Posts by Henry Edwards33

Arthur Lopez3 said:A new version of Java dropped yesterday.

If you’re running GE don't bother with the update because the signing process will fail.

For crying out loud 🤦

I already have to disable every single smart card reader just to get my GFI sent through, and now this comes along too. 🤦

Of course I downloaded it, since they wouldn't even let me access my bank account without the latest Java.
I just love dealing with the IRS. 🙂

I’m not sending over the balance sheet, the cash flow statement, or any board decisions, because the IRS just pulls whatever they need directly from Fidelity Investments.
What I do send is the gross balance sheet, the resolutions regarding the use of retained earnings, the tax reduction schedules, and the loss reports... but nothing from the private ledgers or anything meant for public disclosure.
So far, they haven't asked for anything else 🤷

Keith Martinez5 said:How exactly am I supposed to handle an amendment? I already filed the sales tax for December 2015 and January 2016, but those specific invoices ended up getting lumped into the January 2016 filing. I’m honestly stumped on what to correct—I’m terrified that if I try to fix it, I’ll just scramble the numbers and make a bigger mess of things.

Just calculate the interest from the date you actually paid until the day you submitted the January sales tax return. At least then you can say you covered the late fees and did your part.

Charles Turner13 said:The catch is, that person is an IRS inspector. During our last audit, they demanded a full log of all personal expenses paid via the business account, ATM withdrawals, VAT payments, and records of income tax prepayments. For every single transaction on the account that wasn't logged in the KPI, I had to create a detailed breakdown by date and specific category of non-business expense.
If you haven't been through it, you wouldn't believe me. But if you have, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Jerks 🤦

I’d probably do the same thing, even though I don't think it's right or something anyone should actually be doing.

But yeah—it's tough when you're left to fend for yourself while everyone else is just coasting.🤣

This is just more proof that we're basically left at the mercy of whoever happens to be running the oversight that day.

Thanks for sharing what happened, even if it's honestly pretty depressing to hear.

Charles Turner13 said:Sure, they can spend it freely, but they still have to keep records of those transactions and show them to the IRS if they ever ask.

That’s a first...

So, by that logic, anything a small business owner pays out of their business account that isn't a direct business expense counts as a draw? Does that mean we need a formal resolution and a ledger entry for every single little thing?

It feels like whoever is interpreting this has completely conflated business draws with personal income.😉

Charles Turner13 said:Taking cash "off the top" essentially counts as an advance on income. Because of that, you really ought to have a formal decision documented and signed, just like you would for issuing a loan.
My clients often run into audits since they operate out of high-traffic retail spots, but because they keep meticulous cash registers, they never have to deal with the headache of providing extra explanations or verbal statements regarding their cash flow.
While keeping a formal cash register isn't strictly required for a small business, it makes staying compliant with IRS reporting and tax audits a whole lot easier.

Not exactly.
You’re free to use your money however you see fit, and then at the end of the year, the IRS figures out what you actually earned and taxes you accordingly.

I get that having a petty cash fund makes things easier for some people, but trust me, for others, it’s just more paperwork and a headache.
If there isn't a requirement to do it, don't bother. If you want to make it complicated, be my guest.

If someone could explain to me why a small business owner like myself is required to maintain a cash register, I’d be eternally grateful.

Unless, of course, you're a total moron who leaves all the cash sitting in the drawer until it hits $3333. Personally, I just slip the profit into my wallet and call it a day.

Keith Martinez5 said:We are just circling the same drain here—does a card transaction go toward checking account receipts or cash? Honestly, I'm losing my mind over this. I read through the rules front to back, and to me, it seems perfectly logical that it counts as a checking account receipt, but apparently, the FBI doesn't see it that way.

It’s not about the FBI as an agency; it’s about a specific agent and how they choose to interpret the situation.

