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Obama Signs JOBS Act for Small Businesses into Law

Monday, April 9th, 2012

originally posted on AccountingToday.com on April 5, 2012 – by Michael Cohn

President Obama signed into law on Thursday the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, also known as the JOBS Act, which lowers the regulatory and auditing barriers for companies to seek funding and enter the capital markets.

Congress passed the bill late last month with strong bipartisan support, despite opposition from several investor groups and accounting organizations warning that the bill would weaken auditing safeguards and investor protections (see Congress Passes JOBS Act for Small Business).

“I’ve always said that the true engine of job creation in this country is the private sector, not the government,” Obama said in a speech in the White House Rose Garden to mark the signing of the bill. “Our job is to help our companies grow and hire. That’s why I’ve cut taxes for small businesses over 17 times. That’s why every day I’m fighting to make sure America is the best place on Earth to do business.”

The bill packaged together several bills that had made progress in several congressional committees in the past year, but not been enacted into law until now. It was introduced by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., who praised the bill when it was signed into law.

“Today, I was proud to join my colleagues and members of the business community as the President signed the bipartisan JOBS Act into law,” he said in a statement. “This bipartisan package will spur job creation by removing outdated regulations and increasing access to capital so that small businesses and startups can grow and create jobs. The bipartisan JOBS Act is the culmination of hard work by both parties in Congress, the White House and the business community, especially Steve Case. And, it shows we can set aside our differences and work together on areas of common ground to grow the economy and get people back to work.”

The bill aims to reduce the costs of going public by giving companies a temporary reprieve from certain Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, phasing in the regulations over five years to allow smaller companies to go public sooner. The bill would also create a new category of issuers called emerging growth companies, which would retain that status for five years or until they exceed $1 billion in annual gross revenue or become large accelerated filers.

Another provision would remove an SEC regulatory ban preventing small businesses from using advertisements to solicit investors. The bill also removes SEC restrictions on “crowdfunding” so entrepreneurs can raise equity capital from a large pool of small investors who may or may not be considered “accredited” by the SEC. Companies would be able to pool up to $1 million from investors without registering with the SEC, or up to $2 million if the company provides the SEC with audited financial statements.

Another provision makes it easier for small businesses to go public by increasing the offering threshold for companies exempted from SEC registration from $5 million to $50 million. Another provision removes barriers to capital formation for small companies by raising the shareholder registration requirement threshold from 500 to 1,000 shareholders.

Despite the bipartisan support, the bill provoked warnings from SEC chair Mary Schapiro that it would weaken key investor protections and make it easier for fraudsters to dupe investors. The Consumer Federation of America and the AFL-CIO have also warned about the weakening of investor protections. Some Democratic senators tried to amend the bill to raise the exemption levels. Critics have pointed out that the $1 billion revenue threshold for emerging growth companies would encompass the vast majority of companies that have gone public, not just small businesses.

The Center for Audit Quality, the American Institute of CPAs and the Council of Institutional Investors have also warned about the weakening of Sarbanes-Oxley rules for audits of internal controls by exempting the new category of emerging growth companies from the audits for five years (see Small Business Bill Would Weaken Audit Protections). Under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, only companies with a public float of less than $75 million were exempted from Sarbanes-Oxley audits of their internal controls. In the JOBS Act, the market capitalization level would rise to $700 million. Emerging growth companies would be exempt from the internal control audits for five years, or until they reached that $700 million market cap. Instead of three years of audited financial information, emerging growth companies could go public with only two.

Under the bill, there also would be no requirement to comply with new or revised financial accounting standards for public companies from the Financial Accounting Standards Board until the standards were also applicable to private companies.

Other provisions of the bill would make it easier for financial analysts for the financial firms that underwrite initial public offerings to issue reports on the companies.

Brokers and dealers would be able to arrange for communications between securities analysts and potential investors in an emerging growth company that was planning to go public and securities analysts would be able to participate in communications with the management of an emerging growth company alongside people associated with the brokers or dealers working for the company.

Another provision would allow companies to work out disagreements with regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission outside public view before they go public. That provision might have allowed companies like Groupon to hide their accounting issues before going public.

The bill would also weaken Dodd-Frank Act provisions giving shareholders a say on executive compensation. There would be no requirement for a shareholder “say on pay” for emerging growth companies.

Despite these drawbacks, there was praise for the bill being signed into law from some quarters. Slava Rubin, the CEO of the global crowdfunding site Indiegogo.com, represented the crowdfunding industry at the White House for the signing of the bill and was invited to participate in a private roundtable discussion before the bill signing as well.  He called the signing of the bill “an incredible day for America.”

“This country was built on entrepreneurship and now every American will have an equal opportunity to stimulate tomorrow’s new companies and job growth,” he added.

