One of the side effects of our last economic slowdown was in state government budgets; states searched hard for new income, and many of them found a great source by cracking down on sales tax collections. Their new hot buzzword: nexus. Nexus means a connection that a business has with a state, and it has to do with a form of presence. In the sales tax world, you owe sales tax to a state if you have nexus in that state and you are selling taxable items. The scary part for small businesses is what makes up nexus. A Small World Globalization and technology together have produced dramatic shifts in the way businesses can look today. Not only can we access a pool of local talent to staff and grow our businesses, we can employ almost anyone around the world to work for us. Hiring employees or contractors located in other states can stretch our nexus to include that state. As an example, if your company is located in Illinois and you hire an employee that works from her home in Nevada, you might have nexus in Nevada and Illinois, and you might owe sales tax in both places. Sales [...]
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
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