Back to Basics Part XXII – Form 6251 – AMT
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: 6251, adjustment, Alternative Minimum Tax, Alternative Minimum Taxable Income, AMT, AMT patch, AMTI, depreciation, employee business expenses, ESPP, home equity debt, investment advisory fees, ISO, itemized deductions, minimum tax credit, mortgage interest, parallel, preference, real estate taxes, standard deduction, state taxes, Tentative Minimum Tax
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
September 4, 2015
AMT, or “Alternative Minimum Tax” was enacted in 1969 in response to a disturbing report by the Secretary of the Treasury that 155 taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes over $200,000 paid zero tax on their 1967 tax returns.
In its simplest form, AMT is a separate taxation system with its own set of rules that runs parallel to the regular tax system. You are supposed to run the calculations under both systems, and if the AMT system says you owe more tax than the regular system, then you pay the incremental difference as “AMT.” That incremental difference shows up as additional tax on Line 45 (2014) of your Form 1040. The calculation of AMT is summarized on Form 6251 and accompanying worksheets, as well as AMT versions of traditional schedules.
The irony of the AMT system is that most of the loopholes it was originally designed to prevent, no longer exist, and it has become a tax that affects the middle and upper-middle class more than the wealthy, yet we still have it and all of its complications. Today, those who are subject to it, despise its existence, and not many people fully understand it, tax practitioners included.
For people still preparing returns by hand, AMT is an absolute nightmare since many of your other schedules have to be calculated a second time using AMT rules. For instance, depreciation rules differ between the AMT system and the regular system, as accelerated depreciation methods are generally not allowed. This means you have to keep an entirely separate set of depreciation schedules just for AMT. And to make matters more complicated, California does not conform to all of the Federal AMT rules either. So now you end up with four sets of depreciation schedules – Federal regular, CA regular, Federal AMT, and CA AMT.
I do not think I have ever seen a hand-prepared return done correctly when AMT is involved. (Actually, in the last ten years, I do not think I have seen any hand-prepared returns done correctly!)
So when do you hit AMT? It depends. AMT is calculated on taxable income under about $185,000 at a flat 26 percent rate, and income over that mark at 28 percent. There is a $53,600-$83,400 AMT exemption amount depending on filing status.
Compared to the regular system, the standard deduction is thrown out (meaning itemizing is your only option), your normal exemptions for yourself, spouse and dependents get the boot, as do many itemized deductions such as state taxes, real estate taxes, mortgage interest on home equity debt (if the funds were not used to improve your home), unreimbursed employee business expenses, tax preparation fees, investment advisory fees and more.
As mentioned before, depreciation methods are not as generous, also ISOs and ESPPs have less tax-friendly rules, investment interest can be hacked, and a whole bunch of other specific differences that apply to certain situations.
Since some people will have more AMT adjustments and preferences than other people, there is no set dollar threshold that will trigger AMT. That said, I feel that I rarely see it for a Married Filing Joint return with under $100,000 of adjusted gross income. It also starts phasing out for people with high incomes. The top AMT rate is 28 percent, but has fewer deductions than the regular system. Besides a handful of lower brackets, the regular system also has 33, 35 and 39.6 percent brackets, but with more deductions. At some point, however, the higher tax rates outweigh the additional deductions and the regular system results in more tax than the AMT system. You may pay no AMT once you get to $600,000 or $700,000 of income, depending on your AMT adjustments.
People in AMT that are employees often feel trapped, especially those in the sales industry that are used to generating a lot of deductions from vehicle mileage and other expenses their employers do not reimburse. It does not matter how many unreimbursed expenses they come up with, they will all get thrown out in the AMT system.
For people that flip back and forth between years of AMT and no AMT, there can be a minimum tax credit generated by the AMT you paid that can be helpful. If you paid AMT in one year, and the next year the regular tax system is higher than the AMT system, you can get a credit against your regular tax to the extent of the difference between the two tax systems limited to the credit amount generated by certain deferral type AMT adjustments/preferences. Got it? Just trust me, sometimes it can help! There are also sometimes when flipping can be a negative…fairness is not always the result of our tax system.
The best news we have had about AMT in recent years was that in 2013 Congress finally legislated an annual inflation adjustment for the AMT exemption. For years Congress was in a habit of passing an AMT patch in late December or January to make up for the fact that the exemption was not inflation adjusted, and would return to 1993 levels if nothing was done.
Tax professionals were biting their nails some years wondering if it would happen. The impacts on middle class Americans would have been tremendous, and many were oblivious. I read estimates in 2011 that 4 million taxpayers were subject to the AMT, but without a patch that number would have swelled to 31 million! I can remember running scenarios for a family making around $100,000 and realizing they would have a surprise tax bill of an additional $2,000 or so without a patch.
The form itself is only two pages. Part I is a summary of all the adjustments and preferences that differ from the regular tax system, to arrive at Alternative Minimum Taxable Income (AMTI). Part II deals with calculating your AMT exemption, your Tentative Minimum Tax (tax calculation under the AMT system), and then the AMT itself (the amount your Tentative Minimum Tax exceeds the regular tax system amount). Part III is a supplemental calculation that feeds into Part II when your return includes capital gains, qualified dividends, or the foreign earned income exclusion.
If you have questions about other schedules or forms in your tax returns, prior articles in our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
Back to Basics Part XXI – Form 5329 – Penalties on Retirement Accounts
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: 25%, 401(k), 457, 50%, 529 plan, 59.5, 70.5, Coverdell ESA, Early Distribution, Excess Contribution, Form 5329, HSA, IRA, MSA, nonqualified, penalty, Qualified Plan, Required Minimum Distribution, RMD, Roth-IRA, SEP-IRA, SIMPLE IRA, ten percent
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
August 21, 2015
The official name for Form 5329 is “Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts.” In other words, “penalties on incorrect contributions to or withdrawals out of retirement accounts, education accounts, and medical accounts.”
