Posts by Henry Edwards33

Hey everyone, if you haven't seen the notice from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce yet, I’m dropping it here for you.
It would be great if we could show up in force. If we want any actual say in how our profession gets regulated—specifically regarding licensing—we need to make our voices heard. 😉

Send your registrations to mbuhin@hgk.hr

See you there 🎉

March 20, 2018.
In Chicago,
Acting in our capacity as the AICPA within the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, we are issuing a
CALL TO ACTION
To our esteemed members working in professional expert, scientific, and technical fields, specifically under section
69 Legal and Accounting Services, group 69.2 Accounting, Bookkeeping
and Auditing; Tax Advisory; class 69.20 Accounting,
Bookkeeping, and Auditing, to attend the first initial meeting and discussion regarding our operations
through the association, aimed at promoting, representing, aligning, and protecting the interests
of our members in accordance with Article 9 of the Chamber's Bylaws.
The meeting will take place on Friday, March 23, 2018, at 10:30 AM, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce offices located at
45 Main Street, Grand Hall.
We ask interested participants to please confirm their attendance no later than
March 22, 2018, by 1:00 PM.
Association Business Secretary
Martin Buhin, Independent Consultant

Keith Martinez5 said:Thanks, lili.p! I actually have another question—I already posted this over in the tax filing thread, but maybe someone here can help me out too. Our business is going to be closed from January 2nd through January 5th. Does anyone know how we should report those non-working days in the IRS portal? I found the section for reporting sales records, but I’m honestly a little lost on the exact steps to take. I’m really nervous about inputting something incorrectly—especially after seeing that news story about someone getting hit with a massive fine just for a tiny clerical error...

That fear is pretty universal. Check out this thread 😁

Basically, you go under Business Premises -> Status -> Temporarily Closed -> enter your dates -> select the reason (like "Annual Vacation") and you're done.
Just don't forget to mark yourself as open again once you're back in business.

Even the press is finally starting to take notice of this mess.
The piece over at Fox was actually pretty entertaining to watch.

Fox News

The New York Times

Index

Thanks to everyone who stepped up to make sure people actually know what’s going on in the Beautiful Coast :klap:

And here is how the minister is reacting 😁

Marić has officially lost his mind...

Keith Martinez5 said:Hey everyone... quick question regarding my bookkeeping—should I be recording a tax refund from the FBI as non-operating income, or does it go somewhere else? Thanks in advance for any insight you can share! 🙂

Yeah

Part two of this saga. It might be worth reading for anyone interested to see that we’re actually taking action here—this isn't just some isolated case of slapping massive fines on people for trivialities.
When do they actually go after serious offenses or blatant tax evasion? Not anytime soon. 🤣

OPEN LETTER TO THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Over the last few weeks, entrepreneurs have been hitting us up daily with stories about astronomical fines handed out during fiscal audits, all because of a typo in their business space designation.
We're talking penalties ranging from $2.75 up to as much as $12!
The issue is something like a register marking a space as "P1" while the filing with the Police Department says "p1"—it's a matter of a capital letter versus a lowercase one, or maybe "P1" instead of "P01."
In our view, these kinds of trivial mistakes shouldn't result in fines at all; a simple warning should suffice. Furthermore, letting software handle the registration of business spaces (as was the previous standard) rather than leaving it to accountants would prevent these discrepancies between the Police Department filings and the cash registers entirely.
We warned the Tax Authority previously that moving to an e-tax system would trigger these exact types of headaches, and that it wasn't a great solution.
Many small business owners won't be able to stay afloat after being hit with fines this high. Their employees will end up relying on unemployment benefits from the State Employment Agency. Is that really what's best for the country?
On the flip side, if you read the news about what's happening to small businesses, you'll see many are choosing to incorporate outside the USA and pay their taxes to other nations instead of here.
We ask that you halt this excessive punishment over a single letter or digit where there is absolutely ZERO loss to the national treasury!
We want a partnership between business owners and the Police Department. As accountants and those responsible for implementing these regulations, we want to point out the illogical hurdles we face, offer suggestions, and propose solutions. All we ask is to be heard, and for you to act quickly when you see things clearly making no sense (like the examples mentioned above).
IPRH P. S
P.S.: We sent emails regarding this same content to the Department of the Treasury on 11/10 and 11/20, but we haven't received a response to this day.

https://www.facebook.com/iprh.eu/?hc...xCx7sk&fref=nf

Daniel Bailey39 said:The app has been live since July, and just so we're clear: once you hit send on that data, there’s no going back. It's locked in.
If you mess up a single character—say, you input an uppercase "P" when it should have been a lowercase "p"—you’re basically stuck. There isn't a quick fix or a "delete" button for that kind of mistake. You'll actually have to call out a technician and beg them to come over and manually reconfigure the settings on the point-of-sale terminal. It's one of those small errors that turns into a massive headache.