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Berkshire Tax Return Could be One for the Record Books

Monday, February 27th, 2012

From – AccountingToday.com

Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett hinted in his annual letter to shareholders that the holding company’s nearly 18,000-page tax return may merit the attention of the Guinness Book of World Records.

Referring to the people who work with the operating managers, he noted, “Equally important, however, are the 23 men and women who work with me at our corporate office (all on one floor, which is the way we intend to keep it!). This group efficiently deals with a multitude of SEC and other regulatory requirements and files a 17,839-page Federal income tax return—hello, Guinness!—as well as state and foreign returns.”

Even at that length, though, Berkshire’s tax return would be dwarfed by General Electric’s, which reportedly runs about 57,000 pages, so it probably won’t end up in the record books, for this year at least.

Buffett’s tax policies have generated considerable attention in the past year after he wrote a New York Times editorial calling for changes in the Tax Code to tax the “super-rich” at a higher rate to ensure they don’t pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries (see Buffett Says Tax Code is ‘Coddling the Super-Rich’). The editorial led to the “so-called” Buffett Rule, which President Obama cited in his State of the Union address and included in his 2013 budget plan. However, Buffett has also been criticized for the disputes that his company has gotten into with the Internal Revenue Service over the back taxes that the IRS says it owes.

“Investing is often described as the process of laying out money now in the expectation of receiving more money in the future,” Buffett wrote in his shareholder letter Saturday. “At Berkshire we take a more demanding approach, defining investing as the transfer to others of purchasing power now with the reasoned expectation of receiving more purchasing power—after taxes have been paid on nominal gains—in the future. More succinctly, investing is forgoing consumption now in order to have the ability to consume more at a later date.” For more information please see Berkshire Tax Return Could be One for the Record Books on AccountingToday.com.

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IRS Has $1 Billion for People Who Have Not Filed a 2008 Income Tax Return

Friday, February 24th, 2012

From – IRS Newswire


WASHINGTON — Refunds totaling more than $1 billion may be waiting for one million people who did not file a federal income tax return for 2008, the Internal Revenue Service announced today. However, to collect the money, a return for 2008 must be filed with the IRS no later than Tuesday, April 17, 2012.

The IRS estimates that half of these potential 2008 refunds are $637 or more.

Some people may not have filed because they had too little income to require filing a tax return even though they had taxes withheld from their wages or made quarterly estimated payments. In cases where a return was not filed, the law provides most taxpayers with a three-year window of opportunity for claiming a refund. If no return is filed to claim a refund within three years, the money becomes property of the U.S. Treasury.

For 2008 returns, the window closes on April 17, 2012. The law requires that the return be properly addressed, mailed and postmarked by that date. There is no penalty for filing a late return qualifying for a refund.

The IRS reminds taxpayers seeking a 2008 refund that their checks may be held if they have not filed tax returns for 2009 and 2010. In addition, the refund will be applied to any amounts still owed to the IRS, and may be used to offset unpaid child support or past due federal debts such as student loans.

By failing to file a return, people stand to lose more than refunds of taxes withheld or paid during 2008. Some people, especially those who did not receive an economic stimulus payment in 2008, may qualify for the Recovery Rebate Credit. In addition, many low-and moderate-income workers may not have claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The EITC helps individuals and families whose incomes are below certain thresholds. The thresholds for 2008 were:

  • $38,646 ($41,646 if married filing jointly) for those with two or more qualifying children,
  • $33,995 ($36,995 if married filing jointly) for people with one qualifying child, and
  • $12,880 ($15,880 if married filing jointly) for those with no qualifying children.

For more information, visit the EITC Home Page on IRS.gov.

Current and prior year tax forms and instructions are available on the Forms and Publications page of IRS.gov or by calling toll-free 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676). Taxpayers who are missing Forms W-2, 1098, 1099 or 5498 for 2008, 2009 or 2010 should request copies from their employer, bank or other payer. If these efforts are unsuccessful, taxpayers can get a free transcript showing information from these year-end documents by ordering it on IRS.gov, filing Form 4506-T, or by calling 800-908-9946.