Most people are familiar with the fact that retirement accounts such as 401(k)s, 457 plans, IRAs, Roth IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, SEP IRAs, etc. have limits on the amount of money you can contribute each year. They also limit your ability to withdraw money from those accounts until you are generally 59.5 years old, or meet one of a handful of limited exceptions.
Most people are also familiar with fact that you MUST begin taking distributions by the time you reach 70.5 years old (with a few exceptions such as for Roth IRAs, certain employees that have not yet retired from their job, or non-spouse inherited IRAs). You can delay the distribution in the year you turn 70.5 until April 1st of the following year, but if you do that, then you have to take two distributions that year. IRS instructions are often very poorly worded on this particular matter, and often people misunderstand this important point.
Education savings accounts such as 529 plans or Coverdell ESAs as well as tax favored medical spending accounts such as HSAs and Archer MSAs also have annual contribution limits. In addition, you must use the funds for qualified education or medical expenses, respectively.
If you fail to follow the rules, either by accident or out of necessity, you will generally incur penalties, which are calculated using Form 5329 for most of these infractions.
So, how much are the penalties? If you over-contribute to a retirement plan, education account, or medical spending account there is a six percent penalty on excess contributions if you do not withdraw the excess contribution (plus any related investment earnings) within six months of the original due date of the return, excluding extensions (so by October 15 for almost everybody). Any earnings generated by the over-contribution will be treated as distributions of cash to you in the tax year the correcting withdrawal actually occurs. The rules governing distributions (discussed later) will apply and you may be subject to penalties on that portion. The custodian of the account will calculate the related earnings that need to be pulled out of the account when you inform them of the need to withdraw funds.
If you over-contribute for multiple years in a row before realizing it, the penalty compounds. So you would file a Form 5329 for each of the past years (no 1040X needed) and pay six percent on the excess contributions for the year of the 5329 you are filing, plus any prior excess contributions that still had not been taken out. In other words, you pay six percent every year on the excess contribution until you take it out. Interest would also be assessed on top of the penalties.
If you fail to take a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), the penalty is 50 percent of the amount that was supposed to be taken out, but was not. Unlike the six percent over-contribution penalty that applies every year until you take the funds out, the 50 percent penalty only applies once. But you would need to withdraw the funds and file a 5329 for each past year you failed to take an RMD. Interest would also be assessed on top of the penalties. Fortunately, the IRS has been pretty lenient with the steep 50 percent penalty, and you can often get them to waive the penalty for reasonable cause once you withdraw the money.
Early distributions for all retirement accounts that do not qualify for an exception are subject to a ten percent penalty, (plus inclusion as taxable income for the portion related to original contributions for which you received a tax deduction as well as on any earnings generated while in the account). SIMPLE IRAs have a special rule that increases the penalty to 25 percent if the date of your first contribution to the SIMPLE IRA was less than two years ago.
Distributions from education savings accounts for nonqualified purposes are subject to a ten percent penalty.
Distributions from medical spending accounts that are not used for qualified purposes are generally subject to a 20 percent penalty. These 20 percent penalties, however, are calculated on different forms (8889 for HSAs and 8853 for MSAs). With HSAs when you reach 65, you can use the money for whatever purpose you want, without penalty. You can also rollover an MSA into an HSA.
Regarding the Form 5329 itself, the first two parts deal with distribution penalties for retirement accounts and education accounts (health account distribution penalties are calculated on other forms). The third through seventh parts deal with excess contribution penalties for each different type of account. The final section, part VIII, deals with penalties on RMDs not distributed.
If you have questions about other schedules or forms in your tax returns, prior articles in our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
Back to Basics – Part XX – Form 4952 – Investment Interest Expense
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: annuities, baseball cards, bonds, dividends, financial advisory fees, incidental, interest, investment expense, investment income, Investment Interest Expense, long-term, margin loans, net capital gains, passive activities, qualified dividends, royalties, safe deposit box, Schedule A, short-term, stocks, suspended, vacant land
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
August 7, 2015
Today is my brother, Justin’s, birthday, and I know just what to get him. We were both avid baseball card collectors from the time we were seven and eight years old on up through our middle school years. Once, we even put on a “Kids Baseball Card Show” to buy, sell, and trade cards. We went around advertising the show with flyers on telephone polls all over the local neighborhoods, and secured the neighborhood pool clubhouse facility to host our show. It was a great success!
At the conclusion of my baseball card collecting career I had amassed over 10,000 cards with albums full of rookie cards and great players at the time. One of my most prized cards was a 1954 Topps Willie Mays. I remember wondering, how much money have I invested in all these cards over the years? Would I be able to retire after selling the cards years later? The Beckett Baseball Card Monthly price guide certainly made me think so based on the prices they listed and the rapid rates of increase. Old cards from the 1940s – 1960s were worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars each.
A few years after my interest in card collecting waned, a mass of new brands flooded the markets. That combined with other problems in baseball at the time sent the card market into an unrecoverable nose dive. Over 20 years later, most cards are still worth a tiny fraction of their peak.
Although my desire was primarily the personal fun of collecting, there were many adult investors that had serious money in cards. As with any investment bubble, I am sure there were collectors mortgaging their homes, running up credit card debt and borrowing from family in order to get a piece of the action.
As I reflect on that now, I see there would have been an opportunity for these people to take advantage of today’s topic – Form 4952 – Investment Interest Expense Deduction. If you have questions about other schedules or forms in your tax returns, prior articles in our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
Investment interest expense is reported on Schedule A as an itemized deduction and is essentially interest paid on debt used to buy property that produces or hopefully will produce income at some point. It doesn’t include interest expense incurred in your trade or business, or for passive activities like most rental properties. These types of interest get reported elsewhere. So, borrowing money to buy investments such as stocks, bonds, or annuities would qualify. Many financial companies offer margin loans. The interest on these loans would certainly qualify as investment interest expense if the proceeds were used to buy more stocks and bonds. Borrowing money to buy the right to royalty income or to buy property held for investment gain, such as vacant land, art, or even baseball cards would also qualify, among other things.