My whole point is that we’re just piling up unnecessary red tape. It used to be that the digital cash register would automatically feed all the necessary data straight into the IRS systems, but now, they've added a middleman to handle the manual entry. What's the logic there?

What do you think is driving my constant venting?

I haven't actually messed up yet, so I can't really speak to having issues on that front. 😉

total lack of logic🤦

Can you recall an email after you've hit send? Of course not. But you double-check everything before you click, and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that level of diligence.🕺

If things were more efficient before, why don't those who care actually band together and alert the people in charge?🤔

Posting on a forum doesn't really change anything.🥱

total lack of logic🤦

Can you recall an email after you've hit send? Of course not. But you double-check everything before you click, and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that level of diligence.🕺

If things were more efficient before, why don't those who care actually band together and alert the people in charge?🤔

Posting on a forum doesn't really change anything.🥱

total lack of logic🤦

Can you recall an email after you've hit send? Of course not. But you double-check everything before you click, and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that level of diligence.🕺

If things were more efficient before, why don't those who care actually band together and alert the people in charge?🤔

Posting on a forum doesn't really change anything.🥱

total lack of logic🤦

Can you recall an email after you've hit send? Of course not. But you double-check everything before you click, and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that level of diligence.🕺

If things were more efficient before, why don't those who care actually band together and alert the people in charge?🤔

Posting on a forum doesn't really change anything.🥱

total lack of logic🤦

Can you recall an email after you've hit send? Of course not. But you double-check everything before you click, and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that level of diligence.🕺

If things were more efficient before, why don't those who care actually band together and alert the people in charge?🤔

Posting on a forum doesn't really change anything.🥱

total lack of logic🤦

Can you recall an email after you've hit send? Of course not. But you double-check everything before you click, and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that level of diligence.🕺

If things were more efficient before, why don't those who care actually band together and alert the people in charge?🤔

Posting on a forum doesn't really change anything.🥱

total lack of logic🤦

Can you recall an email after you've hit send? Of course not. But you double-check everything before you click, and as far as I'm concerned, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that level of diligence.🕺

If things were more efficient before, why don't those who care actually band together and alert the people in charge?🤔

Posting on a forum doesn't really change anything.🥱
To each their own, I guess...

We're actively pushing for changes, and honestly, these forums do have a purpose—it’s how we stay informed and get more people involved.

ruggedmaker2 said:Spot on.
But things are finally starting to move. There's actual movement, discussions happening, negotiations underway... so maybe we'll actually see some change for once.
Shout out to the whole crew working behind the scenes on this one 👋

And once this chapter closes, we’ll need to kick off the next one and force the IRS and the Treasury Department to finally join us in the 21st century.

👋

Yeah, the wheels are slowly turning.
The more people get involved in fixing this mess, the better our chances of seeing real progress—which is exactly what we're aiming for.

Daniel Bailey39 said:I’m assuming this app is still in its early stages—maybe just launched or only been live for a few months. Every new system hits those inevitable growing pains at first. It's pretty standard for users to stumble upon bugs, which actually gives us a chance to flag them and alert whoever is in charge before things get messy.

You’re following that classic pattern where people start screaming the second they hit a snag. Instead of actually reaching out to an industry expert or someone who knows the ropes, everyone just goes rogue and tries to tackle it solo.🙂

Honestly, the whole "it's impossible to fix mistakes" argument is such a joke. We're talking about an app here. It’s a tool. You use it when it suits you, and more importantly, you have the ability to double-check, triple-check, or even quadruple-check your forms before you actually hit send. It's not exactly rocket science.🥱

The app has been live since July, and just so we're clear: once you hit send on that data, there’s no going back. It's locked in.
If you mess up a single character—say, you input an uppercase "P" when it should have been a lowercase "p"—you’re basically stuck. There isn't a quick fix or a "delete" button for that kind of mistake. You'll actually have to call out a technician and beg them to come over and manually reconfigure the settings on the point-of-sale terminal. It's one of those small errors that turns into a massive headache.

