Friday, October 25, 2013

Obama Care - No Big Surprise

Well, we are in the midst of the roll-out of Obama care and I have personally been affected by the new law. I figured that my premiums would rise once the law was approved, but I have to admit that I was totally amazed at the increase in premium. I figured I would call my insurance company after October 1st to determine what I needed to do in reference to my insurance coverage moving into 2014. We started with this plan back in 2005, at that time we selected a high deductible plan to attempt to limit our monthly expense. I recall the premium being about $300 per month for our family plan with an annual deductible of $3500. This year, for the same coverage, our premium has risen to near $500 per month and our annual deductible is now $10,500.00. So here's the Obama care news for us - to keep the same level of coverage our monthly premium has risen to $1100 per month and the annual deductible is now $12,000. The increase represents an increase of over 110%. Sticker shock!

None of this comes as a surprise based on the basic review of Obama care. Insurance is a business where the carriers need to make a profit, so when they are forced to carry the costs of more covered services it's not shocking that the rates would need to increase, but to double the premium - that is just nuts!

I would try to shop my other options on the Obama care web site, but I have tried repeatedly to gain access to no avail - another big shock there. It's all rather pointless anyway since I have already seen some of the expected premiums and they are also higher. I personally have not spoken to anyone who has seen a decrease in their premium.

My advice to my clients and friends, better check with your insurance carrier or your employer and see where this is going to affect you. Better plan a change to your budget because I guarantee your costs are going up. You may want to consider this for budget planning for 2014.

Feel free to contact my office with any specific Obama Care questions as they relate to tax issues.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Startup of the week / A tiny cloud computer can be yours for $45 - Start-up of the Week Israel News | Haaretz

Startup of the week / A tiny cloud computer can be yours for $45 - Start-up of the Week Israel News | Haaretz

Fire Prevention

October is Fire Prevention Month: All Is Not Lost If You’ve Lost Tax Records
by Claire Berlin | Oct 23, 2013 

Fire, flood, tornados, or your own unorganized closet: Any number of disasters can mean you can’t find tax documents when it’s time to file. 
The National Society of Accountants (NSA) offers this list of important documents you should track and what to do if they should ever be destroyed or lost.

Documents You May Need

Personal data such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth for yourself, spouse, and dependents; a child-care provider’s tax ID or Social Security number; and any changes to address, job title, phone number, etc.
Employment and income data such as forms W-2, K-1 and 1099; Employer Identification Numbers (EINs); alimony received and the Social Security number of the payor; and W2-G, 1099-MISC, 1099-G, 1099-SSA, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, and 1099-B.
Homeowner/renter data, such as forms 1098, 1099-S, 1099-A, 1099-C or HUD-1; final escrow closing statements; property taxes paid; rent paid during the tax year and the landlord’s name, address and phone number; and lists and receipts for moving expenses.
Deductible items, such as forms 1098-E, 1098-T; alimony paid, including the amount paid and the name and Social Security number of the recipient; vehicle license fees from DMV renewals; letters from charities for cash contributions or a detailed log for non-cash contributions with the value of items donated, date donated, amount originally purchased for and date of original purchase; mileage logs and copies of reimbursements from employers; miscellaneous deduction receipts for such items as uniforms, union dues, investment expenses and job-hunting expenses; child-care expenses; and medical expense receipts.
Business, farm and rental information, such receipts or documentation for business-related expenses, inventory reports and payables and receivables ledgers; receipts for all major purchases such as machinery, equipment and furniture; business, farm or rental income and expenses; auto mileage logs; and documentation for self-employed health insurance premiums.
Taxes paid, such as estimated tax payments with the date and amount of each tax payment made; and state taxes paid.
It’s quite a list, and working with a tax preparer can help ensure protection of these and other records or speed their recovery if they’re lost.

How to Retrieve Lost Documents

Despite your best efforts, documents are sometimes destroyed or lost. What do you do? Here’s some advice:

Earnings Statements – Copies of many wage statements can be secured from your employer. If you’ve misplaced your W-2, for instance, request another copy from your employer’s HR department as soon as possible (you may have to fill out a form to request the replacement). If you don’t receive your replacement W-2 even after reminding your employer, contact the IRS (800/829-1040) and have them prompt the company. You can also substitute IRS Form 4852 and refer back to your last pay stubs to fill in needed information. 
Originals of the Form 1099 can go missing even easier than the W-2. You receive a 1099 from any company that paid you more than $600 during the tax year – and given the current economy’s love of freelance and contract work, some taxpayers may have more than a few 1099s to collect. Banks also send 1099s if account holders earn a certain amount in annual interest; many banks permit downloading 1099s from their customer service Web sites, and local branches also often issue copies.

Past Tax Returns – Last year’s tax return may be one of the easiest documents to recover. If you used a tax preparer, you can request it from that person. Or you can request a free transcript of your return (exact copies are $57) from the IRS by filing Form 4506 or 4506-t, by using the Service’s online “Order a Transcript” system (http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Order-a-Transcript) or by calling the IRS (800-908-9946).