Due to passive activity rules which limit or even eliminate current deductions on passive rental activities such as a home you rent out, many people would like to be able to deduct the interest as investment interest instead. However, interest on passive activities is specifically excluded from being classified as investment interest expense. The interest on vacant land can usually escape this clause, even if small amounts of rent are collected since the rent is incidental to the paramount investment purpose of appreciation. To be considered incidental, the principal purpose must be to realize gain from appreciation AND the gross rents received for the year must be less than two percent of the lesser of the property’s unadjusted basis or its fair market value.
The rub with investment interest expense is that it is only deductible to the extent that you have investment income! If you have no investment income, you can’t deduct the expense, and it gets suspended until a year you actually do have investment income. So what qualifies as investment income? Well, all of the things we just discussed for which you borrowed money and can deduct as investment interest expense – so interest, dividends, gains from property held for investment, etc. Prior to being applied against investment interest expense, the investment income figure is reduced by other investment expenses that you may have reported on Schedule A – such as investment advisory fees, safe deposit boxes, investment subscriptions, etc.
By default, your net capital gains (meaning net long-term capital gains in excess of net short-term capital losses) as well as qualified dividends are not included in investment income. This is done because both of these already get taxed at favorable lower capital gains rates, so the thinking is, “Why would you want to waste a deduction to offset income that is already getting a lower capital gains rate, when you could instead use it to offset ordinary income taxed at higher rates ?” The answer is that sometimes you may not be able to ever foresee having much ordinary investment income taxable at higher rates. And instead of just suspending the deduction and getting n0 current tax benefit, you elect to include your net capital gains and qualified dividends as investment income and use the deduction to help wipe that income out, thus saving you current taxes.
The Form 4952 itself is a rather simple form – only a half page in length. Part I is a summary of the gross investment interest expense including any current interest and past interest that was carried over. Part II helps you calculate the net investment income from interest dividends, gains, capital gains, less investment expenses from Schedule A. Part III compares parts I and II and calculates the investment interest expense that will be currently deductible, as well as the part that is being suspended to the future if there is not enough investment income to absorb the expenses.
As for the card collecting Justin and I did, I sure am glad we didn’t go into debt buying baseball cards and having to file 4952s! Now about that gift – how about a box of wax packs or a factory sealed set – I know just where to get them…
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
Back to Basics Part XIX – Form 4797 – Sales of Business Property
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: Capital Gains, code head, depreciation, Form 4797, recapture, Sales of Business Property, Section 1245, Section 179, tax accountants
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
July 24, 2015
Imagine you are reviewing your recently completed personal tax returns in great detail…oh, wait – I am dreaming…imagine that just before fanning all the pages of your returns and stuffing them in a drawer with half used rolls of Scotch tape, a bag of cotton balls, and a few cat toys, your eye happens to land on line 14 on the first page of your tax returns – other income, with a $4,440 figure in it!
You are scratching your head trying to remember getting $4,440 for something. Your cat, perched above, is just staring at you…or maybe judging you. You take the bait and crack open the return to find the referenced Form 4797. “Oh, of course, the office equipment I sold! But wait, I bought it for $15,000 and sold it for $10,200 – isn’t that a loss? Why do I have $4,440 of income?”
Anyone that has ever had his or her own business or a rental property has almost definitely sold or disposed of an asset related to the activity. Some do it every few years, and others do it every year. Perhaps it was a piece of equipment as in our example above, or maybe it was an office desk, a vehicle, or a rental home. Whatever it was, and every year you did it, you were required to file a Form 4797 – Sales of Business Property – our topic for discussion today. If you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns, prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
Although only a two-page form, the Form 4797 can be complicated to tame as it requires an understanding of a lot of concepts and code sections in order to put it to rest. There are also unique rules that apply to different industries, such as day-traders, farmers, financial institutions, and all of you that are in an industry generating deferred gains from qualifying electric transmission transactions (who has ever even heard of that?!). Reading much beyond the first page of the instructions will either put you to sleep or leave you with more questions than when you started.
The form itself can require you to be a bit of a “code head.” Tax accountants that memorize and relate everything to the Internal Revenue Code section numbers sometimes get this label. The whole second page of the form is a dedication to code heads and is meaningless to the average person. To fill out this page you have to know what code section the property you are disposing falls under.
Aside from the challenges presented in preparing the form, what most people need to know is that when business assets are disposed they are generally going to wind up on this form. It is also key to understand the interplay with past depreciation expense claimed.
Getting back to our example, the question remains why you had $4,440 of income related to selling equipment for less than it was purchased?
In this case, a $15,000 piece of equipment was purchased for your business. Under the normal rules, you are not allowed to take a $15,000 deduction in the year of purchase. Instead, you depreciate the equipment and spread the expense out over a number of tax years. You can elect a “straight-line” amount – meaning the same amount each year, but most people stick with the standard accelerated schedules which allow you to take the majority of the expense deduction in the early years.
In this case it would be MACRS 5-Year Property (which actually gets depreciated over six years). The first year you get to take 20 percent of the purchase price as an expense ($3,000). In the second year you get to take 32 percent ($4,800). So after two years you have already depreciated over half the cost – $7,800. This depreciation expense taken reduces your cost basis in the asset. So instead of saying your cost was $15,000, your new adjusted cost basis is $7,200 ($15,000-$7,800)
On the first day of the third year you decide to sell it. Due to depreciation rules you are allowed another $1,440 of depreciation expense for selling it in the third year further reducing your basis to $5,760. A buyer pays you $10,200. The sale price less the adjusted cost basis yields a taxable gain of $4,400 ($10,200 – $5,760). This gain is also taxed at ordinary rates (not lower capital gains rates) since when you took the deductions, you were able to deduct them against ordinary income. This is called depreciation recapture.
Be glad it was only $4,440 of taxable income. If you had taken a section 179 deduction to elect to write off the entire amount in the year it was placed in service, your basis would have been zero, and you would have had $10,200 of ordinary income.
