April, 2015
Stop Reimbursing Health Expenses
One of the tricky bits of the Affordable Care Act is that you may not “just reimburse some expenses” for your employees. If you have been doing that in the past, stop now. (Actually you have a ‘grace period’ until the end of June.) If you reimburse some medical expenses for employees, you have a “non-qualified health plan.” If you reimburse part or all of an individual health plan, you have a “non-qualified health plan.” If you have a COMPANY health insurance plan, you’re good. If you have NOTHING, you’re good.
If you have a “non-qualified health plan,” past June 30th, there is a penalty. It is $100 per employee per day.
If you’ve been reimbursing some employees for some medical expenses, stop now. Give notice to everyone, something like “our plan is terminated as of May 31st.” It has to be a company-wide plan, or nothing.
If you’re a greater than 2% Shareholder of your own S corporation, you may still have health insurance for yourself.
More details can be found in IRS Notice 2013-54. This was further clarified in IRS Notice 2015-17.
Oh, and the rules are different if you have 50+ “full time equivalent” employees.
Comments on e-filing of 94x Forms
Currently, we can not e-file quarterly and annual payroll tax returns without paying a service fee. As a consequence, many payroll forms get filed on paper.
The Federal Register has announced an invitation to comment on electronic filing for payroll tax forms “94x” (Forms 941 and 940, plus some others). It appears the IRS is considering setting up this service for the 2016 or 2017 filing season. They’re accepting comments through May 4th, so if you’re interested, you might look into the Federal Register, vol 80, No 43 from Thursday March 5th, 2015, pages 12062-12063 to see the email address to send comments and the parameters they’re looking for.
Household Payroll 2015 Handbook
I am currently writing a Handbook for Household Payroll Tax in California for 2015. If you have a “household worker” who is usually providing nanny or elder care services in your home, and they’re not employees of an outside agency, you may be putting yourself or your loved ones at risk if you’re not properly reporting them as employees. Look for this publication on Amazon, available electronically for download soon. We’re just finishing up revising all the examples for 2015 tax year.
Classes: Basic Payroll, Schedule C, and S Corporations May 2015
Here’s a link to the seminars page on my website: www.taxbuddha.com/seminars.html
Basic Payroll
In conjunction with the IRS and EDD, I’m going to be doing some Basic
Payroll seminars coming up in the near future. We don’t cover wages for apartment managers.
Basic Payroll Seminar runs 9 am 3 pm with an hour for lunch
The next seminar will be:
San Francisco at the SBA office 455 Market Street, 6th floor
(I take BART to Embarcadero or Montgomery Street)
Tuesday, May 5, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Register by going to http://www.edd.ca.gov/Payroll_Tax_Seminars/ and find your favorite location.
These seminars have proven to be very popular for business owners and bookkeepers, plus they’re free.
How to Prepare your Own Schedule C
Get ready for next year and filing your own Schedule C for last year. Review what the IRS wants to know from you and how to report it for your business. This is a class for business owners who need a basic understanding of their 1040 Schedule C tax forms. We’ll also talk about what to do with the numbers once you have them. We can’t guarantee you won’t get audited, but this class will make it less likely.
I will be at the US SBA office in San Francisco at 455 Market Street, 6th Floor.
Tuesday, May 19, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
You can register for this class at http://www.sbatrainings.eventbrite.com
S Corporations
By popular demand, I’ll be offering my S Corporation class again in Alameda sometime in May, 2015, probably the week of May 18–22. If you have a preference, feel free to email me to help me select a date you’d be able to attend. The class will be limited to fewer than 10 people, and is 4 hours of Federal CPE. In addition to a set agenda of materials about how to prepare the S Corporation return, we explore questions you have about specific returns you’re working on.
The Eightfold Path to Pay Less Tax and Avoid an Audit
Eight basic things business owners want to know printed in a booklet in “executive summary” form. This is ten years of working with the IRS Tax Code distilled down so it doesn’t take YOU ten years.
Just another way we’re trying to simplify your life. And the purchase is tax deductible!
You can order from Amazon.com. Here’s the link to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Eightfold-Path-Less-Avoid-Audit/dp/0615233422/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226611038&sr=1-22
The booklet also contains sections on how returns are selected for audit,
when to seek professional help, and how long to keep your tax records.
Little Box of Inc: Incorporations Made Easy published on Kindle
The book with tips about how the S Corporation works is now published to Amazon’s Kindle, updated with additional information about S Corporations, and can be found by searching for Andrew S Rogers as author, and click on “Kindle.” Here’s the blurb:
Considering incorporating as an S Corporation? This booklet will help you understand how the S Corporation works, what you need to do to become incorporated and what you need to do once you have a corporation to stay out of trouble. The structure and the requirements are reviewed, as well as helpful tips to use your corporation to reduce your tax liability and retain your status as an S Corporation. I’ve worked with S Corporations for many years, and as a tax preparer, I can choose the kind of entity I have for my business: I choose the S Corporation myself, and I’ve convinced many of my fellow tax preparers to incorporate as well. I’ve divided the information into clear, easy-to-understand topics, and cross-referenced sections when it might be helpful.
After you’ve read this material, you can view on-line videos via YouTube.com for free to access more advanced information about S Corporations. You may also be interested in my “Choice of Entity” class – see below.
Want to be the first person in your tax bracket to sport the fabulous Tax
Buddha Messenger Bag? I’ve now got a “shop” on Café Press
at www.cafepress.com/TaxBuddha in
case you’d like to order your own
Tax Buddha logo items. The messenger bag came out particularly well, not
quite “saffron,” but easy to find in an airport.
Our northern California occasional in Alameda:
1516 Oak Street, Suite 109
Alameda CA 94501
Phone numbers are:
Phone (510) 332-0401
Fax (925) 478-2726
“You too can be enlightened about tax” — Tax Buddha