Individuals Who Did Not File a 2008 Return with a Potential Refund

State

Individuals

Median

Potential

Refund

Total

Potential

Refunds ($000)*

Alabama

18,400

$641

$15,738

Alaska

5,800

$641

$5,952

Arizona

29,000

$558

$24,913

Arkansas

9,600

$620

$8,152

California

122,500

$595

$112,201

Colorado

20,500

$589

$18,909

Connecticut

12,500

$697

$13,893

Delaware

4,200

$644

$3,784

District of Columbia

4,000

$642

$3,791

Florida

70,400

$650

$66,974

Georgia

35,800

$581

$30,661

Hawaii

7,600

$714

$8,307

Idaho

4,700

$541

$3,878

Illinois

40,800

$692

$40,712

Indiana

21,800

$664

$19,590

Iowa

10,600

$658

$9,295

Kansas

11,500

$631

$10,084

Kentucky

12,300

$640

$10,501

Louisiana

20,500

$662

$18,859

Maine

4,000

$579

$3,248

Maryland

24,600

$641

$22,591

Massachusetts

23,900

$699

$22,957

Michigan

33,300

$660

$30,903

Minnesota

15,200

$584

$12,772

Mississippi

9,900

$591

$8,254

Missouri

21,600

$593

$18,213

Montana

3,600

$599

$3,192

Nebraska

5,100

$623

$4,371

Nevada

14,500

$619

$13,381

New Hampshire

4,300

$733

$4,518

New Jersey

31,300

$716

$31,185

New Mexico

8,000

$611

$7,420

New York

60,300

$686

$61,240

North Carolina

30,800

$558

$24,997

North Dakota

2,000

$625

$1,895

Ohio

36,400

$622

$31,018

Oklahoma

16,800

$620

$14,787

Oregon

18,500

$527

$14,819

Pennsylvania

38,700

$695

$35,565

Rhode Island

3,400

$674

$3,040

South Carolina

12,200

$547

$10,158

South Dakota

2,300

$669

$2,234

Tennessee

18,400

$626

$16,130

Texas

96,200

$689

$97,057

Utah

7,800

$536

$6,676

Vermont

1,700

$647

$1,410

Virginia

30,800

$624

$28,670

Washington

29,900

$705

$32,138

West Virginia

4,300

$687

$4,068

Wisconsin

14,100

$592

$11,885

Wyoming

2,600

$773

$2,919

Grand Total

1,089,000

$637

$1,009,905

*Excluding the Earned Income Tax Credit and other credits.

For more information please see IRS Has $1 Billion for People Who Have Not Filed a 2008 Income Tax Return at IRS.gov

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‘Taxmageddon’ looms at end of payroll tax holiday

Monday, February 20th, 2012

From – Washingtonpost.com

With Congress voting last week to extend the payroll tax holiday, 160 million workers will be spared an immediate tax hike. But the move leaves them facing an even bigger hit in January, when the holiday ends and the payroll tax joins a long list of levies already set to sharply and abruptly go up.

On Dec. 31, the George W. Bush-era tax cuts are scheduled to expire, raising rates on investment income, estates and gifts, and earnings at all levels. Overnight, the marriage penalty for joint filers will spring back to life, the value of the child credit will drop from $1,000 to $500, and the rate everyone pays on the first $8,700 of wages will jump from 10 percent to 15 percent.

The Social Security payroll tax will pop back up to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent under the deal approved Friday by Congress. And new Medicare taxes enacted as part of President Obama’s health-care initiative will for the first time strike high-income households.

The potential shock to the nation’s pocketbook is so enormous, congressional aides have dubbed it “Taxmageddon.” Some economists say it could push the fragile U.S. economy back into recession, particularly if automatic cuts to federal agencies, also set for January, are permitted to take effect.

Obama and congressional Republicans say they hope to avert the coming blow, which stands to suck roughly $500 billion out of the economy in 2013. But both sides are bracing for another epic showdown in the weeks after the November election, as Democrats prepare to use Taxmageddon to break the partisan impasse over taxes that has blocked action on an array of issues, from modernizing the nation’s infrastructure to taming the national debt.

“I see the framework of a big agreement in the lame-duck [congressional session] to finally put this divisiveness behind us,” said Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), a senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee. “Obama’s going to have great leverage to get something done.”

Since they took control of the House last year, congressional Republicans have needed nothing from Obama. They were the holdouts, demanding big cuts in federal spending in exchange for helping Obama keep the government open and raise the legal limit on government borrowing, known as the debt ceiling.

But in December, deadlock will cut the other way. Republicans need Obama if they want to prevent one of the biggest tax increases in U.S. history — nearly $5 trillion over the next decade, by official estimates — and block deep cuts to the Pentagon that could be triggered as part of last summer’s debt-ceiling accord.

The tax shock is set to occur after the Nov. 6 election but before the new Congress — and potentially a new president — take office two months later. While the outcome of the contest is likely to color the tax debate, Obama will either be freshly reelected or on his way out and, therefore, free to play hardball with Congress.

White House officials say Obama will not sign another full extension of the Bush tax cuts, as he did in December 2010. Obama is demanding a partial extension that would preserve the cuts for middle-class taxpayers but permit rates to rise on household income over $250,000.

“The president has made clear that he will veto any bill that extends the Bush-era tax rates for the wealthiest 2 percent of individuals,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said. “We will continue to fight for tax relief for the middle class and those trying to get in it, while insisting on a policy that asks the wealthiest individuals to pay their fair share.”