Years ago, there was this wonderful woman posting here under the name Dubravka 20 who, when faced with questions like this, used to drop a bit of old-school wisdom: "Tie the ox where the boss tells you to." 😉

If they want cash, they'll get cash, and that'll be the end of it. 🤷

Timothy Morgan38, nice work on that DI form. You nailed it. 😉

Technically, you should record the card transaction as a receipt at the exact moment the payment hits the bank account. You can't just ignore the bank fees—you have to log them as both an expense and a separate receipt to balance things out.
That’s where the headache starts. Those fee statements arrive incredibly late, and sometimes they get lost in the shuffle or show up all at once covering two different months.
Since I can't properly reconcile the card transactions through the bank statement without those numbers, I've decided to just close them out immediately. It feels like picking the lesser of two evils.
The bookkeeper before me used this same method, so my previous financial statements weren't exactly perfect either.

Arthur Bishop6 said:Can someone tell me how you guys are handling long-term asset depreciation forms on the IRS website? Most of mine go through fine, but two of them keep throwing this error message at me: it says the write-off amount has to equal the acquisition cost multiplied by the depreciation rate divided by 100.

But that’s impossible! If the book value is already way lower, then multiplying the initial cost by the rate gives me a number that’s too high. I can only take up to the remaining book value. Even if I try to reverse-engineer the percentage to match the book value, the IRS site rejects the decimals, and if I round to a whole number, I get the exact same error. It's driving me insane... I just submitted it exactly as it was.
Especially when there's a long-term write-off involved—the system doesn't even seem to recognize it properly when you don't enter a disposal date this year. But I actually sold it during the current year, so I shouldn't be depreciating it for the full year, just up until the sale date. I booked the rest of the unamortized book value as business expenses.

Still, I'm assuming it's just an informative warning message.

How did you all deal with this?😵

So far, I haven't found a way 👏

I'm just waiting for someone smarter than me to come along and teach me how to do it. 😒

What do you think about all of us just spamming them with emails asking for instructions on how to fill out the form? Maybe if we actually make some noise, they'll finally get off their butts and fix this nonsense. 👋

Ryan Rogers4 said:It doesn't make sense to me to list the actual deposit amount there—part of the form specifically asks for the discrepancy between the KPI and the account balance. Plus, the description for point 2 says: "2. difference between turnover per bank account and the reported receipts under II.2. (2.1.+2.2.+2.3.+2.4.+2.5.)." So, if we're reporting the difference, then what was deposited isn't actually the delta. I don't know—I just did it the same way for everyone. If it needs fixing later, I'll handle it.

Look, I’m not claiming to be right here. I might have completely misread the situation, so I’m curious to hear what everyone else thinks.
The way this pattern looks to me makes about as much sense as trying to teach a goldfish how to read; it's entirely possible I've just made a total mess of things. 🤷

The advisor mentioned that I shouldn't stress too much over completing the P-PPI, and honestly, I actually kind of like her. 🙂

I just got off the phone with my advisors, and they told me that what goes here is whatever was filed under the Quote. Honestly, it makes sense to me, but I can't tell if I'm just overthinking the whole thing or if I've completely misread the situation 🤣

Brandon Jackson4 said:On the PPI form, there's this line item:

Number of employees as of December 31st...

If a sole proprietor doesn't have any staff and just runs things themselves, should they enter 1 or 0?

Is a business owner technically considered an employee of their own company, or not?

0 🙂

It's only for people with actual employment contracts.

I completely blanked on filing the KD form. I figured it wasn't necessary. Clearly, I'm a real genius here. 🤣

Keith Martinez5 said:That makes sense, but here's my dilemma: I don't receive the consolidated commission invoice until the end of the month for the total amount, yet every single card transaction carries a different fee. How do you actually track that day-to-day? Theoretically, I get the logic, but how do you pull this off in practice?

🤣

That’s exactly where I struggle. My shop handles multiple card types, installment plans, all that jazz... it's basically Mission Impossible to keep it straight. Honestly, I’ve tried everything, and it just doesn't work for me.
On top of that, the processing fees always seem to vanish into thin air because some companies send two statements a month—one shows up now, and the next one might not arrive for another couple of months.

I finally decided to just close out the card accounts immediately so I don't end up owing the IRS anything. To be honest, I couldn't care less about the hassle.😁

Samuel Sanders8 said:Hi everyone, does anyone have any insight into why the IRS portal won't let me sign something like an OPZ-STAT-1 form? Everything went through perfectly fine last year when I was signing my tax returns, and it's really confusing. I actually renewed my digital certificate back in January, and since then, I haven't had any issues submitting or signing my other filings, but suddenly everything feels sluggish and it just won't allow me to complete the signature process...

