E-File Magic 1099 Software – Blog

The IRS has announced that mortgage insurance premiums will be treated as qualified residence interest.  This provision did expire on 12/31/11, it has now been extended, due to The American Taxpayer Relief Act and will expire on 12/31/13.

Mortgage insurance premiums needs to be reported in box 4 of Form 1098.

E-File Magic has updated our software, forms and Excel Template to reflect this change.

Download our 1098 software today!

January is a month we love here at E-File Magic!  It’s our busiest month, and we work all year to get the software and website ready for the 1099 Filing Season.  You might think we’re strange, but we love tax forms and we are more than happy to help you with using our software or submitting your Excel Orders.

If you have a question, send us an email at support@efilemagic.com or give us a call at 877-836-6680. Our customer support hours are: Monday – Friday 8:00am to 5:30pm PST.

At E-File Magic, we love hearing feedback on your experiences with our service.  Please feel free to send an email with any thoughts, concerns or compliments!

We hope using our services will help you enjoy tax season a little more as well.

Download our E-File by Excel Template Today!

Man, every time I go to Vegas I hope to win the car.   You know what I’m talking about, it’s the shiny car sitting on top of the slot machines.  I walk into the casino and think, “I feel lucky today, I should sit down and play a couple rounds on this slot machine.” Alas, the only thing I walk away with from the car giveaway slot machines is an empty purse.

If I did win the car I would be thrilled!  I would be able to drive it home – hair blowing in the wind, radio up loud listening to my favorite music. Along with my shiny convertible the casino would also give me a W2-G!

Form W2-G, Certain Gambling Winnings, will describe the Fair Market Value of the my winnings for the IRS and the amount of taxes I paid, if any, towards my winnings.

Now, here’s something I learned about gambling winnings by reading the W2-G Instructions; you have to pay taxes on your noncash payment.  My shiny red convertible would be a noncash payment.  According to the instructions, “If the FMV exceeds $5,000, after deducting the price of the wager, the winnings are subject to 25% regular gambling withholding. The tax you must withold is computed and paid under either of the following two methods: 1) The winner pays the withholding tax to the payer.  In this case, the withholding is 25% of the FMV (Fair Market Value) of the noncash payment minus the amount of the wager.  Or 2) The payer pays the withholding tax,  In this case, the withholding is 33.33% of the FMV of the noncash payment minus the amount of the wager.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I doubt the casino (payer) will pay the taxes on the gambling winnings of my car so option 1 will probably be the more common scenario.  I guess I better start saving up for the next time I go to Las Vegas.  That way I’ll have extra money to pay for the taxes on my new car!

Download E-File Magic W2-G Software Today!

I don’t know anyone who loves getting a letter from the IRS (unless it’s a letter stating their was a mathematical error on their tax return and they are getting a bigger refund).  And I also don’t know many people who like finding out after the fact that the Tax ID numbers on their  1099 forms  didn’t match the recipients name.  To help avoid both of these issues use our Bulk TIN Matching service.

It’s simple to use, all you have to do is download our software, enter your recipient data, validate the recipient information and click on the TIN Matching Service Tab.  We will send your data to the IRS and let you know when we get a response on whether your recipients names and TINs match or not.

Download E-File Magic Bulk TIN Matching Software!

The last couple of blogs I’ve mentioned our 1099 processing software.  Today, I decided to talk a little bit about our other service, E-File by Excel.

E-File by Excel is a super easy way to file your 1099′s.  All you have to do is download our template, fill in the Company Information, fill in the Recipient Information into the proper forms and upload the completed template to us. We take care of the rest.

After our E-File Magic Team processes your template we will email you a finished PDF copy of your forms and E-File your data to the IRS.

You can also customize your order by adding our Bulk-TIN Matching and our Print and Mail services.

E-File by Excel Service will make the busy tax time of year a bit easier!

One big question we get a lot here at E-File Magic is what to put in box 3 of Form W-2G.  Box 3 is type of wager.  The IRS prefers that you use a specified code for the wager you have issued the W-2G for.  The following is the type of wager and corresponding code number:

• Horse Race Track use 1
• Dog Race Track use 2
• Jai-alai use 3
• State Conducted Lottery use 4
• Keno use 5
• Bingo use 6
• Slots use 7
• All other Gambling Winnings use 8

As you can see, the code system is pretty easy to use once you know which numbers correspond with the gambling type.

Download E-File Magic Software and get started on your W-2G filing today!

Here at E-File Magic, we get this question a lot, “Why can I only see the last four digits of my recipients Tax ID Number or Social Security Number when I print the forms?”  The simple answer is, the IRS allows it.

The IRS is testing to see if truncating Tax ID numbers is worth doing in the long run.  Personally, I think truncating Tax ID numbers is a good program, it protects your recipients sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands.

By default, E-File Magic Software truncates the Tax ID Numbers on printed forms.  But, if you want to show the Tax ID numbers, E-File Magic Software will allow you to do so.  Here’s how, in the software click on Config, and click on Mask Recipient TaxID.  The box that is high lighting the little picture to the left of the wording will go away, and this will tell you that your recipients Tax ID Number is no longer being masked.  When you are ready to print your forms, you will see all of the Tax ID Number.

If you haven’t started working on your 1099 Forms yet, get started today!  Download E-File Magic Software!!

Although, this is technically a blog about Tax Forms specifically Form 1099 and similar forms.  I wanted to let you know about the 2012 Standard Mileage rates as you prepare for your taxes.

The standard mileage rates are;

• 55.5 cents per mile for business miles driven
• 23 cents per mile for medical or moving miles
• 14 cents per mile driven for charitable organizations

Okay, so now that the mileage rates have been covered, lets talk about the most important part when you claim these miles on your tax returns, make sure you log the miles!!

The IRS, in recent years, has been targeting people who claim miles, because well, most people are fairly relaxed about logging their miles.  You should log everything about your trip; where you went, when  you went there, and how many miles it took to get from point A to point B.  Keeping an accurate and thorough log will help you in the long run, and hopefully keep the auditors away!

If you found this blog helpful, you should download E-File Magic Software for you1099 needs!  It’s extremely easy to use!

I know, I know, it’s November!  We shouldn’t be worried or even thinking about IRS Deadline dates until at least mid-December (or late January for some of you).  Well, I’m here to tell you, if you get your forms done early this year, you wont be pulling your hair out on January 30th, trying to get Tax-ID numbers from people you employed to do some work back in March.

So, remember, you must send out your 1099′s by January 31st to all of your recipients. And you must e-File all of your forms by April 1st, 2013.  Now, these dates are the IRS FIRM deadline dates.  To utilize E-File Magic services, we will most likely request that all forms be transmitted to us a few days early, we will post our deadlines later in the tax season.

2013 is the year to not procrastinate!  Download E-File Magic Software and start working on your 1099 Forms!

Quite possibly the most exciting feature to the 2012 E-File Magic Software is the ability to import Quickbooks Files to create 1099s!  Not only is this development exciting, importing a Quickbooks file to E-File Magic Software is extremely easy to do!

All you need to do is go to the Import Recipients screen in the software and follow the 6 steps.  We also added a tutorial on our website!

Download E-File Magic Software today and get started importing your Quickbooks files to create 1099s!