If for some reason you were able to sell the equipment for more than you bought it for – say $16,000, you would have had the $4,400 of depreciation recapture at ordinary rates, plus a $1,000 long term capital gain. Tangible property such as this is called Section 1245 property.
The first section of the form generally deals with sales of items that have been held over one year. The second section generally deals with the sale of assets held less than a year, and the third section generally deals with calculating depreciation recapture for various types of property. You can also have asset sales that show up in parts one or two, but also in part three. Part four deals with recapturing depreciation under section 179 and when business use of assets drops below 50 percent.
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
Back to Basics – Part XVIII – Form 4684 – Casualties and Thefts
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: business loss, Casualties and Thefts, CCH, Cedar Street Funding, Form 4684, Form 4797, fraud, Internal Revenue Code, IRS, IRS scam, lottery, Madoff, personal loss, Ponzi, Schedule A, Schedule D, Zubick
Leave a Comment July 10, 2015
My colleague next door enjoys kidding me every two weeks when my next installment of Back to Basics comes out! Although there will not be 10,000 parts as he suggests, there could be! CCH, one of the leading publishers on tax research materials has about 75,000 pages in its Standard Federal Tax Reporter – a product which includes the code, regulations, court case cites, commentary, and other related information. So, if I cover it in 35 articles or so, I probably can’t even call it the “basics” – maybe introductory remarks would be more fitting!
Nonetheless, it is designed to be an overview for commonly used Schedules and Forms. It is also interesting to note with today’s connectivity that people all over the country and the world find the articles reposted on my website and I regularly receive calls and e-mails. Earlier this week I received this response, “Just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your blog. I wish you were in my hometown in Louisiana!” Thanks for the message, Dianne!
This week we will touch on Form 4684 – Casualties and Thefts. If you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns, prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
Casualty and theft sounds like language stolen from an insurance agent, and like a good insurance agent, Uncle Sam wants to help you too…sometimes. If you have a large personal financial catastrophe resulting from something like a fire, storm, wreck, robbery, embezzlement, etc. you can claim the loss on Form 4684. Hopefully you have insurance, but if not, or to the extent that it is not covered, such as your deductible, you can claim the unreimbursed portion on this form.
The wheels are already turning – “Wow, I have had several car accidents in the past and I had to pay a $500 deductible – you mean I could have claimed that?” The answer is, “Yes.” However, it likely would not have done you any good since the loss of personal use property has to be in excess of 10 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI) plus $100. That is a relatively big number for most people. If your AGI is $100,000, for example, that would equate to a $10,100 out-of-pocket loss threshold. Everything over that amount would then go to Schedule A as an itemized deduction. But, if you are retired and not actively earning income that threshold could be much smaller.
Q. “What about a stock market crash, where my portfolio drops by 40 percent – can I claim my losses from that as a casualty/theft loss?” A. – If you have not sold anything, then no. When you do sell, that loss gets reported on Schedule D instead along with gains and losses from capital assets.
Q. “I parked my Ferrari at a sports event and my insurance had lapsed. There were so many parking lots, I never could find it. Can I deduct that loss?” A. – Losing or misplacing money or things (stupidity) is not deductible. Hopefully you will have realized it was stolen, filed a police report, and then the answer would be, “Yes,” assuming there was no reasonable expectation of recovery. If you claim the loss on your tax return, and then two years later the police locate it three states away you would then have to claim it as income when recovered.
Q. “I have been using my yacht for twenty-five years and it has finally worn out and has stopped working. Can I claim that as a loss?” A. – Wear and tear and breakage from normal use are not deductible.
The area where I have seen Form 4684 actually come to significant aid for taxpayers over the years has been regarding financial theft. It is often large and there is generally no insurance reimbursement. Caretakers that get access to accounts, telephone or e-mail scams, and Ponzi schemes are all examples of items that find some relief on the 4684. Local residents may recall Jay Zubick’s $16 million financial investment scheme in Monterey in 2007. Cedar Street Funding would be another example, as well as Bernard Madoff’s massive national scam.
Ponzi schemes are considered business or investment losses since the original intent was to earn a profit. As such they are not subject to the 10 percent threshold. The same would be true for other casualty/theft losses related to business or income-producing property. Caretaker financial abuse, telephone and e-mail scams bilking people out of their personal financial resources, however, are theft of personal assets, and the 10 percent threshold would apply.
Anyone who uses e-mail regularly has no doubt received a fake e-mail from a friend that is stranded in another country and needs money ASAP. This type of fraud would certainly go on the Form 4684. The IRS has warned of numerous scams of people posing as IRS collections agents. Sometimes scams are quite elaborate involving long time periods and multiple con-artists all painting a picture of legitimacy. Fake lottery and other winnings are common fodder for scams where they claim money is needed for fees to transport cash across state borders, or to pay taxes. Often the scammers will start with requests for small amounts of money. They are probing for susceptible people. When they find someone who bites, they start working other scams and raising the stakes each time to soak you for more money.
I have had several occasions to work with people that have had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen through such means. In these situations, the Form 4684 allows the taxpayer to get a large deduction which can even create a net operating loss on the current year tax return. This net operating loss can then be carried back several years to recoup past taxes paid and/or carried forward to the future to reduce taxes then as well.
The Form 4684 is a three-page form. The first page deals with casualties and thefts related to personal property, and helps you calculate the amount of loss after the 10 percent plus $100 deduction to carry to Schedule A as an itemized deduction.
The second page helps you calculate the losses related to business or income-producing property. Depending on the exact type of business or income producing property, the loss could carry over to the Form 4797 and eventually make its way to page one of the Form 1040 and directly offset ordinary income and lower adjusted gross income. Other types still go to Schedule A where they may not be quite as beneficial, but still helpful.
The third page deals specifically with Ponzi type schemes. Note that there are many types of financial investment schemes out there, but to be deductible on the Form 4684 as such, they must fall under the definition the IRS uses. There are also special ways to calculate the losses since Ponzi schemes generally wind up in court for years while the records are sorted out and funds are attempted to be recovered.
