Posts by Carol Price4

Henry Edwards33 said:Look, if you aren't legally required to report something, you don't have to send it in.
You only report what's mandatory. If you decide to start reporting those "optional" bits of income, then you have to be consistent and include everything—like dividends, interest from your savings account, and so on. It’s basically an all-or-nothing deal when it comes to non-mandatory income.

Personally, I don't report my dividends because it just bumps up my tax liability, and besides, they've already been taxed at the source and reported via a W-2 by the payer.

Yeah, it's exactly like Henry Edwards33 said...

cosmictinker24 said:So, do they actually send out confirmation notices regarding interest earned or payouts... specifically for tax reporting purposes on savings accounts?

Yeah, they do—all income counts...

placidlynx92 said:Does anyone have any intel regarding the hike in H&M dues? Every single small business owner I talk to is seeing a massive spike in their tax liabilities for the first quarter $76 🙄

The mandatory chamber dues for the small business organization system come out to 2% of the standard personal deduction from income—that’s all per the Internal Revenue Code.

Since the standard deduction jumped to $1.25 instead of staying at $0.87, it means the monthly chamber fee is now $25/mo rather than the old $17/mo, 🙂

61 Standard bonuses, up to the legal limit (think Christmas bonuses, vacation pay, etc.) for previous tax years (retroactive payments)

54 Financial assistance for those undergoing professional training without being formally hired

I noticed this one too!

ruggedlynx63 said:Looking at this article, I didn't catch anything saying you *have* to attach parking receipts as proof now. You could always do that before.
As for this whole field allowance thing, jeez, they are seriously just making things up as they go now, it’s getting ridiculous. Since I have employees out on assignment, this hits home immediately. So, for example, instead of paying out $83 per day as a field allowance for workers sent abroad, they'll be using the per diem rates for those specific countries, which actually isn't a bad move since the tax-free amounts are higher. For domestic travel, it's basically the same deal, $57, except it's no longer called a field allowance but just a standard travel per diem ☕

The code for field per diems is 23, 🙂

And once they mentioned local travel, you know what that means—it might not be mandatory for standard travel claims, but if the IRS comes knocking, the burden of proof is on you. If you don't have the documentation, they'll challenge it in a heartbeat... and then it's straight into taxes and penalties. 👎

Some interesting stuff popping up...

- getting rid of field stipends—instead, they're introducing a standard per diem system
- travel expenses—they want employees to include their Social Security numbers and provide receipts for things like parking

...

Keith Martinez5 said:I’ve got a bit of a bookkeeping puzzle on my hands—I just picked up some toner for the office printer, but the vendor is actually registered over in Austria. The invoice itself is listed in US dollars and shows no sales tax (it includes a specific clause stating the tax exemption applies). Now, here’s where I’m getting stuck: how on earth do I record this in Silicon Valley? The total came out to $404.76, and the payment was sent directly to our Chase Bank account. When I tried to log the acquisition of goods within the European Union through the IRS system, it started asking me for a foreign currency amount, the exchange rate date, and the specific rate used... but since the transaction was handled in US dollars, I’m completely lost on what to enter in those fields....
Thanks so much for the help!!!

If they have an Austrian VAT number, then it counts as an acquisition... just set the currency to USD (840) and use an exchange rate of 1.😉

Heads up for anyone who bought their first home—whether it was a house or an apartment—back in 2016, especially during December! If you think you qualify for that first-time homebuyer exemption under the Real Estate Transfer Tax Law, you need to act fast. Per the updated rules in the Real Estate Transfer Tax Law, you have to file your exemption request with your local IRS office within 30 days of the law taking effect—which means you've got until January 31, 2017, to get it done.

Just a fair warning: if you miss that January 31, 2017 deadline, your request won't be approved—even if your purchase contract was signed back in 2016.

graniterider10 said:Fine. That’s how I used to book things at an architectural firm.

But now I'm wondering, can I—or should I—record the actual cash outflow of 256.16 through the petty cash account in Synesis, while reporting the sales tax exactly as it appears on the receipt?
Is that actually allowed? Because if I do it that way, my expenses will perfectly match what I actually paid out.
Ugh... sorry... whenever something falls outside my usual bookkeeping routine, I totally freeze up. I rarely run into weird scenarios like this, but here we are... I'm stuck.😢

Just record exactly what was paid... and that goes straight to expenses.

