CPA Tax Musings: What to do if You Get a Notice from the IRS

The dreaded envelope has come!  The IRS is sending you a letter – what do you do (change your name and move?  Hide under your bed?  Leave the country?)  No, take a look at this IRS Tax Tip sheet explaining what you need to do if you get such a letter: http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USIRS/bulletins/c0996d?reqfrom=share The two most important things are: don’t panic and don’t ignore it.  Sometimes a letter or filling out an attached form may be all that is needed to resolve things.  Talk to your tax preparer: they can help.   For financial,  accounting and tax musings, You can count on us to count for you! Email: bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net  Phone: 818-317-6035  Website: www.briantstonercpa.com    Android and the IPhone:        Has been Featured On https://twitter.com/bstonercpa

Read more »

Burbank CPA Financial Musings: Student-Debt Advice for College Graduates

See this article in the Wall Street Journal called the Experts Blog for some advice to college grads about student loan debt: http://online.wsj.com/articles/college-debt-advice-for-college-graduates-1404139198 The group of experts gives varying advice about payments and planning to get the debt paid off as soon as they can.  This is good advice all around.  Basically, put together a plan you can live with, then stick to it.     For financial,  accounting and tax musings, You can count on us to count for you! Email: bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net  Phone: 818-317-6035  Website: www.briantstonercpa.com    Android and the IPhone:        Has been Featured On https://twitter.com/bstonercpa  

Read more »

Tax Musings of a Burbank CPA: Fixing Previous Preparers’ Goofs

While this is always a great new source of business (???),  the potential disasters of helping a new client revise previous years’ returns are usually a latent minefield (plus the hovering potential audit risk.)  See this article in AccountingToday by Jeff Stimpson for some stories, mis-comunications, outright mistakes and the problems that come from them: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax_news/past-imperfect-fixing-previous-preparers-goofs-71120-1.html The big conflict in this is the feeling of wanting to help your new client vs. the feeling of wanting to run and hide.  Even after the review of these returns it is so easy to underestimate the time it will take to correct old returns that many times this service ends up being a pro-bono undertaking.     For financial,  accounting and tax musings, You can count on us to count for you! Email: bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net  Phone: 818-317-6035  Website: www.briantstonercpa.com    Android and the IPhone:        Has been Featured On https://twitter.com/bstonercpa    

Read more »