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
Back to Basics Part XVII – Form 4562 – Depreciation and Amortization
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: 5-year, 7-year, ACRS, ADR, ADS, amortization, asset class, Asset Classes, bonus depreciation, conventions, declining balance, depreciation, Depreciation Policy, half-year, listed property, MACRS, mid-month, mid-quarter, Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System, Section 179, special depreciation, useful life
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
June 26, 2015
If you want to take a relatively simple concept and complicate it to the nth degree, then you will fall in love with depreciation expense! I am sure there have been numerous doctoral candidates in the accounting field that have written their dissertations on the topic of depreciation. There are so many angles – matching the expense of an asset with the revenues it generates, shifting economic policies, grandfathering of legacy rules, and of course politics and lobbyists. Today we will be talking about Form 4562 – Depreciation and Amortization. If you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns, prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
At its core, the concept of depreciation expense is rooted in what accountants call the “matching principle.” You are trying to spread out the cost of purchasing an asset for your business or investment activity over the years that it is useful to you – thus allocating the expense to the periods of revenue that result from the asset. Take a pencil for example. You purchase the pencil at the beginning of the year. You use it to write notes, draft reports, and fill out forms, which lead to revenue throughout the year. By the end of the year you are left with a short stub, riddled with bite marks and a half-used blue pencil top eraser with a split down the side…so you throw it away. On your tax returns you have a $50,000 of revenue, offset by a $0.25 deduction for the pencil that helped generate the revenue. Clearly, the revenue and the expense were matched in the same period.
But what about the stapler that you also bought at the same time as the pencil? You bought a quality, metal stapler for $25. It could be sitting on your desk until you retire, and then get passed on to your successor! Let us assume it helps you earn revenue for 25 years before becoming the victim of a careless office prank. The matching principle would say you take the $25 and spread it out over the 25 years of its useful life, taking a $1 of expense each year against the revenue it helped you earn all those years. You would of course have to track the stapler on a schedule and each year update it for the depreciation expense taken. It would be helpful to have a column for the accumulated total of depreciation you had taken over the years so you know what is left to deduct as well.
That is depreciation expense in its simplest form. Unfortunately, the tax code is anything but simple – sometimes for good reasons, and sometimes for not so good reasons. A full explanation of depreciation rules would require thousands of pages of text. Here are some of the key concepts to help you swim with depreciation. It is important to note that depreciation is not a choice. There are choices within the depreciation laws, but you cannot just say – I do not want to participate.
Depreciation vs. Amortization – essentially a matter of semantics. Depreciation is the word used in association with tangible assets purchased; amortization is the word used in association with intangible assets purchased, such as goodwill, patents, and copyrights.
Depreciation Policy – it would be impractical to track every asset you buy that has a useful life of more than a year (like the stapler!), so depreciation policies are developed in accordance with limits established by law. For instance, everything over $500 will be depreciated, and everything below that will just be expensed in the year it is purchased.
Asset Classes – the IRS has pre-determined the periods and methodology for depreciating the vast majority of assets. The Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) is the system used for depreciation today. Inside that there is the general depreciation system and the alternative depreciation system (ADS) (ADS is mainly used for assets held outside the U.S.). Inside the more common general depreciation system there are 3-year, 5-year, 7-year, 10-year, 15-year, etc. on up to 50-year asset classes. For instance, off-the-shelf computer software is 3-year property; machinery, equipment, and computers in a business are 5-year property; and land improvements are 15-year property.
So you do not just pick the expected useful life in your opinion – you use what the IRS says, instead. Of course there are always strange nuances – such as furniture in a business is 7-year property but furniture in a residential rental is 5-year property. Or the fact that the residential rental house you own is 27.5-year property, but an entire “motorsports entertainment complex” is only 7-year property (think NASCAR lobbyists). These classes are generally “accelerated” as well, meaning you do not simply divide the cost by the number of years and depreciate it ratably. That would be “straight-line depreciation.” Instead there are methods such as 200% Declining Balance and 150% Declining Balance that front-load the depreciation expense in the early years, resulting in less in the later year.
There are also “conventions” depending on the asset class and date it is placed in service during the year when you first acquire it. These include “half-year,” mid-quarter,” and “mid-month,” and determine how you calculate the depreciation in the first year. To make matters more complicated, the tax laws have changed over the years, but the system that was in place when you placed the asset in service governs it for life. MACRS was established in 1986. Prior to that, there were several other systems with their own sets of rules: the Accelerated Cost Recovery System (ACRS) was used from 1981-1985, and prior to that, the Asset Depreciation Range (ADR) system was used. It is still possible to have assets under ADR, ACRS, and MACRS! To say that software is necessary is an understatement. It certainly works wonders with the calculations, but you still have to understand the laws and options to make the right selections and decisions.
Section 179 Deduction – from year-to-year the political and economic environments dictate an incredibly powerful deduction under IRS Code Section 179. This code section is kind of like an override that allows you to elect to expense assets in their entirety in the year purchased rather than spreading the deduction out over a period of years. The code section was created in 1958 when it had a $2,000 cap. The amounts were slowly raised up to $25,000 by 2003. Since then, each year Congress has made huge overrides to the codified $25,000 amount jumping it to $100,000, $125,000, $250,000, and even $500,000 where it has been for the last five years, but it generally defaults back to the $25,000 figure where it currently sits for 2015, unless Congress “saves the day” again. Many business owners have come to rely on this for large purchases, but it is good to remember, it may not be there. Certain assets do not get 179 treatment or there are modified rules. Vehicles for instance are not eligible unless it is a vehicle with a gross weight rating of over 6,000 pounds. Even then, the depreciation amount has been capped at $25,000 in recent years on those particular vehicles. For assets you want to elect to claim the 179 treatment, you still must go through the formal process of setting them up on a depreciation schedule and reporting them on the Form 4562.
Bonus Depreciation/Special Depreciation – these are additional concepts that Congress has created over the years allowing more depreciation in certain circumstances. One of the concepts with special depreciation has been that the assets must be brand new (not purchased in used condition). This was certainly a policy implemented to try to stir the economy.