Many Republicans and outside analysts say they doubt Obama would make good on his veto threat. Allowing all of the Bush tax cuts to expire would harm middle-class taxpayers, along with the wealthy, and carry grave risks for the economy.

“My forecast is that tax rates are not going to rise for everyone on January 1, 2013,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, who predicted that Taxmageddon, combined with the cuts from the debt-ceiling deal, would slash economic growth by nearly three percentage points next year. “That would be pretty difficult for the economy to overcome.”

Still, Democratic spines may be stiffened by polls showing broad support for their latest tax strategy, which emphasizes higher taxes for millionaires rather than the merely well-off. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 72 percent of Americans support raising taxes on people with incomes over $1 million a year, in line with Obama’s call for a “Buffett Rule” that would require those families to pay an effective tax rate of at least 30 percent.

“The tax issue, for the first time in decades, has flipped so Democrats actually have the high ground,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), the No. 3 Senate Democrat and the man who came up with the idea of raising the income threshold. “Most Americans share our belief that, while the middle class should not pay an increase in taxes, the wealthiest among us should.”

He said Senate Democrats plan to press that advantage in the coming months, staging numerous votes on issues of tax “fairness.” Republican reluctance to target the rich is their “Achilles’ heel” politically, he said.

Schumer predicted that before November, Republicans would drop their opposition to tax increases for millionaires. “Politically, it’s going to be very harmful to say, ‘I’m not for something like the Buffett Rule, when even 60 percent of Republicans are for it,” he said.

Many Republicans maintain that they would never raise taxes on a group the GOP views as small-business owners and “job creators.” Besides, Republican strategists said, they are likely to have bargaining chips of their own in December.

For instance, without congressional action, nearly 30 million families will have to pay the alternative minimum tax, which adds thousands of dollars to the average tax bill, in April 2013. Congress typically protects those people through annual adjustments, and the latest “AMT patch” expired in December.

Another potential GOP tactical advantage: the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner acknowledged in congressional testimony last week that Obama may need Congress to raise the legal limit on borrowing, now set at $16.4 trillion, before the end of the year.

“This idea that they hold all the cards? They don’t,” said a senior Republican Senate aide. “We’ve got more leverage than these crowing Democrats like to think.”

Then there’s the matter of the election itself. With control of both chambers of Congress and the White House all potentially in play Nov. 6, the voters could upend Democrats’ best-laid plans. If Republicans claim the White House and the Senate after an election waged in part over tax policy, demoralized Democrats might agree to extend all the Bush cuts without a fight.

“It depends on who’s president,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. If Obama is reelected and Democrats hold the Senate, he said, “it makes it much more difficult” for Republicans to press for a full extension.

While some Republicans are ready to man the tax barricades, among others the GOP’s anti-tax orthodoxy is starting to crack. Forty Republicans in the House and 32 in the Senate have endorsed the concept of a grand bargain to tackle the national debt, which would require Republicans to raise taxes and Democrats to accept cuts in federal health and retirement benefits. With Obama continuing to call for a grand bargain, that group is working with Democrats behind the scenes to draft a plan able to win bipartisan support.

Meanwhile, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) has said he would take higher taxes over defense cuts. And during unsuccessful debt-reduction talks last year, Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), one of the Senate’s most ardent conservatives, drafted a plan that would have included $300 billion in new revenue over a decade.

“I think one of the reasons that you saw Pat Toomey offer what he did is a realization that we’re going to have a $5 trillion tax increase at the end of the year,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). “Hopefully, this year we’ll actually do something constructive and work out something that’s sensible over the long haul.”

For more information please see Taxageddon looms at end of payroll tax holiday at the Washingtonpost.com

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New IRS tax gap numbers highlight future audit areas

Monday, February 20th, 2012
From – Beyond415.com

The IRS’ recently released tax gap study, which measures data from 2006 returns, shows that the tax gap has increased from $345 billion dollars a year in 2001 to $450 billion in 2006. The majority of the tax gap (83%) can be attributed to underreporting, which includes understating income and overstating deductions. The IRS has several tools to narrow the underreporting tax gap, including pre-refund notices and return rejections, underreporter inquiries and, most significantly, audits.

The IRS will focus its limited audit resources in the following areas, which have the highest rates of misreporting.

On Jan. 26, the IRS also modified its online payment arrangement (OPA) application at IRS.gov to allow for taxpayers to request installment agreements for balances of up to $50,000. The current application allows for balances of up to $25,000 and payment terms of up to five years.