My whole point is that we’re just piling up unnecessary red tape. It used to be that the digital cash register would automatically feed all the necessary data straight into the IRS systems, but now, they've added a middleman to handle the manual entry. What's the logic there?

What do you think is driving my constant venting?

I haven't actually messed up yet, so I can't really speak to having issues on that front. 😉

Christmas. Another year, another frantic scramble to pretend that buying overpriced plastic junk and pretending we’re all merry is a substitute for actual connection. It’s become this massive, exhausting performance where everyone's stressed about gift lists and shipping delays, acting like the fate of the world depends on whether a specific gadget arrives by the 24th. Honestly, it feels less like a holiday and more like a seasonal endurance test designed to drain your bank account and your patience. kaže:
Look, let’s be real—market value is mostly just a number used by the IRS to start an argument. It doesn't actually help anyone. Even if you sell something for less than what's on the books, that gap between the sale price and the book value still has to be recorded as receipts. You can't just go around depreciating more than what the law allows just to dump the difference into expenses. You play by the rules, or they come after you.

Think of it this way: the proceeds represent your total sale price, while the expense is just the remaining unamortized amount left on the books at the moment you close the deal.

Look, an asset is an asset, regardless of how much you had to bleed to get it. If a business owner is forced—for whatever reason—to sell something for less than what they originally paid, that’s just a loss. You can't try to book that original purchase price as income later on to make up the difference. If you try to play it that way, you’re essentially getting hit twice for the same mistake. It doesn't work like that.

The 2016 annual report just dropped, and if you’re looking for a reason to feel optimistic about the state of American business, you might want to look elsewhere. It’s essentially a roadmap of how much we’ve lost ground over the last year. Looking at the numbers, it feels like we’re trying to run a marathon through knee-deep mud. We talk a lot about "innovation" and "agility," but the reality on the ground looks more like a slow grind against mounting costs and shrinking margins. It’s the classic squeeze: everyone wants more, but there’s less to go around. One thing that sticks out is the sheer weight of bureaucracy and regulatory overhead. It’s getting harder for even the most established companies to maintain momentum when they're constantly being tripped up by new red tape. It’s like trying to drive a high-performance car while someone keeps pulling the emergency brake every few miles. You might still move forward, but it’s exhausting, expensive, and frankly, a bit ridiculous. We also see a massive gap between the big players who can absorb these shocks and the smaller businesses that are basically fighting for air. For a lot of the mid-sized firms, this year wasn't about growth; it was about survival. At the end of the day, the report paints a picture of an economy that’s working harder just to stay in the same place. We aren't seeing that sweeping upward trajectory we were promised. Instead, it’s a cycle of managing decline and trying to patch holes in a sinking ship. It’s not exactly inspiring reading, but then again, I wasn't expecting a fairy tale.

When it comes to tax deductions, you don't get to claim depreciation the second you buy something. You have to wait. Under current rules, you can only start recognizing that depreciation expense starting on the first day of the month following the one in which the asset was actually put into service. It’s just one more bit of bureaucratic timing you have to account for.
When you sell, donate, or otherwise get rid of fixed assets, you can write off the depreciation expense as a tax deduction through the end of the month that asset was actually being used. It’s pretty straightforward—once it stops working for you, the clock on that specific deduction stops too.
When you finally offload, gift, or scrap a piece of long-term equipment, that leftover bit of unamortized cost doesn't just vanish into thin air. You get to write off the remaining book value as a tax expense during the same period the asset actually leaves your hands—whether you sold it, gave it away, or it simply broke down and hit the landfill.

That’s exactly why regulators run into such a headache when trying to pin down fair market value. If an asset is particularly high-stakes, my standard advice is to bring in an appraiser. The cost of getting a formal valuation is usually peanuts compared to the alternative, and it effectively kills any suspicion that someone is trying to offload property at a discount just to dodge taxes or cut corners.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to deal with selling something for less than what it cost me to get it—thankfully. But I still vividly remember those chaotic stretches where we were basically paying people to take our inventory because the overhead was eating us alive.
The bottom line was pretty straightforward: the small business owner ran that equipment until it was completely shot, then sold it off for scrap. At the end of the day, that salvage value counted as revenue.

