There are a lot of phone calls from someone claiming to be from IRS demanding immediate payment. Its a scam. However, IRS can make a phone call, in order : -to secure a delinquent tax return or employment tax payment -to tour a business -when there is an overdue tax...
On April 30, 2018 the California supreme court made a ruling establishing a distinction between independent contractors and employees. As a part of its decision, the court instituted the “ABC test” for California that will make it nearly impossible to classify a...
Check out a teaser trailer regarding an article below, click here. There is a misunderstanding of what Notary certificates when documents are notarized. Lets break it down and take confusion away. There are two most common notarial acts that are being performed by a...
Serving alcohol at an open house. Did you know that even though you as an agent want to serve champagne at your open house, your broker have a right to approve or disapprove this action, so check with your broker before you do it! But besides approval from your...
Claiming a minor child How to split the tax benefits. Couples get divorce and then there is a question who is claiming a minor child on the tax return. A divorce agreement isn’t enough for the IRS, there is other rules, conditions and forms that need to...
While working on a blog article regarding home improvements that pay, I came across this post on the www.CAR.org (California Association of Realtors), and simply could not not to share. While remodeling does not really increase your selling price, it definitely...
While working on real estate investment properties deals, I get a lot questions like “what is my taxes will be when I sell my investment property, is it true tax is 39%?” Short answer is “NO”, longer answer is “anywhere between 0% and 25%.” Every asset (example an...
A Federal Tax Lien is a claim against property. When you don’t pay your fist tax due a lean is filled and it is attached to any property you owe or any future rights you may have to a property. This lien is reported to credit reporting agencies and have negative...
Now tax season is over and hopefully you filled your tax return. In my practice I have a few clients who owe a balance due on their returns. My first and main advise- FILE. File your returns regardless of you having funds to pay your balance due. If you don’t...
Form 940 Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return is due By January 31. If the fourth quarter FUTA liability, PLUS any deposited FUTA tax from a previous quarter is $500 or less, you can either deposit the tax or pay the tax with your Form 940...
You have a household employee if: – you hired someone to do household work – you can control what work is done – you can control how work is done – worker is using your tools and equipment – hired full time or part time or for the...
This is information for all the WPCS (Waiver personal care services)providers who live with the recipient of the services in the same household. IRS ruled that starting March 1, 2016 that IHSS wages received by IHSS (In home supportive services) providers who live in...
IRS issue ITIN – Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, to all individuals who are required to have US taxpayer identification number, but do not have or not eligible to get a social security number. This is a 9 digit number that starts with 9 and has 7 or 8...
Its end of the year and exciting time because of year-end bonuses, but did you know that there are different types of bonuses? There are two types of bonuses: Non-discretionary and Discretionary. Non-discretionary is a bonus that announced to employees in advance...
There are two ways of deducting car expenses: standard mileage rate and actual expenses regardless of owning or leasing a car. Under standard mileage rate you need to multiply amount of miles driven for business purposes by that year mileage rate. This will be...
There are four major driving purposes that taxpayers can deduct miles for: Business Medical Moving for a job Charitable organization There are two ways of deducting your car on your tax return, if you use it in connection with your business: Taking an actual...
You look at your child, and he/she is the most adorable human being, constantly acting as someone else, or may be really – really wants to be a movie star, so you decide to give it a shot and try to help your child become an actor. What do you do next? If your...
I am in state of California, so we will look at the California State forms. If you are doing payroll by yourself, remember that you need to fill out 941 Form that you will mail to IRS and two form for Employment Development Department: form DE9 and DE 9C. DE9 is to...
There are three (3) options to file for married couples. Most favorable and common is Married Filing Jointly. By filling Married Filing Jointly couple gets higher standard deduction- $12,600 in 2015. If couple is married, but chooses to file Married Filing Separately,...
Form 941 is an Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. Employers use this form to report income taxes, social security tax, and Medicare tax withheld from employee’s paychecks, and pay the employer’s portion of social security or Medicare tax. This...
So I am one of those lucky parents whose child needs braces. After shopping around for a while (my insurance doesn’t have ortho coverage) we picked a doctor. Our bill was around $5500.00. In addition during a year we had some prescription medication totaling $300 and...
Health insurance, health plans and tax-favored arrangements that help to offset health care cost…. Let’s look at Health Saving Plans: how many are there, what do they offer and why would you want to have one. Tax-favored arrangements are: Archer Medical...
This year one of my clients had to move to a different city because he got a job offer, he could not resist. After excitement from landing a dream job went a way, reality of moving his household settled in. My client, let’s call him John Doe is a single taxpayer...