Information reporting and disclosures

The IRS continues to use tax return disclosures and third-party information to better select taxpayers for audit. Specifically, look for the IRS to use information to address the following issues:

  • Misreporting stock basis: The IRS issued regulations under a new law that will require stock brokers and mutual fund companies to report basis and other information for most stock purchased in 2011 and all stock purchased in 2012 and later. Form 1099-B will report the information to investors and the IRS. The IRS will use the underreporter notice program and audits to correct perceived misreporting in this area.
  • Underreporting business income: Form 1099-K reporting is now required for recipients of payment card transactions or payments through third-party network arrangements, such as PayPal. The IRS expects to receive more than 56 million Forms 1099-K in 2012 that it can match against filed and unfiled tax returns.
  • Uncertain tax position reporting for large corporations: In 2011, certain large corporations were required to start disclosing an uncertain tax position (UTP) on their 2010 tax returns. A UTP is generally defined as a stance on a tax return in which the corporation sets aside a reserve to either pay the higher amount of tax later or litigate the matter in the future. The transparency in reporting a UTP allows the IRS to better select returns for audit.
  • Offshore tax disclosure compliance: The IRS and the Department of Justice are continuing to press foreign financial institutions, especially Swiss banks, to disclose US account holders. The IRS has embarked on its third voluntary disclosure program to allow taxpayers to disclose foreign assets and income.
  • Worker classification: The IRS is conducting a three-year National Research Program study of employment tax noncompliance. The tax gap study concluded that 17% of the tax gap can be attributed to underreporting and underpayment of employment taxes. The main issue is proper worker classification – that is, independent contractor or employee. The IRS knows there is noncompliance in this area. In fact, employment tax audits have a change rate of more than 86%. The IRS has a strategic motivation for reclassifying workers as independent contractors: Form W-2 recipients are 99% compliant, whereas the misreporting percentage of independent contractors and small business owners is 43%.

Small businesses

According to the IRS, small business underreporting makes up 40% of the tax gap, or about $179 billion a year. With a limited budget for 2012, the IRS will continue to focus on this area.

  • Cash-based businesses: Taxpayers who do not receive information statements, such as many small cash-based businesses, are the most noncompliant. An IRS study showed that information reporting and fear of an audit were important factors contributing to voluntary compliance, ranking directly after a taxpayer’s personal integrity. The IRS will continue to focus on retail, web and service businesses in audits to find unreported income.
  • Deduction of S corporation and partnership losses: In 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that 68% of all S corporation returns misreported at least one item. However, more alarming to the IRS were inaccurate S corporation losses taken on shareholder tax returns. The losses were most often inaccurate because of insufficient basis to deduct the loss. The average error per return was $21,600. Because more than 90% of all S corporations use a paid preparer, look for the IRS to leverage tax preparers to correct this misreporting and deter noncompliance by proposing preparer penalties in this area.
  • S corporation shareholder compensation: The same 2009 GAO study also concluded that S corporation shareholders are underpaying themselves to avoid employment taxes on wages. About 13% of S corporations are paying inadequate wage compensation and making payments in the form of distributions that are not subject to self-employment tax (unlike partnership distributions). The median misreporting adjustment for underpaid shareholder compensation was $20,127 – a loss of about $1.5 billion a year in unreported employment taxes. The IRS has already shown an interest in examining more 2011 S corporation returns.

For more information please see New IRS tax gap numbers highlight future audit areas at Beyond415.com

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Jobless rate at 3-year low as payrolls surge

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

From – Reuters

The United States created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to a near three-year low, giving a boost to President Barack Obama.

Nonfarm payrolls jumped 243,000, the Labor Department said on Friday, as factory jobs grew by the most in a year. The jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent – the lowest since February 2009 – from 8.5 percent in December.

The gain in employment was the largest since April and it far outstripped the 150,000 predicted in a Reuters poll of economists. It hinted at underlying economic strength and lessened chances of further stimulus from the Federal Reserve.

“More pistons in the economic engine have begun to fire, pointing to accelerating economic growth. One of the happiest persons reading this job report is President Obama,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University Channel Islands.

The payroll gains were widespread – from retail to temporary help, and from construction to manufacturing – an indication the recovery was becoming more durable.

A survey of households showed the unemployment rate declined even as new job seekers flooded into the labor force. Economists had expected the jobless rate, which has now fallen 0.8 percentage point since August, to hold steady.

“I think this is a sign that maybe the economy is reaching that holy grail of a self-sustaining economic expansion,” Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh, told Reuters Insider.

The outlook was further brightened by a separate report showing service sector activity quickened last month to a near one-year high. A gauge of service sector employment touched a six-year high.

The fairly upbeat data buoyed stocks on Wall Street, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index hitting an 11-year high. The Dow Jones industrial average rose to a near four year high, while the Standard & Poor’s index extended its 2012 advance to about 7 percent.

U.S. Treasury debt prices tumbled as investors dialed back expectations on Fed easing. The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies after rising earlier in the session.