Other Rules – there are a host of other rules, such as how to handle assets that you exchange for other ones (like trading in a vehicle), what do you do if you convert the asset to personal use, or use assets for both business and personal use, what do you do when you sell assets, etc. And there are lots of very pointed rules that clearly address certain industry desires such as “qualified second generation biofuel plant property,” which apparently was important enough to the masses to warrant half a column among the sea of information that could have been presented in the condensed 22 pages of instructions to the Form 4562!
The Form 4562 itself is two pages long. The first section deals with reporting any assets for which you are electing to take a Section 179 deduction. The next section deals with Special Depreciation. The third section deals with reporting assets under the regular MACRS depreciation asset classes, but you only have to list the assets on the form during the first-year they are placed in service – not every year. Your separately maintained depreciation schedules will track them for all years. Depreciation schedules need not be submitted to the IRS with your returns, but should be maintained for reference and in the event of an audit. The fourth section is a summary. The majority of the second page deals with automobiles and listed property, which are required to be reported each year, since they have special limiting rules. Listed property includes certain types of property that often have mixed personal and business use, so the IRS wants to monitor these more closely. The final section is for amortizable assets. As with depreciable assets, you only have to list amortizable assets in the first year they are placed in service.
Keep in mind that besides the regular depreciation schedules, you also typically have to maintain separate state depreciation schedules, which can have their own rules. California, for instance, does not conform to Section 179 deductions among many other things. In addition, you should track Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) versions of the federal and state schedules as they can differ as well, should you be impacted by AMT.
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
Back to Basics Part XVI – Form 3903 – Moving Expenses
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: 39 weeks, 50 miles, 78 weeks, distance, Form 3903, Gas, hotel, house hunting, laid off, leases, lodging, meals, military, move, moving expenses, packing, parking, reimbursement, retiring, security deposits, time, tools, transferred, transportation, utilities
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
June 12, 2015
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that average Americans will move 11.7 times in their lifetimes, with 6.4 of those moves between the ages of 18 and 45. Most of those moves between 18 and 45 will likely be work related moves that will qualify people for tax breaks on the expenses incurred during the moves. Today we will be talking about Form 3903 – Moving Expenses. If you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns, prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
A lot of people may not realize they can deduct expenses related to a move. It is true, that in order to receive preferable tax treatment, a move must have a change of work location component, but it does not actually mean you have to find a job before you move, or even be the reason you move in the first place. You could move to the Monterey Peninsula, or anywhere for that matter, simply because it is beautiful, and you could still deduct moving expenses as long as you meet two primary tests – time and distance.
The time related test says that you must have a full-time job for 39 weeks out of the first 52 weeks in your new location. You do not have to know in advance. The weeks do not have to be contiguous, nor do they even have to be with the same company, or even start when you arrive, but they do need to be full-time. There are some exceptions to this 39 week requirement, such as getting laid off, getting transferred by your employer, or retiring to the U.S. from another country. Another out for you is to keel over and die, at which point your executor can still claim the moving expenses on your final return…people rarely go for this tax planning strategy.
If you are self-employed, you have to work full-time for 78 weeks out of the first 104 weeks after moving. You might wonder how you are supposed to take a deduction for something that takes longer than a year to really know if you qualify. The answer is that you claim the deduction in the tax year or tax years the moving expenses are incurred if you have reason to believe you will meet the requirements. If you are wrong, and you claimed expenses you should not have, you are supposed to either amend the prior return(s) or add it as additional income to your next tax return. If you did not claim expenses and later realized you qualified, then you have to amend.
The other test is the minimum 50-mile distance test. People often think the distance test is based on the distance from their old home to their new home, but it is actually based on the difference between the distance from your old work place to your old home and your old work place to your new home. So if your old commute was 10 miles one-way to work, then the distance from your new home to your old work place needs to be at least 60 miles. This could create some interesting situations. Let’s assume you work a block from your house. Then you receive a high-paying job offer in another town 51 miles away. Your family is rooted in your existing community so you really do not want to leave the area. With the increased pay you decide to buy the house for sale which is next door to your old house. In this case you would meet the distance test, even though you will have only moved next door, and you can deduct any qualified expenses.
So what expenses qualify? In a thimble, the answer would be packing costs, transit of household goods and family members, as well as lodging costs. In other words, all the packing boxes, tape, markers, bubble wrap, movers, truck rentals and related fuel, airline costs, parking and tolls, pet transportation costs, hotel bills, etc. If you drive your cars to transport them, or if you use them for trips back and forth to haul goods, you can deduct 23.5 cents per mile or deduct gas and oil receipts. You can also deduct the cost of storing your goods between houses for up to 30 days. In addition, you can deduct the cost of disconnecting or reconnecting your utilities. If you are moving overseas, you can deduct the costs of storage of your household items in the U.S. each year until you return. After the year of move, these expenses would not go on a 3903, but directly on your 1040 or 1040NR.
There are number of costs you are specifically NOT allowed to deduct as well. Some of these include meals during the move, extra driving or lodging due to sightseeing during the move, pre-move house hunting expenses, fees paid for breaking leases, or security deposits given up on your old home, among others.
If you are in the military, and you receive PCS (Permanent Change of Station) orders, you are automatically qualified, and neither the time nor distance tests apply. You can also deduct the costs of your move within one year of ending your active duty. There are other special rules for military moves as well.
Regardless of who you are, if you get reimbursed by your employer and the reimbursements are not treated as taxable income to you (included in box 1 of your W-2 as income), then you can only deduct the expenses in excess of the reimbursement. Normally, employers report moving expense reimbursements in box 12 with a code ‘P,’ and they are not treated as income in box 1.
Once you figure out your deductible expenses and reimbursements, the Form 3903 is a short five-line form. It feeds into the adjustments to income section on the face of your 1040. This is positive since it is available to all taxpayers, and not just those who itemize deductions.