If you have a place that you rent out, you have to report your income. What is included in Rental Income? EVERYTHING! In addition to rent payment, you have to include in the income – any type of advance rent, – payment to lease cancellation, -security...
If you had substantial business discussion or went to a convention with a purpose to further your business, you can deduct 50% of your business related meals and entertainment expenses. However, there are taxpayers who can deduct 80% and some that are not subject to...
Generally, if an item can be considered gift or entertainment, claim it as entertainment. Packaged food, beverages, flowers, etc you give to a customer to use later, treated as gift expense. Tickets to the event, that you attended together must be treated as...
Very often clients come in and want to deduct expenses for gifts they send to their clients, partners or employees. But how much is really deductible? Rule is that you can deduct $25 per gift you gave a tax year . Meaning if you spent $45 for flowers for the gift to...
So you are self employed, and use part of your home for business. If you use space regularly and exclusively to conduct business you can deduct certain expenses. Starting 2013 tax year there are two ways of doing it: Simplified option where taxpayer takes $5 per sq...
You are a teacher; you constantly buy supplies for your classroom. Can you deduct any of the expenses? Yes, if you are an eligible educator who is: a kindergarten through grade 12: Teacher Instructor Counselor Principal, or Aide, and You work at least 900 hours a...
Did you know that cost of summer camp your child attended this summer is deductible? Day or summer camp fees are deductible, even if it’s a sport camp, as long as care was provided while parents were at work. Check with your camp, because if overnight care or...
Medical expenses are subject to 10% of AGI and are deductible on schedule A. But did you know you can deduct payments that you made for medical expenses for your ex-spouse? Even if couple is not filling joint return, one partner who paid for another one’s...
Travel expenses are expenses that occurred while taxpayer was traveling away from their ” tax home”. “Tax home” is the place where taxpayer conducts business on regularly basis regardless of where he/she lives, but for majority taxpayers...
‘I want to deduct all my meals, oh and please don’t forget coffee “. All tax professionals hear this way too often. But truth is: NO, you cannot deduct your coffee or lunch or dinner. Generally, tho cost of meals considered a personal expense and...
Ever thought of becoming an actor or even better have you child be a star?! And here you go: pay for acting classes and camera coaches, taking headshots, getting and paying manager and agent fees. All those expenses are deductible if you are aggressively pursuing...
So you are at work. Working your day away, and unexpected happens: you get injured. You file workers comp (don’t forget to call Victor Sargazy, ESQ), and receive compensation. Do you need to pay tax on this income? In most cases worker’s compensation payments are not...
Mortgage interest is deductible on a tax return if you are itemizing. How much is deductible depends on when loan was originated, what was the amount and how proceeds were used. In most cases, you can deduct all of your home mortgage interest for your primary...
According to The Washington Post “People are really getting into Pokemon Go, a new mobile take on the classic franchise. In fact, they’re maybe getting a little too into it.The game, made by Niantic and the Pokemon Company, was released late on July 6, and...
Your theft loss is deductible if you are itemizing, and a subject to reduce loss by $100, and further to 10% of AGI. If you just missing property it’s not enough for deduction, theft needs to be proved! In order to prove theft, one have to file a police report and...
Short answer is NO. Sales tax is applied to ” tangible property”, anything you can see, touch, feel, weight, measure, etc. Californians do not pay sales tax on services. When a consumer pays tax to a retailer- it’s a sales tax, when consumer pays tax...
YES. Employee compensation (salary) need to be tax by the state where services where performed. Thus California Non-resident tax return needs to be filled and taxes paid on income earned in California. If you live in California, but work for a different state based...
It depends on a claim you hired attorney for. Legal fees are deductible only if they relate in some clear way to taxable income, thus fees occurred for personal claims are not deductible. Car accidents or animal bites cases considered to be personal claims, and...
One cannot deduct the value of time or services when he or she works as an unpaid volunteer, but can deduct cost of buying and cleaning uniform if the uniform is unsuitable for normal wear. For example nurse who is volunteering for local charity can deduct cost of...
Hobby is an activity where primary motivation for engaging into activity is to have fun, not to make profit. Hobby expenses might be deductible. If hobby producing income, then one can deduct expenses associated with a hobby up to the amount of the income; however, a...
If you currently employed and looking for another job in your line of work, job hunting expenses such as cost of attending career fairs and resume preparation, miles driven to and from and out of town expenses for the interview or career fair, also fees paid to...
