 42,000 in O Comp and 200,000 in distributions I would be able to open my own firm. Also the IRS could fix the deficit alone by going after literally the 95% of S Corp owners that pull that poo poo. I'm shocked! That being said, the tax burden on the working upper middle class that run a business is ridiculous. If you're in AMT, the phaseout effective rate as you chew through the exclusion is 35%, here in Oregon toss on another 9-10%, Portland has it's own income tax, the bus system has a different tax, AND you tell them they need to pay 15% in either SE tax or FICA/medicare on a huge chunk of their wages? Doesn't take them long to say "gently caress that" and work around it the best they can. Yeah, making $200k a year is a lot of money - I'll give you that. But the tax bill on that is so drat high there's no incentive really to work harder or be more profitable. Compare that to the tax rate if you lucked into a huge inheritance and got $200k a year in dividends. That's why the abuse happens - doesn't take long for people to feel like they're getting screwed.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2016 21:52
|
|
|
AbbiTheDog posted:I'm shocked! Hey there OR fellow, I'm up in Seattle. You do any cpe in Beaverton? I'm down there sometimes for classes, we should grab a beer and trade war stories sometime. Also, I have got some questions on your pdx/mc return vs what the instructions say, can I pm you?
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2016 22:11
|
|
|
Lord of Garbagemen posted:Hey there OR fellow, I'm up in Seattle. You do any cpe in Beaverton? I'm down there sometimes for classes, we should grab a beer and trade war stories sometime. Also, I have got some questions on your pdx/mc return vs what the instructions say, can I pm you? Ugh, I think I was too cheap for the PM option on my account. Let me look. And I live on the other side of town, I try to avoid the Beaverton CPE as much as possible since 217 sucks to drive on. Edit: Yeah, too cheap. Honestly just call and ask the "auditor on call" for the City - they are extremely helpful. If you have any client problems, they also can be dealt with via a phone call or email - no POA needed, and you just verbally tell them something over the phone. We had a client who built houses and they audited him for a back year and the %% of revenue allocated to the city. I called up, explained the ex-wife used to handle his books and we had no idea where the number came from, they simply closed the case with no change and moved on. Of the three agencies I deal with (IRS, ODR, PDX) they are by far the easiest and nicest to work with. Edit #2 - if you do deal a lot with PDX/ODR, the Oregon Society of CPAs does a one-day class in January every year with tax updates, AND THEY STREAM IT. I sit at home and watch it. Very handy, they go over all the updates (and touch on WA/CA as well). Highly recommended if you're stuck dealing with our state. About $400. AbbiTheDog fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Nov 16, 2016 |
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2016 20:59
|
|
|
I'm still worrying myself sick about this class action settlement. Got a noice in the mail in June, like a post card, to contact them if my address would change before either October or December 2016. Never heard anything else and I haven't seen a check or a 1099 form from them. I'm estimating the check to be $1500 max, so that's a federal tax liability of about $300 I'm guessing based on my bracket. My concern is I've never gotten that check but they are going to report a $1500 1099 to the IRS. Three questions: 1. How much do you think (very roughly) hiring a tax lawyer to help out with this problem would cost? 2. If the IRS does ding me, is there a way to pay them THEN contest the error or even pay it and just say "I am paying this but I think it was in error"? At leas that would prevent interest from accruing. 3. Am I making too big a deal out of this? I am going to call the claims company in early Decmeber and if that doesn't work I am going to send hem a certified letter. Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Nov 19, 2016 |
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2016 18:26
|
|
|
Three-Phase posted:I'm still worrying myself sick about this class action settlement. Got a noice in the mail in June, like a post card, to contact them if my address would change before either October or December 2016. Never heard anything else and I haven't seen a check or a 1099 form from them. Yeah definitely making way too big of a deal out of this. 2016 1099's don't get sent until like January/February of 2017. Just wait until late March to file your tax return (this kills some people with panic, I know), and if you don't get a 1099, file your 2016 return without reporting it. Then just report in 2017 when you receive the check. The absolute "worst" thing that will come out of this you did miss a 2016 1099 and the IRS will send you a polite letter asking for $300 + trivial amounts of interest/penalty. The penalty can be pretty easily abated if you want to take it that far but if it was me I would likely just move on with my life. edit: if you actually even tried taking this to a tax attorney they would look at you with a confused face and then gently escort you to the door.
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2016 19:39
|
|
|
I need to clarify one thing: it's not just a missing 1099 - my concern is that the check and 1099 were sent together and lost in the mail. So they tell the IRS that I was paid $1500, but I never see a cent of that but am held liable for the taxes. (By the grace of God, missing a $1500 windfall and a possible $300 liability isn't probably going to financially break me.)