It's just like any other partial payment—you just book the portion you actually paid and calculate the sales tax proportionally.

graniterider10 said:Can someone please help me figure out how to book this receipt? Honestly, I’m totally lost on how much sales tax I'm actually paying here.

Base amount: 1,105.28
Sales Tax: 276.32
Parking: 30.00
Service Fee: 3.45
Interest: 0.11
_____________________
Total: 1,415.16
Device payment: 50.00
Device fee refund: -1,200.00
______________________________________
Amount due: $88

You just book the total bill amount $472, claim the input sales tax of $92, and exclude the part that isn't taxable ($11)—plus the subtotal as usual—(I'm assuming some is for the phone itself and some is service fees).

That "amount due" bit is really just a note for the customer showing what they need to pay upfront before the rest goes onto installments.

Time to beef up that consumer protection complaint!

Brandon Jackson4 said:Carol Price4, I saw you mention that the contributions for December 2016—which we pay this January—are still based on the old calculation method,
whereas the payments for January 2017, due in February, will follow the new rules (the ones where the amount is lower)
.
Does that change apply strictly to sole proprietors, or does it affect regular employees too?
Will employees see the new rates applied starting immediately in January?

Thanks,

Nope—employees actually get taxed under the new rules (standard deduction of $3,800, 24% tax rate) during their January paychecks, but the contribution base doesn't shift until the February payout for the January wages.

Paul Carter40 said:Employees switch immediately—assuming they're getting paid in January. That includes the new deductions and minimum wage adjustments.

Actually, that's not quite right—only the taxation changes immediately. The contributions (the base $1.00) don't change until the February payroll for January's work.

The folks over at Medicare are being totally cold toward Google applications... my client's claims have been sitting there unprocessed for ten days now, and today she tells me they're using Google in San Francisco just to tell people they need to head down to Washington, D.C. to file in person 🤣

There isn't a single agent available who can actually process an application—if it weren't so ridiculous, it would be downright tragic!

Paul Carter40 said:They did lower them—I'm just trying to figure out if the payments for December 2016 are being calculated using the old rules or the new ones... I guess it's a bit confusing.

December follows the old way—January kicks off the new system.

Brandon Jackson4 said:I’ve been doing some digging online, but I'm still feeling a bit uncertain, so I figured I'd ask here.
Basically, on December 31st, I processed the holiday bonuses (that $2,500 tax-free amount plus the $600 tax-free child gift)
Regarding these payments, my understanding is that I need to file the payroll reports by January 15th...
Which ID should go on the report? And for the date, should I use the actual payment date of Dec 31st, or just the date I submit the filing?
I'm also tripping up on the reporting period... for those specific fields in the form, should it be Jan 1, 2016, to Dec 31, 2016, or just Dec 1 to Dec 31, 2016?

Would it be an issue if I filed two separate reports this month—one for standard payroll taxes and another specifically for those tax-free benefits—or does everything have to be bundled into a single filing?

Thanks,

The report date is 12/31, and the period is 12/01–12/31.

Betty Sanchez10 said:Has anyone actually figured out the process for signing up for Social Security if you’ve never been officially enrolled before, but now need to start paying into the system because of a freelance contract?😁

If you're working under a copyright contract, there's really no need to file a formal report—you just take whatever fee you landed from that foreign gig, head over to the IRS, and pay your taxes and contributions directly into the required accounts. Simple as that!

Steven Anderson14 said:So, what’s the game plan for handling this stuff at Silicon Valley:
1. Changes to the tax compliance law:
They're rolling out new requirements for how businesses report their physical locations, plus we have to hand over details about who actually makes and maintains our software.

2. Heads up—starting January 9th, fiscalization won't run on anything older than Windows 7. I'm currently running Windows 10. Do I need to install anything else to stay compliant?

I think the deadline for that first part is July 2017—and honestly, Pupil hasn't changed anything there yet... they've been tied up with payroll updates... so just hang tight, it'll definitely get sorted out...