The employment report contrasted with a fairly glum assessment of the economy offered by the Fed last week.

Officials at the central bank have been debating whether to buy more bonds – a program dubbed QE3 – to drive interest rates lower. It also raised doubts about the Fed’s expectation that it could hold interest rates near zero at least through late 2014.

“At the very least this scales back QE3 (quantitative easing) odds. The surprisingly persistent decline in the unemployment rate also calls into question how firmly wedded the Fed is to the late-2014 rate guidance,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

Interest rate futures indicated that at least some traders were beginning to lay bets the Fed could move interest rates up in early 2014.

Fed fund futures were pricing in a 38 percent chance of a January 2014 rate hike, up from 29 percent before the report, and the first better than even chance of a rate hike was in April 2014, according to CME Group, where the contracts are traded.

However, economists at most leading Wall Street firms still believe the Fed will undertake another bond-buying program, according to a Reuters poll.

DON’T MUCK IT UP

Obama welcomed the strong jobs report and urged Congress to extend a payroll tax cut and benefits for long-term unemployed, which expire at the end of this month.

“Now is not is not the time for self-inflicted wounds to our economy. I want to send a clear message for Congress. Do not slow down the recovery that we are on, don’t muck it up,” he said at a firehouse in Arlington, Virginia.

Republicans acknowledged the improvement in the labor market, but said the jobless rate was still too high.

“Our economy still isn’t creating jobs the way it should be and that’s why we need a new approach,” said House Speaker John Boehner.

While employment growth has quickened there are no jobs for three out of every four unemployed people and 23.8 million Americans are either out of work or underemployed. The level of employment is still 5.57 million from its pre-recession level.

But steady progress is being made. The economy added 60,000 more jobs in November and December than previously reported.

In addition, average hourly earnings rose four cents, which should help to support spending. The report suggested that expectations of a slowdown in U.S. economic growth in the first quarter were not yet impacting on companies’ hiring decisions.

Employment in the private sector surged 257,000 – the largest gain since April. Government payrolls fell 14,000, the least since September.

U.S. economic growth accelerated to a 2.8 percent annual rate in the final three months of 2011, but it was widely expected to slow as businesses ease back on efforts to rebuild inventories and exports slip amid a likely recession in Europe.

Some economists cautioned that January’s jobs figures could overstate the pulse of the recovery, citing still lackluster consumer confidence, income and spending growth.

While some said the jobless rate could drop below 8 percent by year end, others warned it would likely move up in the near-term as people who had given up the search for a job re-enter the workforce.

“For this to mark an upturn in the labor market, then businesses will have to continue to hire on this scale throughout the winter,” said Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board in New York.

CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

The unemployment rate has now declined for five straight months, although part of the drop reflects discouraged Americans giving up the hunt for work.

A broad measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have stopped looking and those working only part time but who want more work, slipped to a near three-year low of 15.1 percent in January from 15.2 percent in December.

Revisions to the payrolls figures showed 180,000 more jobs were created last year than previously believed.

Mild winter weather boosted employment last month in construction, which added 21,000 jobs after a 31,000 increase in December. Manufacturing payrolls surged 50,000, the largest gain in a year, after rising 32,000 the prior month.

Overall, the goods-producing sector added 81,000 jobs last month, the most since January 2006.

Transportation and warehousing employment increased 13,100 and courier jobs only fell 1,500. Last month, the Labor Department reported a large increase in courier jobs in December, but revisions showed they actually declined.

Retail employment rose 10,500 after gaining 6,200 in December. Temporary help services jumped 20,100 after rising 8,300, a potentially good sign for future permanent hiring. For more information please see Jobless rate at 3-year as payrolls surge on Reuters.

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Tax issues to watch for when working from home

Friday, January 6th, 2012

From – Journal of Accountancy

With unemployment still near the highest rate in decades, it is not surprising to find many people working out of their homes. Now may be a good time to review the criteria for claiming a deduction for the business use of part of a person’s residence.

Your home office must be used in a trade or business activity. You cannot take a deduction if you use your home for a profit-seeking activity that is not a trade or business. For example, if you use part of your home to manage your personal investments, you cannot take a home office deduction.

The home office must be used regularly and exclusively for business. You must regularly use a room or other separately identifiable area of your home only for your business. You do not meet this requirement if you use the area for both business and personal purposes. For example, an attorney who writes legal briefs at the kitchen table cannot claim a home office deduction for the kitchen.

You do not have to meet the exclusive-use test if you use part of your home to store inventory or product samples or as a day care facility.

