Other stuff

On 12/31/19 the IRS published the reference amounts for mileage rates for 2020. Their announcement:

…

Federal mileage rates for 2020Read More »

Recall you must renew your PTIN for next year in order to file tax returns as a paid preparer. Deadline for renewal is December 31.

Again this year there is no charge to renew.

You can start the process here.

It took me just a couple of minutes.

Amid the cute little kids in their funny costumes, this pleasant Halloween night there was a grown man in a suit at the door asking for candy. White shirt, red tie, gray pinstripe.

Not so scary, thought I.

“What are you dressed up as?”

“An auditor,” came the reply.

That’s not frightening, since I’ve been an auditor for a long time. But it did explain the old-style standard issue uniform.

So, putting on my peer reviewer hat, I asked, “what audit work do you do?”

“Oh, only one pension plan….

.

.

.

.

…

A Halloween costume that would make any CPA pass out from fright – an auditor performing one pension plan auditRead More »

The IRS has published the 2019 standard mileage rates. New rate for transportation and reimbursements is 58 cents, which is up from 54.5 cents in 2018. That is an increase of 3.5 cents.

(Cross post from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

New rates from the IRS, along with some comments on the impact of TCJA legislation are found in Notice 2019-02: …

Standard mileage rates for 2019Read More »

Staffing and funding for the IRS division that oversees tax exempt organizations has fallen dramatically in the last six years or so.

According to a behind-the-paywall article at the Washington Post, the budget for the Exempt Organization division has dropped from $102M to $82M between 2011 and FY 2017. That is a $20M decline, or 19.6%.

For the same years, staffing has declined from 889 to 642, according to the article. That is a decline of 247 positions, or 27.8%.

(Cross-posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update, because this issue is of interest to most CPAs.)

…

Reduced staffing and funding for the Exempt Organization division of the IRSRead More »

Recall you must renew your PTIN for next year in order to file tax returns as a paid preparer.

There is no fee for your 2018 renewal. Recall that back in June, a federal court tossed the fee. If I recall correctly from another article, the Treasury appealed the ruling which postponed the refund of all fees paid which the court ordered. I guess that means eventually we will either get our money back or have to start paying the fee again.

You can start the renewal process here.

It took me 8 minutes to renew.  Last year it took 12 minutes plus fifty bucks.

For our freedom, I offer up a humble thank you to all who have gone before standing endless watch, slogging through the jungle mud, freezing in a foxhole, shooting Nazis with a machine gun at 30,000 feet, doing yet another round of dreary maintenance, brought home a life-long injury, or paying the ultimate price fighting to defeat the Confederacy.

Because of millions who did what had to be done, I can say what I wish without fear of being thrown in jail.

It seems so insufficient, but I’ll say it anyway – – Thanks.

 

“It is the soldier, not the reporter,

who has given us freedom of the press.

 

It is the soldier, not the poet,

who has given us freedom of speech.

 

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,

who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

 

It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag and whose coffin is draped by the flag,

who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

Jeremiah A. Denton Jr.