We often hear from clients who have received a gift or an inheritance and inquire as to how much this will cost them in taxes that need to be paid.
The good news is that the recipient of a gift or a bequest pays no gift or estate tax.
The “bad news” is that the taxes due, [Read more…] about Property Acquired by Gift or Through an Estate Inheritance
Under the Affordable Care Act, large employers must either offer “minimum essential coverage” that is “affordable” and that provides “minimum value” to their full-time employees and their dependents, or potentially make an employer shared responsibility payment to the IRS. The employer shared responsibility provisions are sometimes referred to as “the employer mandate” or “the pay or play provisions”.
If you are an employer who had less than 50 full-time employees, including full-time equivalent employees, on average during the prior calendar year (2015), you are [Read more…] about HOW THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AFFECTS EMPLOYERS WITH LESS THAN 50 EMPLOYEES
Scammers are calling taxpayers and threatening to have a magistrate come to their home unless they pay their IRS tax debts. The IRS has reported that it is seeing a significant increase in automated phone calls from con artists pretending to work for the IRS and demanding overdue taxes.
If you do not answer your phone, these criminals leave urgent callback requests on your voice mail telling you to call back to settle your “tax bill.” The bogus calls generally purport to be the last warning before the IRS takes legal action against unsuspecting taxpayers. When a victim calls back, the con artist threatens to arrest or deport the taxpayer or revoke their driver’s license if they don’t agree to pay up.
The scammers have increasingly been asking unsuspecting taxpayers to make the payment via iTunes gift cards and similar cards. The IRS pointed out that [Read more…] about “You Are Going to Be Arrested” says the Criminal
Every year we have new clients come to us to have their personal tax returns prepared because they are finding complying with the U.S. tax laws too complicated or preparing the returns consumes too much of their time. So to save $100 – $200 to have a return prepared by a tax professional, they were using a tax preparation firm where the employees receive minimal tax law training or self-prepared their return using TurboTax or another software product. When reviewing the prior year’s return, we often find that they have failed to comply with the U.S. tax and other laws and are subject to very onerous penalties.
For example, let’s look at the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) that requires [Read more…] about THE BANK SECRECY ACT MAKES SELF-PREPARED TAX RETURNS VERY EXPENSIVE
We periodically remind our S Corp. clients of the importance of paying themselves a reasonable salary. We offer to perform a reasonable compensation analysis for them for a nominal cost, especially in light of the dollars at risk. There are those who respond that they have themselves determined that their salary is reasonable. When we hear these types of responses, we often think of the adage “What do you call an attorney who represents himself in court? A fool.” The same can often be said for these business owners who don’t understand how the IRS determines reasonable compensation.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the issue, the IRS discovered years ago [Read more…] about SHAREHOLDER COMPENSATION – BE PRUDENT AND TAKE THE NECESSARY STEPS TO DOCUMENT REASONABLENESS