Your home office must be one of the following:

  • Your principal place of business. Your home office also will qualify as your principal place of business if you use it regularly for administrative activities and you have no other fixed location where you conduct substantial administrative activities; or
  • A place to meet with patients, clients or customers in the normal course of your business. Using your home for occasional meetings and telephone calls is insufficient; or
  • A separate structure not attached to the dwelling unit used for trade or business purposes. The structure does not have to be your principal place of business or a place where you meet patients, clients or customers. For example, John operates a floral shop in town. He grows plants in a greenhouse behind his home and sells them in his shop. He uses the greenhouse exclusively and regularly in his business. Even though it is not his principal place of business, because it is separate from his dwelling, he can deduct the expenses for its use.

If you are an employee, you must use your home office for the convenience of your employer. If the employer does not require the employee to work from home and provides an office or work space elsewhere, a home office is likely to be considered a matter of the employee’s convenience and therefore not deductible.

Even if the taxpayer’s home office meets the above rules, the deduction may be limited. Expenses attributable to business use that you could deduct even if the home were not used for business, such as home mortgage interest and real estate taxes, are fully deductible. Otherwise, home office expenses are deductible only to the extent of gross business income, reduced by other allowable business expenses unrelated to the home; any expenses that are not deductible due to the income limitation may be carried forward.

For more information please see Home Office Deduction at Journal of Accountancy.

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IRS Needs to Do Better Audits of Small Corporations

Monday, December 12th, 2011

From AccountingToday

The Internal Revenue Service has been doing a better job of auditing small corporations in recent years, according to a new government report, but potential quality concerns remain.

The report, from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, reviewed whether IRS examiners followed the appropriate procedures and guidelines when they audited the tax returns of small corporations with assets of less than $10 million.

Many corporations in the United States are considered closely held because they are owned by one shareholder or a closely knit group of shareholders, TIGTA noted. These shareholders typically exercise significant control over managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the corporation, providing them with opportunities to improperly structure transactions that reduce the amount of income taxes owed by the small corporation or its shareholders.

TIGTA found that the IRS has established many key procedures and guidelines for auditing such returns. That may have contributed to the increasing amount of recommended additional taxes generated by the audits.

However, when TIGTA reviewed a nonstatistical sample of 51 closed corporate audits, it found potential quality concerns in 19 of them. For example, IRS examiners did not always document the steps taken to investigate significant differences between the labor costs deducted in the corporate return and the amounts reflected on employment tax returns filed with the IRS.

Many of the quality concerns involved issues between the corporate return and other tax returns that were or should have been filed by the corporation, such as information returns and employment tax returns, or which were related to it, such as the shareholder’s individual tax return).

“Corporations and shareholders that understate their tax liabilities can create an unfair burden on honest taxpayers and diminish the public’s respect for the tax system,” said TIGTA Inspector General J. Russell George in a statement.

TIGTA recommended that the IRS provide additional guidance to first-line managers to improve the feedback provided to field examiners on using the IRS’s automated information systems to enhance the quality of their required filing checks for audits of small corporations.

IRS officials agreed with the recommendation and plan to issue a memorandum to first-line managers concerning the use of automated information systems to enhance required filing checks and address feedback provided to field examiners.

“We believe ensuring compliance with the filing of all related returns is an important audit technique to enhance voluntary compliance and concur with your recommendation,” wrote Faris R. Fink, commissioner of the IRS’s Small Business/Self-Employed Division.

For more information please see IRS Needs to Do Better Audits of Small Corporations at www.accountingtoday.com.

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Senators Introduce Online Sales Tax Bill

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

From www.accountingtoday.com

A bipartisan group of 10 senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would give states the option to collect the sales taxes they are owed under current law from out-of-state businesses, rather than rely on consumers to pay those taxes to the states.

The bill, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, would give states the option to collect sales and use tax revenues from out-of-state sellers through a new, simplified tax system. Among the senators sponsoring the bill are Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.

The bill resembles another piece of legislation, the Main Street Fairness Act, which was introduced in July by Durbin and several other Democratic lawmakers, but now includes support from some key Republicans and conservative groups (see Congress Introduces Bill to Collect Online Sales Taxes).

Like the earlier bill, it relies on the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement that is already in use by 24 states. However, the emphasis with the new bill is on the fact that it would not impose any new taxes, but merely collect taxes that are already owed, and it gives states the option not to collect the sales taxes, preserving states’ rights.

“This legislation would give states the ability to close the online sales-tax loophole, created when out-of-state sellers don’t collect, and purchasers don’t pay, the state sales tax—even though they still owe it,” Alexander said in a statement. “The legislation addresses a states’ rights issue: preserving the right of states to collect—or to decide not to collect—taxes that are already owed under state law.”

The legislation would streamline the country’s more than 7,500 diverse sales tax jurisdictions and provide two options by which states could begin collecting sales taxes from online and catalog purchases.

States that voluntarily become member states of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, or SSUTA, would be able to require remote sellers to collect and remit sales and use taxes after 90 days.

