Author: Tony Novak
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Gas tax in New Jersey
I feel like I am perhaps the only person in New Jersey OK with paying higher gasoline taxes in exchange for the environmental benefits, progress on national energy independence promised infrastructure improvements and other trade-offs. I fundamentally believe that artificially low carbon energy pricing of the past few years is not in our best interest from…
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Pennsylvania divided
The election discussion is drawing attention to the widening political divide between my two major client groups. Nate Silver, writing for fivethirtyeight.com says “eastern Pennsylvania is becoming more Democratic while western Pennsylvania is becoming more Republican”. This confirms the trend that I noticed that even seems to be affecting my business practice. This graphic shows the…
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New tax scam with CP2000 notice
Apparently a new scam aimed at taxpayers involves and email with a fake IRS notice called a CP2000. This is the notice that the IRS sends in the mail when your tax return filed does not match the amounts received from other sources. The way to avoid this scam is simple: do not open email…
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Selling a rental property?
If you are planning to sell a rental property then it is likely important to estimate the taxes that will be due on the transaction. The calculation can be complicated but fortunately we have software available to help with the number-crunching. Just give a call and we can schedule time to run through the possible scenarios.…
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Church and taxes
Congress gives at least four special tax considerations to churches*: First, churches are generally not required to pay income tax based on the result of their normal operations. This is the same as other tax-exempt organizations. Second, unlike other tax exempt organizations, churches are generally not required to file an annual informational filing with IRS.…
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Unregistered charity soliciting public donations
As a small business accountant working with nonprofit organizations I frequently find deficiencies in their accounting or legal filings. Minor oversights are commonplace and I’m pretty good at getting them resolved before they cause too much of a problem. But I’ve never come across such an egregious situation as a multi-million dollar nonprofit organization soliciting…
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Why some people are more likely to end relationships over politics
The divide in political ideology is drawing much attention lately as this election season raises these issues to a fever pitch. Lately I’ve read a series of articles and personal stories describing how people are ending personal relationships over political disagreements. One article reported a survey result that 15% of people reported recently ending a friendship due…
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USA Today takes a strong stand against Trump
I was impressed by the strong clear writing in today’s statement by the editorial board of USA Today. I’ve taken the same position and it feels comforting as more leaders come aboard the “never Trump” movement. USA Today emphasizes that this is the first time that USA Today has taken a stand in a political election. Here…
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Professional tax preparation fees for 2016
Average tax return preparation rates are published by the National Association of Accountants in the national and regional average tax preparer fee survey for 2016. The fee for my online remote tax services is typically about 1/3 lower than typical walk-in tax preparers. However, late season returns or services that do not use online cost savings are…
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No pity for another tax scam victim
A peer accountant reports today that he had a client fall for a tax collection scheme and paid the scammers $5,700 in Apple Itunes gift cards. I have been posting consumer warnings about tax scams for decades and am normally empathetic to victims. But I have a hard time feeling much pity for any person who:…