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2016 20:36
|
|
|
People need to remember you don't need a lawyer or even an accountant to talk to the IRS. You just need patience, because if you call them you will wait an hour on hold and if you write them it will take weeks for them to respond. That sucks, but a professional doesn't make either of those things happen sooner. Three-Phase just chill and wait till you receive something from anyone before doing anything. If you get the check, report it. If you get the 1099, report it, and contact the people who sent it and find out where your check is. If you get a letter from the IRS, send one back saying you never received the payment, then contact the people who are supposed to send you the check and see who gets back to you first. If you get nothing then just live your life until you do. If you're worried about how long its taken to get the check stop thinking about taxes and 1099s and just go try to find out where your money is.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2016 07:21
|
|
|
That sounds like a drat good approach. Curious - do you recommend writing or calling if you have a choice, or does it really depend on the circumstances? $300 isn't that much... I read that for a significant tax understatement you need to have the larger of a $5000 understatement, or an understatement of more than 10% of your taxes. Keyword there is LARGER.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2016 07:26
|
|
|
Three-Phase posted:That sounds like a drat good approach. Curious - do you recommend writing or calling if you have a choice, or does it really depend on the circumstances? That is accurate. If they hit you with anything it will be a failure to pay penalty and some interest. Failure to pay is only .5% per month up to 25% of the tax owed. I generally write letters first when responding to IRS notices for clients. I will call to see if I can get status updates or confirm that correspondence was received but any actual arguments are done with letters. At my office we like to have a hard copy of our attempts to resolve the issue with the IRS to refer to in future correspondence. Depending on the response or lack there-of we will either send another letter or call in. I hate talking on the phone so this works out for me.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2016 08:03
|
|
|
Good idea. You send everything with some kind of certified mail, right? I admittedly live in an extremely draconian world (at least in my mind) when it comes to taxes. 
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2016 09:05
|
|
|
Seems to me that taxes shouldn't be the main concern, but rather, why hasn't your lawyer sent you your $1500 bucks? Start by calling them, once you get the money then you can worry about taxes.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2016 15:16
|
|
|
sullat posted:Seems to me that taxes shouldn't be the main concern, but rather, why hasn't your lawyer sent you your $1500 bucks? Start by calling them, once you get the money then you can worry about taxes. Well it's a class action with a very large number of plaintiffs.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2016 15:18
|
|
|
I am looking at a new job that appears to have a sizable increase in total compensation for me, but a large portion of that is in RSUs. How does RSU vesting get considered for things like AGI and such? Particularly as it relates to phase outs of things like Roth IRA contributions? I'm also really confused about the AMT. How do I tell if AMT is going to apply to me? If it applies to me how does that change how my taxes work? (I understand the progressive nature of tax brackets as well as the difference between adjustments, deductions, and credits but beyond that all I've ever done is just feed numbers into TurboTax).
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2016 19:08
|
|
|
I did have one other question about CP2000 notices. If the IRS calls out an error and says "Hey, send us $X" (it's one of the pages on the form that you fill out in response that basically says "Yeah I messed up and will send you money") and you pay the money, do you also need to file some kind of revision like a 1099X or whatever?
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2016 02:57
|
|
|
Got a potentially complex situation with relocation deduction and employer reimbursement. When I joined my current company I was given a $X000 amount to cover moving expenses. The amount was given to me as a "loan" that would be forgiven provided I was employed with the company for 1 year. I received the full amount as a cash payment (no taxes collected) shortly prior to moving. I moved to my current location in 2015 and deducted all eligible moving expenses on my 2015 Tax Return (the cost of moving was within $300 of the amount given to me). The $X000 was not included in my W-2 from the company as it was still considered a loan that hadn't matured. The 1 year maturity date recently passed and I'm now trying to figure out how I should expect to report the loan amount for my 2016 taxes. So it was basically a forgivable loan that was meant for moving expenses, and those moving expenses were claimed in full for the 2015 tax year. What should I expect for the 2016 tax year with this matured, but forgiven, loan? Does the moving deduction from last year affect tax calculations at all?
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2016 03:10
|
|
|
Three-Phase posted:I did have one other question about CP2000 notices. Nope.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2016 03:53
|
|
|
Steampunk Hitler posted:I am looking at a new job that appears to have a sizable increase in total compensation for me, but a large portion of that is in RSUs. I'm pretty sure RSU vesting is treated like normal income and you should treat it as such for AGI and how much you expect to be taxed. Not quite sure how gains/losses are treated while you're trying to sell your awarded RSUs though. I assume short term capital gains on gains, no idea on losses. Also not sure about AMT other than just running through the calculation form. Would be interested if someone else could give us more info.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2016 14:55
|
|
|
Admiral101 posted:Taxes are deductible when PAID. What keeps me then from drastically overpaying my 2015 estimated payments, claiming the deduction, getting a big state refund in April 2016, and then claiming the standard deduction when I file 2016 in April 2017?