The agreement would help harmonize states sales and use tax rules, bring uniformity to the definitions of items in the sales tax base, reduce the paperwork burden on retailers, and incorporate new technology to modernize administrative procedures.

States that do not wish to become members of SSUTA would be allowed to collect the taxes only if they adopt certain minimum simplification requirements and provide sellers with additional notices on the collection requirements.

“For over a decade, Congress has been debating how to best allow states to collect sales taxes from online retailers in a way that puts Main Street businesses on a level playing field with online retailers,” said Enzi. “This bill empowers states to make the decision themselves. If they choose to collect already existing sales taxes on all purchases, regardless of whether the sale was online or in store, they can. If they want to keep things the way they are, it’s a state’s choice.”

Enzi read a letter from Amazon.com supporting the bill. Amazon also released a statement conforming its support. “Amazon strongly supports enactment of the Enzi-Durbin-Alexander bill and will work with Congress, retailers, and the states to get this bi-partisan legislation passed,” said Amazon vice president of global public policy Paul Misener. “It’s a win-win resolution—and as analysts have noted, Amazon offers customers the best prices with or without sales tax.”

Alexander noted that a version of the legislation introduced in the House has also won the support of the American Conservative Union.

The legislation exempts sellers who make less than $500,000 in total remote sales in the year preceding the sale to qualify for an exemption and not be required to collect the tax.

“Most small business people don’t want a government handout,” said Durbin. “They don’t want special treatment. They just want to be able to compete fairly against other businesses. That’s why I have worked with Senators Enzi and Alexander to introduce the Marketplace Fairness Act—a bipartisan bill to level the playing field for local main street businesses.”

Senators Tim Johnson, D-S.D., John Boozman, R-Ark., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., are also co-sponsors of the legislation.

Under the Supreme Court’s 1992 Quill decision, retailers are only required to collect sales tax in the states where they also have a physical presence, also known as nexus, while consumers are required to report to state tax departments any sales taxes they owe for online purchases. As a result, local retailers are at a competitive disadvantage because they must collect sales taxes at the point of sale while out-of-state retailers, including many large online and catalog retailers, in effect give their customers a discount by collecting no state or local sales taxes.

As with the earlier bill introduced by Durbin, eBay registered its objection, however. “This is another Internet sales tax bill that fails to protect small business retailers using the Internet and will unbalance the playing field between giant retailers and small business competitors,” said eBay vice president for government relations and deputy general counsel Tod Cohen. “It does not make sense to expand Internet sales tax burdens on small businesses at a time when we want entrepreneurs to create jobs and economic activity.”

Alexander predicted on the Senate floor that the legislation ultimately would be passed. “This problem’s been there for a long time,” he said. “It’s had the opposition of conservatives worried about taxes. It’s had the opposition of Amazon and other online sellers. The Supreme Court said 20 years ago that it was too complicated for out-of-state vendors to figure out how to collect sales taxes when something is purchased and sent to the state, which is what the Main Street seller does, and maybe that was true 20 years ago. But the Supreme Court said 20 years ago, it invited us in Congress to solve this problem, and Senator Enzi and Senator Durbin with this legislation in my opinion have solved the problem, and this is going to happen. I’m not presumptuous enough to predict what the United States Congress will do and what the President will sign, but I think I’ve been around long enough, and I’ve watched Congress enough to say this is going to happen. And if I were a governor, or I were an online retailer, or I were a catalog retailer, I would make my plans to conduct my business in this way.” For more information please see Senators Introduce Online Sales Tax Bill at www.accountingtoday.com.

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IRS Allows Tax Break for Bonuses

Monday, November 14th, 2011

From-www.accountingtoday.com

The Internal Revenue Service has issued a revenue ruling permitting an employer that is using an accrual method of accounting to take a deduction in the current year for a fixed amount of bonuses payable to a group of employees, even though the employer does not know which of the employees will receive a bonus or the amount of any particular bonus until after the end of the taxable year.

Under Revenue Ruling 2011-29, employers could take a deduction on the bonuses, whether or not the employees has determined who will receive the bonus.

“In other words, the entire amount of the bonus pool will be paid to members of the group of employees in the following year, but at the end of the current year the employer doesn’t yet know which particular employees will receive any bonus or how much,” the IRS said when issuing the revenue ruling Wednesday.

The revenue ruling could prove helpful in particular to financial firms that typically award year-end bonuses to high-performing employees. Wall Street banks are expected to pay lower year-end bonuses this year as a result of the trading volatility this past year. Other types of companies could also benefit. In the revenue ruling, the IRS cited court precedents involving the Washington Post Company and casino operator Hughes Properties. For more information please visit, IRS Allows Tax Break for Bonuses, on the Accounting Today website, www.accountingtoday.com.

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