The other weekend, my husband and I had to put a piece of furniture together. Like most men, he felt he didn’t need the instructions to put it together. I disagreed, but once I read the instructions to him I think he was relieved. I feel that sometimes following instructions are extremely helpful. I don’t believe that you should follow ALL instructions, the key is to know when to follow instructions and when not. A lot of my friends like to cook but hate to bake because of how closely you should follow instructions. Well, baking is a lot like taxes, you should follow the instructions completely. I cannot stress that enough, following the instructions will make your life so much easier when it comes to filing you 1099′s and your taxes. IRS instructions can be a bit tricky and hard to read, especially if you aren’t used to reading these documents, but keep it up and you’ll get used to them.
My little rant about following instructions came up because I was reading the instructions for 1099-A and they are very important and rather hard to read. Some of the things you need to know when filing 1099-A’s according to the IRS, is a “1099-A is for Acquisition or Abandonment of Secured Property, if you have lent money to a borrower in connection with your trade or business and, in full or partial satisfaction of the debt, you acquire an interest in property that is security for the debt, or you have reason to know that the property has been abandoned.” Basically what that means, if you have loaned someone money and the borrower gives you the property back that they borrowed the money for instead of paying back their loan you should file a 1099-A. But even if you haven’t received anything for the debt but you know that the property has been abandoned by the borrower you need to file a 1099-A.
If you need to file a 1099-A, I would suggest you check out the 1099-A instructions.
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When you win at a casino you are ecstatic! Sometimes you just put a quarter in the slot and you get lucky. Who hasn’t walked through a casino and seen the BMW sitting above a bank of slot machines and thought to themselves, it would be so cool to win that car.
Gambling winnings are taxable income, and if you have significant winnings you will be receiving a W-2G. You will receive a W-2G for winnings of $1,200 or more from a bingo game or slot machine, $1,500 or more from a keno game, $5,000 or more from a poker tournament, and the winnings (except winnings from bingo, slot machines, keno, and poker tournaments) reduced, at the option of the payer, by the wager are; $600 or more, and at least 300 times the amount of the wager.
If you need to send out Form W-2G for gambling winnings. E-File Magic is easy to use, affordable, and nice to look at. Download our W-2G Software today!
Have you or your company maintained an HSA, Archer MSA, or Medicare Advantage MSA (MA MSA) for someone during 2011? If so, please file form 5498-SA with the IRS on or before May 31, 2012. You must file a separate form for each type of plan.
New for 2011 excess employer contributions withdrawn from employee HSAs by the employer are no longer required to be reported as a contribution on Form 5498-SA.
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Information is good, especially when you are reminded of things you might have previously forgotten. Although, you probably wouldn’t have forgotten that you had contributed to an IRA. The IRS has given you a form to remind you, Form 5498, IRA Contribution Information, is just an information form for both you and the IRS. It lets you know of all the contributions and the fair market value of your funds.
If you need to file Form 5498 with the IRS and mail recipients, try E-File Magic’s 5498 Software, it’s extremely easy to use!
This is a rather dry subject, form 3922 is what it is ~ a Form 3922 is for the Transfer of Stock Acquired Through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan Under Section 423(c), you really can’t make it sound much more fancy then that. Just like this topic, the weather in Portland has been extremely dry – and cold. I keep hoping we have some precipitation because I think it would come down as snow. I’ve been hoping for snow all week. I guess I’ll just wait and see. And while I wait, I’ll tell you a bit more about Form 3922.
Corporations which transfer shares of stock that are acquired by an employee pursuant to the employee’s exercise of an option granted under an employee stock purchase plan must file Form 3922 if the exercise price of the shares is less than 100% of the value of the stock on the date of grant (or is not fixed or determinable on the date of grant).
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Lately, I’ve been blogging about what has changed on a particular form for the 2011 tax year. There hasn’t been much of a change to Form 3921 between this year and last, so instead I thought I would give a definition of the form instead. And that way, if you didn’t know what Form 3921 was used for prior to reading this blog, you would know after.
When a corporation transfers a share of stock pursuant to that employee’s exercise of an incentive stock option to an employee they must issue Form 3921 for that transfer.
If you need to fill out and send Form 3921 to your employees, please try out E-File Magic Software.
There are many things that I can be sure of in my day to day life, the sun will rise in the morning and set in the evening, even if I go a few days without seeing it (I do live in Portland, Oregon) I know there must be a beautiful sunset behind the thick blanket of clouds covering the sky. I also know I can easily find a good cup of coffee, my dog will be happy to see me, and tax laws will change. This seems to be true for Form 1099-B this year, the form itself received a few new boxes and features which reflect the new laws which have been passed for this year.
Below is a list of changes to Form 1099-B for 2011, new boxes have been added, such as:
- Box 1b – Date of Acquisition
- Box 3 – Cost or other basis
- Box 5 – Amount of loss disallowed due to a wash sale
- Box 6 – Whether the property sold is a non-covered security
- Box 8 – Whether the gain or loss is short-term or long-term
When reporting sales of securities, a broker needs to complete boxes 1b, 3, 5, and 8 unless box 6 has been checked.
There are many new rules that affect Form 1099-B for 2011, here are a list of the new rules, please refer to the 1099-B Instructions for a complete description of the rules.
- How many forms must be filed for each transaction
- Short sales of securities
- Foreign currency
- Transfer Statements
- Issuer returns
- Use of transfer taxes and option premiums in determining gross proceeds
- Basis reporting
With all of these changes you will need to have something that’s easy to use like E-File Magic’s 1099-B Software! Download it Today!
There has been an important change on Form 1099-R for 2011 and I thought I should spend the morning letting you know of these changes,
- Boxes have been renumbered – Boxes 10 through 15 have been renumbered as boxes 12 through 17. Also, box 10 has been labeled “10 Amount allocable to IRR within 5 years” and a dollar sign has been added. The box :1st year of desig. Roth Contrib.” has been numbered 11.
Thankfully, E-File Magic has copies of the Form you can look at here, and instructions for the form that you can look at here. But, if you do not want to worry about how the form looks and you would like a simpler way of filing your 1099-R, download the E-File Magic Software and give it a try, I know you’ll be pleased!
There are many different 1099 forms that the IRS requires, probably one of the most popular forms is Form 1099-INT. But who should send out Form 1099-INT, you ask?
Luckily, I have the answer for you!
You should file Form 1099-INT for each person:
- To whom you paid amounts reportable in boxes 1, 3 and 8 of at least $10 (or at least $600 of interest paid in the course of your trade or business),
- For whom you withheld and paid any foreign tax on interest, or
- From whom you withheld (and did not refund) any federal income tax under the backup withholding rules regardless of the amount of the payment.
You should only report the interest payments that you made in the course of your trade or business, or if you are the assigned middle person.
I hope this narrows down if you need to file Form 1099-INT not.
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Form 1098 is pretty self explanatory. You need to use Form 1098 to report Mortgage Interest of $600 or more received during the year from an individual and you receive in the course of your trade or business. The only time you do not need to file Form 1098 is for interest received from a corporation, partnership, trust, estate, association, or company (other than a sole proprietor) even if an individual is a coborrower and all the trustees, beneficiaries, partners, members, or shareholders of the payer of record are individuals. According to the IRS, “A mortgage is any obligation secured by real property.” And that basically sums up Form 1098…
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