March 17, 2014
How to Tell Clients Their Last Tax Pro Made Mistakes
This topic has been coming up a lot in the past week or so. And it’s a bit disconcerting to tax professionals who invest time with new clients like this.
March 13, 2014
New eSign System Simplifies, Speeds Up Form 8879
With the announcement by the IRS that it will now allow electronic signatures on Form 8879, which authorizes electronic filing of tax returns, a cumbersome, time-consuming step in the tax preparation process has been eliminated.
March 11, 2014
Want to Make the IRS Better? Volunteer for the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel
The Internal Revenue Service seeks civic-minded volunteers to serve on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP), a federal advisory committee that listens to taxpayers, identifies major taxpayer concerns, and makes recommendations for improving IRS services.
March 10, 2014
Does Your Business Qualify for the Health Care Tax Credit?
Income tax filing deadlines for most small business are coming up soon, and the Internal Revenue Service is reminding small employers who offer health insurance to their employees to check out the small business health care tax credit and then claim it if they qualify.
March 10, 2014
IRS Offers 7 Tax Tips on Health Care Credit
The Obama administration is relying on various federal agencies and organizations to help implement the complex rules under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the comprehensive health care legislation otherwise known as “Obamacare.” Naturally, the IRS is expected to play a major role, including enforcement of the penalties for failing to obtain minimum…
March 10, 2014
Divorce and the Section 121 Personal Residence Exclusion
After a divorce, if both spouses stay on title, they can both take advantage of their full personal residence exclusion of $250,000 – as long as one of them continue to use it as a personal residence AND this is specified in the divorce decree (a good reason to get along during the divorce negotiations).
March 7, 2014
IRS Agent and Police Detective Get Prison for Tax Fraud
A former Waterbury, Connecticut police detective was sentenced on Thursday to five months in prison and five months of home confinement for trying to mislead a federal Internal Revenue Service investigation of charitable contributions he claimed as deductions on his tax returns in 2007 and 2008, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
March 7, 2014
10 Major Tax Changes in President Obama’s Budget
President Obama has just released a new 2015 budget designed to raise more than $1 trillion in revenue over the next ten years by boosting income taxes for upper-income individuals, closing or tightening tax loopholes and scaling back estate tax benefits.
March 5, 2014
Cashier Admits Embezzling $1 Million to Hide Online Affair
A tale of sexting, blackmail and embezzlement involving two couples in Ohio and West Virginia reached a head last week when one of the parties, a former Bethany College cashier, admitted to stealing $1 million from the school to keep an online affair secret from her husband.
March 5, 2014
Firm Skis for 24 Hours to Raise Funds for Youth Group
Could you ski for 24 hours straight, even for a great cause? An accounting firm in Maine has accepted the challenge.
March 4, 2014
How Accounting Firms Should Handle Client Complaints
Nine out of ten times, when a client complains about a price, the price is not the real problem, the problem is some aspect of the service, but the client may not know how to articulate their real complaint, so they focus on price. If you ask why, you can find out the real problem.
March 4, 2014
What Obamacare Means for Individual Taxes
It won’t affect your 2013 tax return, but the National Society of Accountants (NSA) points out that the ACA will soon increase the complexity of tax filing with new rates and regulations that you – and your tax preparer – must know.