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
Back to Basics – Part XV – Form 2848 Power of Attorney
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: competent, conservatorship, CPA, disease or injury, executor, Form 2848, Form 56, FTB, incompetent, IRS, Notice of Fiduciary Relationship, out of the country, Power of Attorney, practice rights, representative, sign your return, trustee
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
May 29, 2015
Question: My mother is older and it is sometimes difficult for her to sign her tax returns. I have a general power of attorney over her affairs that her estate planning attorney put together for us, so am I authorized to sign her tax returns? Also, we need to file a tax return for my son, who is away at college. Can I sign for him now that he is over 18? Can I call the IRS and talk to them about my mother’s taxes or my son’s taxes if needed?
Answer: In all of these cases, the IRS would first want you to file a Form 2848 – Power of Attorney. This is a limited power of attorney that just governs tax issues. (California also has an equivalent Form 3520, although they will generally accept a copy of the IRS Form 2848 as well.)
The Form 2848 is the standard document the IRS uses to process any individual that is acting as a representative for another person. As a CPA, I use this document as well when a client needs me to get access to their past tax information, balances owed, current status of notices, etc. It is also used if they need me to represent them during a tax audit. As with a general power of attorney, it is only good as long as the person is living. Once someone dies, a Form 56 – Notice Concerning Fiduciary Relationship is filed instead. An authorized executor or trustee, for instance, would file a Form 56, as a fiduciary, and they literally step into the shoes of the deceased individual with all the rights and authority that person had. After filing the Form 56, the fiduciary could then file a 2848 to authorize someone else, such as a CPA to represent them.
It is important to note that you cannot give just anyone full representation rights by filing a Power of Attorney. CPAs, attorneys, EAs, and immediate family members, are the only ones you can appoint for individual representation and provide them with full authority and practice rights before the IRS. (There are certain other classes that have limited practice rights, however.)
The Form 2848 also allows you to designate what authorities and for what tax periods you want to designate to your representative (such as “Income taxes and Gift taxes, Forms 1040 and 709, 2011-2015”). You can also indicate if you want your representative to receive copies of all IRS communication with you, if you want them to be able to add additional representatives without your consent, sign your returns, etc. If you want them to be able to sign your returns, there is additional language required as specified in the instructions to the 2848.
Generally, anytime you file a new Form 2848 it will replace any prior power of attorneys on file with the IRS unless you indicate otherwise and provide copies of the prior power of attorneys you wish to remain in effect. Both, the taxpayer and the representative must sign the power of attorney. Also note that this IRS Form 2848 – Power of Attorney does not replace or affect a general power of attorney in any way for other purposes. It is only used with the taxing authorities.
If the taxpayer is competent, but unable to sign the Form 2848, the IRS will allow an “X” to be made with the signature of two witnesses as well, and an explanation. In the case of someone who is incompetent, hopefully they had a general power of attorney. In these cases, as with the situation of the mother in the question at the beginning of the article, the power of attorney can be filled out with the exception of the taxpayer signing, and then the general power of attorney can be attached to the Form 2848. In the case of incompetent individuals without a general power of attorney in place it can become a sticky situation. A conservatorship is the proper legal vehicle to give one adult authority over another adult’s affairs when that person is incompetent and no other planning is in place, but this can be quite costly and impractical at times. I’ll let you wrestle with the IRS on that one!
If you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns, prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
As an addendum to the print version of this article, I am adding this additional information regarding authorizing someone else to sign your tax returns for you. Generally, you can only authorize someone to sign your returns if: 1) disease or injury prevents you from signing, 2) you are out of the country for at least 60 days prior to the tax return due date, or 3) you request and the IRS grants you permission. In the question of the college student who needs a parent to sign his returns or the mother who has difficulty signing, both would have to meet one of these three requirements as well.
Back to Basics Part XIV – Form 2441 – Child and Dependent Care Expenses
Filed under: Back to Basics | Tags: $3000, $5000, $6000, 13 years, Child and Dependent Care Expenses, childcare, cleaning, clothing, cooking, day camps, daycare, dependent care benefits, Education, Flexible Spending Account, food, Form 2441, Form W-10, FSA, kindergarten, lodging, overnight campts, summer school, tutoring
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
May 15, 2015
Question: I am the bread winner in our household. My wife is a homemaker and is the primary caregiver for our children, but we still send them to daycare once a week so she can have some uninterrupted time to go shopping, have a quiet lunch, and do some other chores. Can we claim the childcare expenses and get the childcare credit?
Answer: No. One of the requirements for claiming childcare expenses is that it is enabling you to go to work, or actively job search (or you are disabled or a full-time student). If your wife had a part-time job, or a self-employment activity and worked one day a week, then you could claim the childcare for the day you work each week, but you would still not be able to claim the childcare for the non-working day, even though you paid for childcare. This would also be why you cannot claim your Friday night babysitter when you go to dinner and a movie – nobody is working!
This week we are talking about Form 2441 – Child and Dependent Care Expenses. If you would like to catch up on our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns, prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
As our Q&A clearly pointed out, the intent of the credit is to allow people to earn more money…which the IRS can then tax. But there are a host of other rules. First of all, who qualifies? If it is for childcare, the child has to be under 13 years old. If the child turns 13 during the year, you can claim expenses up until the day the child turns 13. You can also claim dependent care expenses for a physically or mentally disabled spouse or any other disabled person you can claim as a dependent. You can even claim it for disabled individuals that would be a dependent except their income was too high (there are a few other exceptions as well).
Divorced or legally separated parents can generally only claim the credit if the child lives with them the majority of the nights of the year. Even if you are allowed to claim the child as your dependent per your divorce agreement (such as in alternating year agreements), you still cannot claim the childcare expenses you pay unless the child spends the majority of the nights of the year with you. If your status is Married Filing Separate, you can only claim the credit if you meet the requirements already discussed, plus, you must not have lived with your spouse at any time during the last six months of the year, and you must have paid more than 50 percent of the costs of maintaining your household.