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2016 04:01
|
|
|
KernelSlanders posted:What keeps me then from drastically overpaying my 2015 estimated payments, claiming the deduction, getting a big state refund in April 2016, and then claiming the standard deduction when I file 2016 in April 2017? Whether you have to claim the state refund on this years taxes is dependent on whether you itemized last year, not the current year. So it syncs up.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2016 04:23
|
|
|
Blinky2099 posted:I'm in this right now and my RSUs are going to start vesting next year in March. With my signing RSU compensation plus performance review RSU comp its going to be about a 50% increase in total compensation from 2016 to 2017. then in 2018 it'll go down slightly as it balances back out (no year 1 RSUs being pushed to year 2.) Usually the event of the purchase is reflected in your w2 box 1 as the fmv of the stock by the number of shares. Any gain or loss on the sale is capital. Amt is amt it depends on many factors. The gains are subject to NII if you are in that bracket. Long story short if you are in a big tech co. dont worry they have u covered. If you are in small one it could be a train wreck for reporting correctly, especially if they do their own payroll. Lord of Garbagemen fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Nov 22, 2016 |
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2016 04:59
|
|
|
KernelSlanders posted:What keeps me then from drastically overpaying my 2015 estimated payments, claiming the deduction, getting a big state refund in April 2016, and then claiming the standard deduction when I file 2016 in April 2017? The poster above me kind of alluded to it - but state refunds would be taxable in 2016 in that situation (line 10 on 1040). I mean you gain a small amount of efficiency (ie: you get to stack 2 years worth of state income tax in one year if you otherwise wouldn't be itemizing) but the opportunity there is minor and not available to most people who are just on a W-2.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2016 14:05
|
|
|
Admiral101 posted:The poster above me kind of alluded to it - but state refunds would be taxable in 2016 in that situation (line 10 on 1040). Of course the real problem is you are sticking a ton of money with the state government for 0% interest this way, which is a rather poor investment compared to any "help" it gives on your taxes.
|
|
#
?
Nov 22, 2016 16:17
|
|
|
I'm looking at a roughly $3000 tax bill, but I should be eligible for $3100 - $4000 in tax credits. What happens if tax credits (child tax credit, savers tax credit) are greater than my federal tax bill? Do they stop at zero (and send a refund equal to my withholdings) or will the IRS actually "refund" me more money than I actually paid?
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2016 18:48
|
|
|
Harveygod posted:I'm looking at a roughly $3000 tax bill, but I should be eligible for $3100 - $4000 in tax credits. Depends on whether the tax credits are refundable or non-refundable. Refundable tax credits can give you a negative tax liability (your latter scenario), non-refundable credits cannot. The two you listed are non-refundable, unfortunately. See https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals for more details. Steely Glint fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Nov 23, 2016 |
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2016 18:54
|
|
|
Steely Glint posted:Depends on whether the tax credits are refundable or non-refundable. Refundable tax credits can give you a negative tax liability (your latter scenario), non-refundable credits cannot. The two you listed are non-refundable, unfortunately. See https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals for more details. Thanks. In that case, I'll do some Roth conversion to bring my tax bill to at least positive territory. I'm aware that doing that will raise my AGI, so I'll be careful not to do so much that I lose eligibility for the credits. Thanks again!
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2016 19:04
|
|
|
I opened up an Ally Savings account a few weeks ago and I'd like to transfer most of my savings to that account to start getting some of that sweet sweet 1% interest. Unfortunately I'm out of the country and haven't been able to mail in the signature firm, so apparently I'm subject to a 28% backup withholding until I do. According to this IRS topic, the witholding can later be applied as a credit against my income tax. Because I live abroad, I claim the FEIE so there's no income to which I can apply the credit. Will the witholding be returned to me as a refund?
|
|
#
?
Nov 23, 2016 22:03
|
|
|
Ur Getting Fatter posted:I opened up an Ally Savings account a few weeks ago and I'd like to transfer most of my savings to that account to start getting some of that sweet sweet 1% interest. Refunds (with the exception of the aforementioned refundable credits) are basically just the return of excessive withholding in the first place, so you'll get it back. Actual money paid to the IRS is NOT a non-refundable credit. The savings account gains will be taxable income though since like the name Foreign EARNED Income Exclusion implies that's just for foreign earned income, but I doubt it'll go above the standard deduction/exemption amount anyway.
|
|
#
?