I'm running XP and using Internet Explorer for the IRS site... please help

Typical. The server is acting up again. I can't even get my digital signature to work on 😉

I managed to squeeze a few forms through, though. It’s basically just a game of pure, stubborn persistence at this point. 🤦

You’re getting hit with sales tax on top of an increased income tax rate.
It’s the exact same headache you get with any standard invoice.

amberbadger17 said:Keith Martinez5 and I are about to lose our minds.

I mean, the advisors over at the IRS don't have a clue what they're talking about anyway.

I’d love to just group two identical responses together to make things easier, but apparently, that's not an option.

Anyway, I got a reply from my accounting firm yesterday that actually makes some sense—they've been in business for over 20 years, so they know their stuff:

They told me I should just stornirati those unpaid invoices. Since I'm running a small business, if I haven't paid them, I haven't collected any sales tax either.

What do you veterans think? Just a heads-up, we're talking income accounting here, not tax law.

I’d really love to know what legal grounds you actually have to stornirati an invoice.
An invoice represents a service rendered or goods sold—it's done. So what? You think you can just stornirati it because someone hasn't paid yet? Because the cash isn't in the bank? That's not how this works.

I don't buy it for a second. You can't just void an invoice when the debt is legitimate. You can't just write it off either, because that counts as income; you'd still be on the hook to pay the sales tax and income tax on it. Your other option is to sue them, but we all know how expensive that gets.
A consultant once told me he couldn't wrap his head around why I was being so reckless with my own money by not suing for amounts up to $667 🙄

Back when I ran my own small business, I dealt with plenty of unpaid bills. I tried everything under the sun to handle it differently, but honestly, it doesn't work. At least not legally.

If you don't want to deal with it, then don't close them out now. Who knows, maybe the laws will change down the road. 🤷

Robert Sanchez6 said:Don't worry—you'll be able to file those forms retroactively.
A new notice was just posted on the Harvard University website.

Posted: 01.13.2016
Important Notice to Users Regarding Partial Unavailability of the Online Tax Return Service
Due to technical difficulties, the online tax return service is currently unavailable for users with the new RDC profile certificates—specifically those with certificates issued or renewed after December 7th, 2015. Any users unable to submit their tax returns and required forms within the legal deadline due to these technical failures will be permitted to file them once the issues are resolved, without facing any penalties for late filing. Additionally, payroll departments that are unable to electronically submit their Joplin forms due to these glitches may proceed with payroll processing and subsequently submit the Joplin forms; such submissions will be officially recognized as having been filed on time.

Thanks. About an hour before this notice dropped, we actually called the main headquarters and gave some lady there a hard time about how their system was making it impossible for us to meet our legal obligations and blah blah blah...
Then this announcement shows up, and now we're just sitting here laughing. 🤣

copperviper17 said:Hey everyone! I was hoping someone might be able to point me in the right direction because I’m feeling a little lost here lol. So, my digital certificate for those business services just expired, right? And I went ahead and renewed it—totally thought I was being proactive! But then, when I logged into the IRS portal, everything was just... gone. Like, all my authorizations for the different companies I work with have completely vanished from my dashboard. Now I’m sitting here panicking wondering if I actually have to go through the whole headache of tracking down every single power of attorney again and physically mailing them to the IRS, or if this is just some weird technical glitch happening behind the scenes? If anyone’s dealt with this kind of digital nightmare before, please let me know! Thanks so much for the help

That's just an IRS glitch.😉

You'll be waiting a long time if you expect them to fix the IRS portal anytime soon.

I just got off the phone with the IRS headquarters regarding my access to the online tax portal. Apparently, there’s a massive glitch involving digital certificates that were renewed after December 7, 2015.
They honestly have no clue how or when they'll actually get this sorted out.

At this point, I’m completely lost on what I’m supposed to do about all these mandatory filings. 🤷

The IRS website is down again 🙂

I filed my Intrastat paperwork yesterday and honestly thought I’d managed to break the system, but turns out they're just having some technical issues 👏

Now I'm left wondering how this affects payroll and those Joplin filings. 🎉