Category: Taxes
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Save your nonprofit now!
I learned a simple but extremely valuable lesson yesterday that will be useful for managing nonprofit businesses, thanks to NJCPA nonprofit conference and presenter Robert Lyons, CPA. Many nonprofit organizations experience “mission creep” over time. That’s not a bad thing. Usually it is in response to changing real world conditions. It simply means that the…
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Trump launches fleecing of taxpayers
Yesterday president-elect Trump helped orchestrate a fleecing of U.S. taxpayers in a deal that grants a financial windfall to the large multi-national corporation United Technologies. The amazing thing is the action was couched as some type of patriotic act by the president-elect. I even saw some deplorable on social media taunting Trump critics calling this as a “win” for Trump. I can…
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Rules for Tax Season
I know that I can limit stress to a manageable level and provide a better service to my clients this coming tax season if I follow a few simple rules: Filter out price-sensitive people. Don’t engage with any person who asks about price in the first two sentences of their approach. For example, an acceptable approach would be:…
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Why get up in the morning?
I was annoyed with an IRS agent a week ago who criticized my client’s business. This young businessman client grossed about $100,000 per year in each of his first two years but declared little net income due to high start-up costs. The agent said “Why does he get up and go to work each day? He would…
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Four good reasons to use an ITIN
If you do not have a social security number, perhaps because you do not have legal immigration status in the US yet, then I strongly recommend that you obtain and use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Here are four key points: No fear of INS – An ITIN is not used as an immigration enforcement tool. Many millions…
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3 Tips to avoid the individual health insurance tax penalty
If you did not have health insurance for more than two months in 2016 then you may owe a tax penalty when you file this year’s tax return. You may also hear from the IRS about the penalty if your health insurance did not meet minimum federal requirements or if the required tax filings are…
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When is it worthwhile to challenge a tax demand?
Is it worthwhile for a taxpayer to dispute a demand from the IRS or state tax authority for additional tax payment? Does the expected savings resulting from a tax case justify the cost of the dispute process? The answer, we might suspect, it that “it depends”. It depends on the type of demand, the amount and the dispute process that is…
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I cancelled pre-election tax planning offers
Tax planning has always been a larger part of my practice than tax return preparation. That means that this is my busy season. I offered a number of fixed fee tax consultations under assumptions that the 2017 tax code will be basically the same as this current year. Now that seems unlikely. There are suddenly hundreds…
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Why small business taxpayers must use QuickBooks
Note: Throughout this post the term “QuickBooks” means any electronic accounting system, not specifically the brand name product. There is evidence, as cited in the story, that the market dominance of the branded product has caused the term to be used to describe a class of electronic accounting products. I am accredited with QuickBooks and several other accounting…
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How to appeal a Pennsylvania tax penalty
Taxpayers who feel that Pennsylvania tax penalties were improperly applied may appeal those taxes. In many cases the amount of the penalty will exceed the original amount of the tax adjusted. You should explain in detail why your tax relief request should be granted and attach additional documentation, if necessary, of any supporting documents. Petitions for refund…