Nov 24, 2016 07:05
|
|
|
I'll be working out of my home office with my new job. Is there anything I can deduct for this? What rules or forms should I investigate?
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2016 00:29
|
|
|
signalnoise posted:I'll be working out of my home office with my new job. Is there anything I can deduct for this? What rules or forms should I investigate? Likely you wont beat the safe harbor, look up business use of home safe harbor. Its really straight forward.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2016 06:58
|
|
|
I'm going to be off the grid roughly from mid-February to September. What am I supposed to do - estimate my tax (or overpay, just in case) and file an extension, then file my return when I get back in September?
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2016 16:29
|
|
|
Happiness Commando posted:I'm going to be off the grid roughly from mid-February to September. What am I supposed to do - estimate my tax (or overpay, just in case) and file an extension, then file my return when I get back in September? yup. the extension form should be released by February, so just file before you leave and you should be set. don't forget about state taxes too, if applicable.
|
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2016 18:14
|
|
|
signalnoise posted:I'll be working out of my home office with my new job. Is there anything I can deduct for this? What rules or forms should I investigate? If you are a contractor/self employed check out Form 8829, if you're a standard W-2 employee the information still applies in how you calculate the amount but it's taken on Form 2106/Schedule A with itemized deductions. Main things you need to be aware of is the square footage of the office and the square footage of the home as a whole; also of course keep track of expenses for the home as a whole. Also be aware the space must be used SOLELY for business purposes to count, don't try this with your personal office space just because you do work there. EDIT: Whoops, forgot to mention Publication 587! That has the full summation of business use of home rules for reference. MadDogMike fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Nov 26, 2016 |
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2016 16:54
|
|
|
I have a question if anyone can answer it. My family and I run a small business. We noticed that our bank account had mysteriously dropped over a period of 3 months or so by about $12,000. We previously had a buffer of about $20,000 in the account at the end of the month, plus whatever our profit was for the month. This dropped to about $8,000. Our accountant was entirely unable to explain this, and threw up various nonsense explanations of why this had happened. I would have suspected that he was embezzling the money, except for the fact that he is a really, really bad accountant, and it is entirely believable, and about what I would expect, that he would make $12,000 worth of mistakes and be unable to figure out why. I spent a bunch of time going over our profit and loss statements and our bank account entries to try to figure out where the money went, and I believe that he must have overpaid our taxes over that period of time. I could go into detail as to why I'm fairly sure this is the case, but to simplify: the total amount of paychecks plus taxes paid out, as shown in our bank account listings, during this period of time was about $12,000 more than the amount of wages plus taxes to be paid which was listed on our monthly profit and loss statements. So my question is, assuming our accountant somehow blundered and simply electronically transferred much more money to the IRS or to the state than was supposed to have been sent, will this automatically be spotted and refunded to us?
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2016 07:27
|
|
|
Payroll isn't my forte so I don't know how easy or hard this will be to sort out. Off the cuff this is probably what I would do if a client asked thought there payroll company hosed up and needed help figuring out what to do. Compare what he sent to what he reported on the payroll forms that were submitted. So look at the actual 941s and whatever your state forms are. If the forms show the numbers that you were supposed to have had then theoretically you will have credits on your account. If the forms show the inflated numbers then I would guess you would have to try to submit amended returns to that your account will be accurate and again, theoretically turn the overpayments to credits. Payroll isn't the simplest thing but if he doesn't have a good explanation for how he made this mistake I would definitely be in favor of switching who handles your payroll.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2016 07:47
|
|
|
Epi Lepi posted:Payroll isn't my forte so I don't know how easy or hard this will be to sort out. Off the cuff this is probably what I would do if a client asked thought there payroll company hosed up and needed help figuring out what to do. He insists that he didn't make a mistake. He has no explanation (which makes sense) for why $12,000 mysteriously disappeared from our bank account. The difficulty is that he's so bad at what he does that he might well simply not understand whatever mistakes he made. On the other hand, whenever I catch him making a mistake, he lies and tries to cover it up, so he might well know what he did wrong and be lying about it.
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2016 07:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 19:03 |
|
|
Orange Sunshine posted:He insists that he didn't make a mistake. He has no explanation (which makes sense) for why $12,000 mysteriously disappeared from our bank account. The difficulty is that he's so bad at what he does that he might well simply not understand whatever mistakes he made. On the other hand, whenever I catch him making a mistake, he lies and tries to cover it up, so he might well know what he did wrong and be lying about it. Why is this person still your accountant after the first time he lied to you?
|
|
#
?
Nov 27, 2016 23:00
|
|