Second, what expenses qualify? Clearly the normal child or dependent care expenses paid to the provider while you work are deductible. You can also deduct the cost of day camps for children during the summer, for instance, but not overnight camps, tutoring, or summer school. You can claim the cost of household expenses such as cleaning and cooking if the individual is also caring for your child and the benefit is partly for your child (such as a nanny that cleans, cooks, and cares for your child). You cannot deduct the cost of education, food, entertainment, lodging, or clothing unless the expenses are incidental to the care provided and not separated out on the care provider’s bill. However, for children younger than kindergarten, you can deduct education expenses as childcare.
Third, how is the credit calculated? The most in childcare expenses that you can claim is $3,000 for one qualifying individual. If you have more than one qualifying individual you can claim up to $6,000. The expenses do not cap out at $3,000 per person either, meaning that if you had only $1,000 of expenses for one child but had $8,000 for the other child, you could still claim $6,000. The credit is then multiplied by a factor of 20 to 35 percent based on your adjusted gross income. If you had over $43,000 in adjusted gross income, which most people do in California, you will be limited to 20 percent. So the 20 percent times $6,000 would be a $1,200 maximum tax credit. Remember that tax credits are much better than tax deductions as they are a dollar for dollar reduction of tax. There are some other limitations as well. For instance, the amount of the credit is limited to the amount of tax you owe (meaning that it is not a refundable credit). Also, the aggregate amount of expenses you can claim are limited to the lower of your earned income or your spouse’s earned income.
Some people get dependent care benefits through their work. For instance an employer may pay the childcare provider directly or actually provide childcare onsite. Or, the employee may make pre-tax contributions from his or her paycheck and put the money into a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) through work to be used for childcare expenses. The amount or value of these items cannot exceed $5,000 each year. Several limitations to this amount are applied on Form 2441. If some of it is disallowed it is added back as an adjustment to wages. There is also the possibility of getting the credit pertaining to the extra $1,000, since $6,000 of expenses are allowable with multiple children, and the dependent care benefits are capped at $5,000.
The Form 2441 itself is a two page document. The first part requires information about the care provider such as name, address, taxpayer identification number and amount paid. Your safest course of action is to provide a Form W-10 to the daycare provider, for the daycare provider to fill out and give back to you. This is a special form just for daycare providers to fill out to provide their correct taxpayer identification information and certification to you. You can then safely rely on that document and not be concerned about the denial of your deduction if you have incorrect information in this regard. Part II of the Form 2441 requires information on the individuals receiving the care and then calculates the tax credit. Part III deals with dependent care benefits and plays into Part II as well.
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
What Does a Tax Accountant Do After the Last Return is Filed on April 15th?
Filed under: General | Tags: April 15, Pacific Grove, Parents' Place, tax accountant
Leave a Comment Originally published in the Cedar Street Times
April 17, 2015
As I am writing this article, it is the evening of April 15. Phew! I decided to take a break from the Back to Basics series to pen a sigh of relief. Every tax season has its own unique flavor, its own sense of flow and timing, and its own trials and tribulations, but one thing they all have in common is an end date! “End date,” is a rather soft term as there are lots of extended returns to complete during the rest of the year, but the most intense time is over. Sometimes people assume we all have our airline tickets in hand and head off on vacation the very next day. Only once have I tried this…we left for a vacation on April 18th – but it was just too rushed! The reality is that there will still be a flurry of activity over the next few weeks finishing up returns that were close to completion. But the majority of extended returns will be completed later when missing information rolls in.
Sometimes early filers think that only lazy people extend their returns (!), but that is far from the truth. There are many people who are waiting on required information that is beyond their control, and that information may not show up until the summer or even the fall. And occasionally, you will have legitimate situations where required information does not come until after the extended due date in October! For some people, filing an extension allows them to work on their tax details when their business or personal life is slower. And yes, there are the procrastinators as well! But whatever the reason, it is necessary to have extenders, as there is no way tax preparers could prepare every tax return in America by April 15th – especially when Congress is still changing the rules well into January in some years, and then not requiring reporting to taxpayers until late February or March in some situations. Even with extensions, I would love to see America move to a system that spreads return due dates throughout the year, perhaps based on birth dates, or something of that nature. It would be better for taxpayers, for the taxing authorities, and for tax preparers. Maybe I need to run for Congress.
All of this said, I always take April 16th off as a personal day. It just helps to decompress. So what am I doing? I am taking my three-year-old son, Elijah, in the morning to his first gymnastics class. We will then rendezvous with Mommy and nine-month-old Claire at an increasingly familiar dining establishment Elijah calls “Old McDonald’s,” and learn about Mommy and Claire’s time at Parents’ Place in Pacific Grove. In the afternoon, the kids will go to daycare for a few hours while Mommy works. (I half-cringe, every time I use the word “kids” in reference to my children as I had a Political Science teacher in college that wouldn’t tolerate that reference and would always let us know that kids are baby goats. But as one of my English professors in college also said, once you know and understand grammatical rules, then are you free to break them! I like the word “kids,” and I’m sticking to it…besides, a nine-month-old eats anything it can put in its mouth anyway – very goat-like.)
This leaves Daddy all by himself for an afternoon! If it is a nice day, I may take the motorcycle out and cruise down the coast, or maybe play a round of golf. Of course, I will bring my wife some flowers, but I won’t be doing taxes!
We will take a vacation, but not until May, when we head down with some friends and take our “baby goats” to graze in Disneyland for the first time! That should be fun! We will also fit in a third birthday party for my son who turned three on April 3rd. For some reason, Daddy was not able to fit a party into his schedule in early April…sorry, but you are going to have to get used to it kid – besides you were the one that decided to be born two-and-a-half weeks early even though I clearly explained all of this to you while you were in the womb! Elijah loves fire trucks, so we want to extend a special thank you to the people at the Pacific Grove fire station who have agreed to host a bunch of three-year-olds!
Prior articles are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .
Travis H. Long, CPA is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.
Travis H. Long, CPA, Inc. Blog 