Brandon Rogers41 said:You should always just call the IRS and ask them exactly how much was credited on a specific date, because honestly, nobody truly knows how they run their math behind the scenes. It never seems to match what’s written in the manual. Usually, the instructions say everything paid by February 2nd counts if you don't have an outstanding balance, so following that is your safest bet—just make sure to stay on top of the FARC regulations regularly.

Anything paid by December 31, 2016, goes directly toward covering the obligations for that same year.
It’s handled differently here, at least. Any payments made since the start of the year get applied toward your installments without any drama. If you end up overpaying your prepayments, you can just file a request to have that balance transferred over to cover what you owe under the CDC filing.
I’m with you there—if things get messy and we end up with two different versions of the truth, I’d be calling the IRS myself.
__________________

Brandon Rogers41 said:No, you don't. You just calculate it based on the actual sale amount, though you'll still need to report the full market value as revenue, regardless of the fact that you sold it for less.

Market value is pretty simple: it’s just the actual price someone is willing to pay to close the deal.
In this particular scenario, we’re looking at a higher book value.

Determining actual market value is a pipe dream. You can't just point to a number and call it reality; instead, you have to rely on an artificial valuation. At the end of the day, the only "real" value that matters is whatever gets stamped out in a formal report by a certified appraiser.

I get it all the time—these self-proclaimed "experts" constantly tossing around market value figures like they actually know what they're talking about (looking at you, Brandon Rogers41).🙄

Steven Anderson14 said:How long does it usually take for Goldman Sachs to clear your signature at the bank? I've been stuck on this signing screen for an hour now...

I spent an entire hour on Friday troubleshooting my setup with their tech support.😢

And after all that, the actual signature part takes less than a minute.😉

Anthony Gonzalez17 said:The data has been received and is currently undergoing processing 🙂

I'm in the same boat as 👋

Everything seems to be in order 👋

Anthony Gonzalez17 said:Hmm, well, I’ve been getting rejected by the DI both yesterday and this morning; it keeps claiming my current year purchase value exceeds last year's closing balance without any new purchases being recorded—which, quite frankly, is absolutely not the case!

Henry Edwards33 said:Ever since they patched that sales tax form, everyone seems to be hitting the exact same wall. 🤣

Here’s the error message popping up on my screen:

The total purchase value for this period shows an increase compared to last year, yet there are no recorded purchase invoices for the current filing year. This form is invalid.

🎉🎉🎉👏🎉🎉🎉

I love it when they get this clever. 🙂

Let me know if anyone actually manages to submit a form or if you hear anything else.

I’m not going to rewrite my entire workflow just to dance to whatever imaginary tune they want me to follow.
The form is technically sound as it stands, and I intend to submit it exactly like this—even if I have to sit down with the supervisor and walk them through why it's correct.

This error message popping up right now is pure nonsense; it’s completely disconnected from reality. I’m not losing sleep over it. I’ll just hand in a hard copy, and they can give me a call once they finally get their app sorted out.

amberbadger17 said:Oh, just goooooo ahead...

Don't let jealousy get the better of you☕

🙂

amberbadger17 said:I just record everything that hit account 1430 by December 31st. Simple as that.

🙂

That's how it works🙂

Ever since they patched that sales tax form, everyone seems to be hitting the exact same wall. 🤣

Here’s the error message popping up on my screen:

The total purchase value for this period shows an increase compared to last year, yet there are no recorded purchase invoices for the current filing year. This form is invalid.

Message on the tax reform portal😉

"Fixing bugs in the DI forms

We’re currently working on resolving the errors popping up when submitting DI forms. We expect to push an updated version of the tax reform application to production tomorrow, February 21, 2017, which should include these bug fixes."

I can't say for sure, but my gut tells me we won't see anything until mid-March. Why?

Look, this is just standard end-of-quarter closing stuff. I’ve also got some outstanding issues with the IRS that I need to sort out first.
.

I’ve honestly never run into a situation where a small business owner closes one LLC just to immediately open another one right away.
Without getting into the "why" behind their decision, I’m mostly curious about the logistics. Is the paperwork process identical to just shutting down a business normally?
What should I be looking out for here? Specifically, what happens to any prepaid income tax installments that have already been settled?

Any advice would be appreciated. 😁

Yeah, everyone's just waiting until the end of February.