Category: Taxes
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How to use your mobile phone to file income taxes
If you have a simple tax return it is possible to complete the entire filing entire on your mobile phone. 1. Snap and send a photo of your Form W2 and 1099s. 2. Upload last year’s tax return from a cloud drive to the tax preparer. 3. Ask questions via text or email 4. Electronically sign…
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The latest financial planning twist for same-sex couples
I try to follow developing news for my same-sex couple clients (some now married, some not) and occasionally post something that attempts to summarize or help with planning like this “Financial Planning Checklist for Unmarried Couples” that has turned out to be quite popular. Recall that in 2013 the Supreme Court ruled on a case…
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When QuickBooks is a no-brainer
I ran into an old friend by chance on a Philadelphia sidewalk today. We used to see each other often but now he lives more than an hour away with his three dogs at a rural country place in beautiful upper Bucks Country. He knows that I am an accountant but we’ve never “talked business”…
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Filing requirement for self-employment income
Suppose your only income comes from a work-from-home part-time project and it only amounted to a few thousand dollars last year. Do you need to file an income tax return? Yes, says the IRS: “You must file Form 1040 if you owe any self-employment tax.” Confusion comes from the fact that low-income earners may be…
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What’s new in income tax software about the Affordable Care Act
Tax return preparation software must be redesigned this year in response to implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s provisions that took effect in 2014. This is what’s new in most tax preparation software packages about Affordable Care Act: 1) a new Health Care tab to the Data Entry Menu with additional screens or tabs to help complete the…
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Obamacare adviser blues
Some of the telephone and email requests I receive for professional help with Obamacare include phrases like: My theory is … I heard that… My brother-in-law says that … I have a hard time expressing in a socially acceptable manner that as a professional. I cannot and do not have any significant regard for what…
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Should a CPA help a delinquent taxpayer? a criminal? a drug dealer?
A CPA posed a question online about whether he should help a person who had not filed income tax returns for years but now wants to come clean and catch up. It was surprising to me that almost all the CPAs who responded said they would not help. Many had strong logical arguments for their…
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How to market a new tax practice
This is not one of those “how to” posts that provides advice by a person presuming to have some expertise. This post is about me asking questions about how to market my new tax practice. I face the challenge of relaunching my solo tax preparer practice over the next few weeks. I was drawn back to this…
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Overview of tax related bank products for tax preparers
E-Collect is a fee-withholding service from EPS Financial that allows your customers to have your tax preparation fees withheld from their tax refund. E-Collect offers three different refund disbursement methods to your clients: a paper check, direct deposit, and a prepaid card, all for the lowest cost in the industry, including a no cost option.…
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Pricing of 2015 tax services announced
This pricing is now out of date. I put a lot of effort into pricing my tax services this year since this is my first full tax season after 8 years away from private practice. The advice I received on this topic is that a sole practitioner CPA should not base rates based on a…