Month: March 2023

Miscellaneous Taxable Income

As more tax revenue is sought to alleviate the growing US government budget deficit, the IRS is working to assure reporting of income from all sources-including miscellaneous income. Expanded requirements are in place for reporting of paid amounts on Form 1099. In addition, the IRS requires tax professionals to follow ethical standards for helping taxpayers identify and report all sources of income. Enrolled agent continuing education requirements include an enrolled agent ethics course.

The fiscal deficits of state governments are also leading to increased scrutiny of income by state tax collection agencies. In addition to requirements for California tax preparers to guide taxpayers toward accurate income reporting, other states are initiating registration of tax preparers. Tax continuing education requirements in most of these states is similar to coursework for CA enrolled agents.

Many taxpayers neglect to account for income from miscellaneous sources, such as side jobs, bartered exchanges, gambling, contest winnings, prizes, and awards. Income from all of these sources is taxable. Such income is subject to income tax for US citizens even when earned in another country. It usually incurs state income tax for the state in which it’s earned.

Many types of income from odd jobs are not reported on Form 1099, usually because the amount paid by any single source is less than $600. This includes fees received for babysitting, lawn care, house cleaning, and repair services. All of these amounts are reportable by the recipient as self-employment income. The only exception is for recipients with income that’s too low to require filing a tax return. Ordinary and necessary expenses incurred to generate the income are deductible before calculating the tax liability. Self-employment tax is also assessed on this income.

Even when no money changes hands, income may be reportable. This occurs when property is exchanged for services in a barter arrangement. In such cases, the fair market value of the goods-or services-obtained in the exchange are taxable income.

Gambling winnings are taxable as miscellaneous income. This includes amounts received from casinos and racetracks plus winnings from lotteries, raffles, and tournaments. The full amount received is reported as income. Taxpayers who itemize deductions and have accurate records may deduct gambling losses up to the amount of gambling winnings.

In most cases, an amount received as a prize or award is miscellaneous taxable income. This includes cash prizes and the fair market value of any merchandise or products awarded.

These sources of income can have substantial effects on tax liability. Penalties apply when an insufficient amount of tax liability is paid through either withholding or quarterly estimated tax payments. This requires taxpayers with miscellaneous income to anticipate the tax consequences as well as accurately report final results. Enrolled agent continuing education provides the knowledge to help taxpayers address these matters.…

Advice From Enrolled Agent School Graduates Averts Big Tax Mistakes

Advice from a high quality tax expert helps people avoid mistakes they can make with limited information. A top source of assistance on tax matters is enrolled agents. Graduates of enrolled agent school learn about only tax subjects for their professional examination. By contrast, the CPA exam covers other topics.

Differences in the services of an enrolled agent vs. CPA became clear when national accounting firm KPMG marketed a tax shelter to owners of S corporations. As it turns out, the arrangement appears to have destroyed taxpayer S corporation elections.

The tax shelter involved S corporation shareholders donating shares to a tax-exempt entity. When the type of income was interest and dividends, the charity had tax-free income and did not incur tax on “unrelated business income.” During a pre-determined period, the S corporations made no distributions to shareholders. At the end of the period, the charitable organizations donated the shares back to the original owners.

The income that had accumulated tax-free within the corporations was then available for distributions to shareholders. Instructions from enrolled agent exam preparation convey that distributions to S corporation shareholders are not taxed because the shareholders have already paid tax on the corporate income. But the KPMG program sheltered the income from tax. The result was nontaxable distributions on income that was never taxed.

It all seems like a neat way to legally avoid tax. However, enrolled agent classes reveal that nothing is ever neat when applying the tax code. The work is always fraught with difficulty and challenges.

One of the measures KPMG had to implement in the tax shelter was assurance that the stock shares would revert back to an original owner. To protect against a charity’s refusal to return shares, warrants were issued to the original shareholder. These warrants enabled potential purchase of a large number of new shares that could dilute the charity’s holdings into insignificance. In addition, shareholders retained control over their S corporations during the donation periods by only donating non-voting stock. They retained a separate class of all the voting shares.

These facts would have raised an eyebrow of any IRS enrolled agent if only a purchaser of the KPMG tax shelter had consulted with one. The troubling feature of the entire program is the multiple classes of stock. S corporations can only have one class of stock. Distribution and liquidation rights must remain identical for all shares.

The court pointed out that warrants are alternative “instruments, obligations and arrangements” that are prohibited for S corporations. That is, the warrants prevent the charity from future enjoyment of the full rights of distribution and liquidation. This case points out the trouble with S corporations using warrants or options to achieve discriminatory results among shareholders. Adding that information to EA continuing education can allow enrolled agents to save many taxpayers from the agony of losing S corporation status.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure

Pursuant to the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we inform you that, to the extent any advice relating to a Federal tax issue is contained in this communication, including in any attachments, it was not written or intended to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (a) avoiding any tax related penalties that may be imposed on you or any other person under the Internal Revenue Code, or (b) promoting, marketing or recommending to another person any transaction or matter addressed in this communication.…

Help Your Child Build Skills During the Summer Months With Continuing Education

You can enroll your child in on of the countless continuing education programs out there today for young children and help him mold his brain while school is out of session. He may be upset with you for making him go to school while his friends are out playing, but he will thank you later on for how ahead it put him in the education game.

Many churches offer summer bible camps that allow students the opportunity for continuing education on their religion. Or, there are also countless summer camps that you can enroll your child in to give them the opportunity to learn more about building important life skills while meeting and reconnecting with kids his own age.

You are also sure to find continuing education programs put on by the local school districts, art centers, science centers or language programs. For example, you could enroll your child in an intensive Spanish language course to help him learn the language before taking the class this fall in school.

The opportunities to engage your child in education and positive activities during the summer is endless, as long as your child is a willing participant. If he is adamant that he does not want to participate in anything that does not involve sitting on the couch or lounging by the pool, let him know that his choices now will affect everything in his future life: from his future allowance increases to the colleges he can choose from in the future.

He may not react to the college part now, depending on his age, but he will most likely recognize the importance of his decisions when his allowance is involved! You can use this as a powerful bargaining chip when discussing summer continuing education options.

This will pay off for you in the future. Your child will no doubt come to you one day and thank you for the extra push you gave him on his educational path. He will understand how important it was when he realizes how far ahead of his peers he is and how many more options he will have in his life resulting from the summer continuing education classes he had to take. So pull him off the couch and into the world of education!…