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
CPA Tax Musings: House Committee Passes Bill Permanently Banning State Taxes on Internet Access
Unlike a lot of potentially one-sided bills out of the House, this bill stands a decent chance of passage. See the details in this article by Michael Cohn in AccountingToday: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/government_news/house-committee-passes-bill-banning-state-taxes-on-internet-access-71013-1.html This really looks like a ban that people are in favor of – think of the dollars it will cost everyone if the states can tax our internet usage! With the midterm elections coming up and all the politicians fighting for their lives, not voting for this bill would be stuff the other side can use to win. Plus, right now this ban has expired every few years, so it will be less work to have to extend the ban – the current extension ends November 1, 2014. Plus this ban extends to Ohio and Texas, states that have an internet tax and were allowed to keep it under the original bill that has been extended since 1998. 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
Financial Musings of a Burbank CPA: A Three-Step Plan for Retirement Withdrawals
When you are ready to retire, you probably will have some pension income, social security, taxable accounts, tax deferred accounts (401Ks, traditional IRAs, SEPs, etc.) and tax avoidance accounts (Roth IRAs, etc.). You will pay tax on the social security and pensions as they are paid to you, but on most, if not all, of the other accounts you can choose which to make withdrawals from. What should you take out first? See this article in Yahoo! Finance and Forbes.com by John Wasik for some help: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/three-step-plan-retirement-withdrawals-130900208.html This order list is a basic thing as a starting point: you should really look at your income each year in addition to amounts you need to withdraw (if you are over 70 1/2 you may have to take some of the tax deferred money each year.) It would be smart to set up a planning session with your tax preparer in the middle of the year to check your tax situation so you can be better informed about what makes sense. If you have the information when you have your taxes prepared, that is a great time to take a look. For financial, accounting and tax musings, You can count on [...]