Saturday, August 20, 2011

2011 IRS FORUM

Breaking news: The IRS is in a budget crunch and they are taking it out on tax preparers and tax payers. This year's IRS forum for Las Vegas had more than 6000 attendees that paid an average of $250 each to partake in a radically trimmed down forum that did not satisfy.
As a result of last spring's computer crash which fried all my saved and stored tax returns from the last decade +, I decided this year to opt for a new software provider. OLT is the new program and it appears to be well suited for an independent preparer such as myself who files less than 100 returns a year but has clients outside of Nevada in six other states (Oregon, California, New York, Louisiana, Florida, and Illinois).
Actual changes for the upcoming tax year won't be carved in "stone" until Congress (oh boy) acts by 12/31/11.
We do know that changes are coming in the schedule D for sale & purchase of stocks, etc. The financial institutions (Brokerage houses) are now required to list purchase price to go along with sales prices. Takes the guess work out of basis analysis.
Also a 1099K is scheduled for businesses that use electronic pay services where the number of transactions is greater than 200 and the transaction amount is greater than $20,000. If you are a business, make sure you are certified with your pay services vendor to avoid a 3% withholding on total sales.
Best advice. Ignorance is not an excuse and Keep your records. They are a pain; but if an audit does occur, they have your back and can save your butt.
As always, contact me if you have any questions.

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