Student Tax Forms – Students’ tax forms, such as 1098-T forms or Tuition Statements, can be replaced. Schools often allow students to download an extra copy, and many will have a copy of your 1098-T online. Lenders are the best source for 1098-E Forms or the Student Loan Interest Statement, though if you paid less than $600 in interest, you will not be sent a 1098-E.

Stock Statements – Almost all holdings companies can help provide, via online, records of stock statements and cost-basis calculations (cost basis is an historical analysis and calculation to determine if a taxpayer who sold stock recognized a taxable gain or a loss in the sale). If you need a past stock price, Yahoo has an online research tool at http://biz.yahoo.com/r/.

Credit Card and Other Receipts – Receipts are the bread-and-butter documentation of a tax year’s deductions, especially for the self-employed and taxpayers who have a supplemental business besides their regular job. Receipts – which come in a maddening variety of shapes and sizes of paper – also seem to be the trickiest to completely pull together come tax time. 
Technology and the Internet have made it much easier to recover receipts. If you can’t find a receipt for a certain expense, for example, see if you can use bank and credit card statements to prove the expense. The statements should show as many details as possible (recipient’s name, date, the amount) to maximize the validation of the expense as a deduction. 
Some businesses also may be willing to issue copies of receipts. Most banks can also quickly mail copies of past checks if you know the approximate date, if not the actual check number, of the expense.
If you paid the expense using a debit card, check with your bank to see if they offer a receipt-replacement feature with your card. A growing number of banks offer this largely unknown service to cardholders.

Good Future Moves
Start working now to make next year’s document collection easier by preserving records with technology, knowing what to keep and what to toss, and consider hiring an experienced tax preparer who can archive your records for future reference.
Digitize receipts, tax returns and other important documents such as mortgage documents, property tax statements and acknowledgment letters from charities. Scan the documents as they come in and, if you’re worried about security on your hard drive, store the scanned documents on a thumb drive or a storage site such as Manilla.com or Dropbox.com. Most home tax-prep software also offers a feature for saving returns digitally. You can also snap photos of receipts with a smartphone, and some apps can then sort them as IRS-accepted images.
Keep, among other documents, all tax returns; records of your home’s purchase price and major home improvements for three years after you sell the home; records of stock and mutual fund purchases for as long as you own the stocks or participate in the mutual funds; Form 8606 (reporting non-deductible IRA contributions); and supporting tax documents for three years (six years if you have self-employment income). Also keep files with information on contributions and withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k) plans -- especially documents regarding nondeductible contributions, such as copies of IRS Form 8606, to avoid paying too much tax on withdrawals.
Toss most supporting tax documents (such as receipts) after three years; monthly bank and brokerage statements after you receive the year-end statements; ATM receipts and bank-deposit slips after they’re matched up with the monthly statement; pay stubs after matching them with W-2s. Shred all documents thrown out.

Sign up for online banking and bill paying, both of which create an electronic record of paid bills and banking documents.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Tax Season Delay

Filing season will be delayed, IRS says 
By Sally P. Schreiber, J.D. 

October 22, 2013 


The IRS announced on Tuesday a delay of one or two weeks in the start of the 2014 filing season as a result of the 16-day government shutdown to allow adequate time for the IRS to prepare and test systems. The return filing start date was originally going to be Jan. 21, 2014, but the IRS said it will now start accepting 2013 individual tax returns no earlier than Jan. 28 and no later than Feb. 4. The IRS says it hopes to shorten the delay and will announce the official start date in December. 
The government shutdown came at an inopportune time of year. Most of the work the IRS does to program, test, and deploy its return processing systems is done in the fall. “The adjustment to the start of the filing season provides us the necessary time to program, test, and validate our systems so that we can provide a smooth filing and refund process for the nation’s taxpayers,” Danny Werfel, the acting IRS commissioner, said in a news release. “We want the public and tax professionals to know about the delay well in advance so they can prepare for a later start of the filing season.”
No paper returns will be processed before the IRS begins accepting electronic filings. 
Despite the delay in the beginning of filing season, the IRS also reiterated that the April 15 tax return filing and payment deadline is statutory and cannot be changed by the IRS but that six-month extensions to file can be obtained by filing Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, electronically or on paper. 
The IRS is apparently struggling to catch up after the shutdown. It says it received 400,000 pieces of correspondence during the shutdown, on top of the 1 million items that were already being processed. The IRS is urging taxpayers who need to contact it to wait if it is not urgent or to try to use automated systems on its website
The IRS announced on Oct. 17 that 2014 renewals of preparer tax identification numbers (PTINs) are also being delayed because of the government shutdown. The IRS will notify current PTIN holders when the renewal season will start.
This will be the second tax season in a row to have a delayed start. Last year’s filing season was significantly delayed because Congress passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, P.L. 112-240, which contained many retroactive provisions, in January 2013 and the IRS needed time to update forms and program and test its processing systems. 
Sally P. Schreiber (sschreiber@aicpa.org) is a JofA senior editor.
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Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Updating to the New OSX Mavericks on the Mac

Today is the launch day for OSX Mavericks on the Mac, so I am doing the update. We will see if Apple can get this right the first time out of the box. I certainly have more confidence in this program than Obama Care.

Thursday, October 3, 2013