PAUL’S TAX BLOG

It's been well over a month since my last posting and I’mfeeling pretty guilty about it. Instead of having a typical slow January ouroffice started right off into tax season the first week. And we have been goingstrong ever since. I guess that’s a good thing. In previous postings I have, on occasion, been somewhatcritical of IRS employees. My experience with the local representatives hasrarely left me with good impressions in terms of training or knowledge. Theyjust don’t seem to be where they ought to be in order to do the best job forthe government, or the taxpayer, which in...

Last week I linked you to information about personal tax planning and things you should consider now to reduce your tax burden for 2011. Most of those items dealt primarily with individual taxes. In case you are running a business and interested in what’s coming at you in 2012, I had an article published last week in the Long Beach Business Journal that touched on the major items you should be aware of that are changing, effective next week. Here’s wishing all of you a safe and a Happy New Year! Paul Read more tax articles from Paul's tax blog

It’s been about two months since I wrote my last entry here. In that blog, I said I was heading for the Eastern Sierras in search of places with no cell service. I’m happy to report that because Verizon has such good coverage these days it took me a great deal of time looking for that place. I spent six weekends this fall out in the field and it was wonderful. I never did quite find it though, and I will probably have to go back and continue the search… However, it’s the holidays and year end, and I would...

October 15th (17th this year) is a huge date for us in the tax realm. It’s the final extended due date for late filers to get their tax returns in on time. While April 15th gets a lot of publicity, historically October has been busier for our firm than April due to all the folks who go on extension. Some extend because they can’t get all their info to us by April 15th, but many are simply procrastinators who wait until the last minute to file. Want to drive your CPA crazy? Here are some tips on how to do...

Sometimes at the slightest hint of a problem with their taxes, clients’ fear of the government prompts them to ask “I won’t go to prison, will I?” If you make an honest mistake or have a unique situation where the facts aren’t entirely clear, you may be facing some penalties and interest, but you needn’t be worried about jail time. However a recent case decided in District court picked up a couple local business people who went too far… two adult entertainment execs from Cypress, CA plead guilty to deliberately falsifying tax returns. The business, Universal Media Management was in...

Just across the wires today: Amazon has reached a deal with California lawmakers to drop Amazon’s efforts to seek a referendum to stop CA pols from assessing sales tax on internet transactions forwarded to Amazon.com from CA websites. In exchange for Amazon suspending its efforts, CA will not attempt to collect the tax for one year. There is also a legal challenge looming for this law as well. CA politicians are not eager to have their taxes deemed unconstitutional by a court, and I suspect that Amazon was hoping to avoid the costs of litigating this issue. Both sides want...