Author Archives brooke

Weird Tax Laws

• Drug Tax Stamps – In at least 23 states there is a tax on illegal drugs. When you buy an illegal drug, like marijuana or even moonshine, in Tennessee, you have 48 hours to report it to the Department of Revenue to pay your tax and get a stamp for the substance. No identification is needed, though there are a dozen cop cars sitting outside the office. (Just kidding about the cop cars, I have no idea)
• North Carolina has had a illegal drug tax stamp law in place for 15 years, only 79 people have purchased stamps since 1990 (most of those were stamp collectors, or complete and utter morons).
• If the law sounds absurd, it’s only because of the way it was worded. The real end result is that people are taxed on drugs found in their possession when they’re busted. This creates a new revenue stream for the state or county and I can’t say I can argue with that.
• “Jock tax” – Levied on athletes who earn an income competing in a particular city or state. California first levied this tax on athletes from Chicago in 1991 after the Chicago Bulls beat the LA Lakers in the 1991 NBA Finals. What a bunch of sore losers.
• Alabama has a 10 cent tax on a deck of playing cards.
• Blueberries from Maine are subject to specific tax too, anyone who grows, purchases, sells, handles, or processes blueberries in Maine has to pay a penny and a half tax per pound.
• “Fountain soda drinks” in Chicago are taxed at 9%, if it comes in a bottle or can then it’s only taxed at 3%.
• Peter the Great in Russia once taxed beards (he doesn’t do much taxing anymore). There was also a tax on souls, hats, boots, beehives, basements, chimneys, food, clothing, birth, marriage, and burial.
• In the UK, everyone under the age of 75 pays a TV license fee £126.50 for color TVs and £42.00 for black and white TVs (it in part pays for state run networks like the BBC). If you are legally blind, you only owe half that fee.
• According to the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, “it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing.” What!?
• Royal Navy ships that enter the Port of London must pay a barrel of rum in tax to the Constable of the Tower of London.
• Source: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/50-fun-facts-about-taxes.html

Take Part in Online Booking Now!

Six months ago Brooke was busy ripping apart the bmp, CPA processes and procedures striving to make a change that would add great value to clients. The idea of online booking popped into her head and she immediately checked into the details. Who does online booking of tax appointments in the area? What was the feedback from those that do offer it? Why is it not as popular as expected?

bmp, CPA is one of the few local CPA firms that offers online booking! It was implemented here in November of 2011 and it has been well received. As of January 15th 40% of the available time slots for first tax appointments are booked. Clients are booking at all times of day as online booking is easy to use whenever and from wherever.

Due to the added value online booking is providing clients, time slots are booking quicker than the past so it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to book today! www.bmp-cpa.com/schedule

Andrew, Keith, and Brooke look forward to serving your tax needs this season!

Watchdog: Growing IRS workload causing problems

WASHINGTON (AP) – A government watchdog says the Internal Revenue Service can’t fully handle identity theft cases and fraudulent tax refund claims or adequately answer taxpayers’ questions because its budget is too small to deal with its growing workload.

A report by national taxpayer advocate Nina E. Olson says that last year the IRS identity theft caseload grew by 20 percent to more than 226,000. She says the number of tax returns the agency decided needed additional screening for possible fraud exceeded 1 million, a 72 percent increase over 2010.

Olson says Congress should give the IRS enough money to perform properly. This year’s agency budget is $11.8 billion. That’s $300 million less than last year.

The taxpayer advocate is an independent watchdog within the IRS that reports annually on the agency’s performance.

Click here for for full source

7 easy steps to an early tax refund

If you want to get your 2011 taxes in early and get your refund quickly, here are Schnepper’s Seven Strategies to getting those dollars in your pockets ASAP. Here’s what you have to do:

1. Get started

The first step is the hardest. Stop thinking about it and get moving. Until you actually start your return, you’ll never finish it. And that’s probably going to slow down your refund.

If you don’t have all your numbers, just put your name and address on the form. It will get you in the mindset to move forward.

Your first step is to break the inertia. As my father used to say, a trip of a thousand miles begins with a traffic jam. Break that jam and get moving.

2. Accumulate the data

Click here for full article.

2011 Tax Organizers are sent!

Most returning clients should have received their 2011 tax organizer in the mail over the weekend. The rest of you will receive it within the next couple days.

Question that has already came in is ‘What are real estate taxes?’ The answer – they are the IRS definition of property taxes.

Save $15 when you complete your tax organizer! Seminar will be held complimentary for all returning clients.
Wednesday January 25th at 4pm and 6pm at Hiawatha Library
Friday January 27th at 6:15pm at North Liberty Recreation Center

Only need to attend one and RSVP to info@bmp-cpa.com by January 16th. If seminars do not have high expected number of attendees, seminar will be cancelled.

Don’t forget – online booking available at www.bmp-cpa.com/schedule

Cannot wait to see all of you soon!

Brooke Pettengill, CPA

Motivation – An Inside Look.

The most common question I get is not tax related; it’s ‘How do you survive tax season?’
The deeper question is ‘What drives me to accomplish the long hours, hundreds of clients, and limiting the fun activities of life?’
It’s pretty easy – it’s Miss Madi. My 17 month old Aussie mix. She’s the reason why I I can come into the office 15 minutes before first appointment and I leave the office 10 minutes after my last tax client. I’m anxious to see her and she’s hungry.

Why do I tell you this – to answer your questions.

 

Want to claim Social Security benefits early? Better not.

For those of you who received the January newsletter and tried to access this article without success, please use this option. – Brooke

The U.S. economy has made modest gains recently. Consumer confidence rose during the fall, and the stock market has stabilized. Meanwhile, employment appears poised to pick up, and even the housing market is showing glimmers of a turnaround. Click here for full article.

Charitable Contributions – Substantiation and Disclosure Requirements

There are record-keeping and substantiation rules imposed on donors of charitable contributions and disclosure rules imposed on charities that receive certain quid pro quo contributions.

– a donor must have a bank record or written communication from a charity for any monetary contribution before the donor can claim a charitiable contribution on his/her federal income tax return

-a donor is responsible for obtaining a written acknowledgment from a charity for any single contribution of $250 or more before the donor can claim a charitable contribution on his/her federal income tax return

-a charitable organization is required to provide a written disclosure to a donor who receives goods or services in exchange for a single payment in excess of $75.

If you itemized your deductions (file federal schedule A of Form 1040), charitable contributions may reduce your tax liability. Contributions to qualified organizations must be made by December 31, 2010.

Charitable giving is trickling back up as the economy heals, but it could take years to return to pre-recession levels, non-profit leaders say.

By C. Todd Sherman, for USA TODAY

Eight Days of Hope volunteers construct a home on Nov. 4 on the site of one destroyed by a tornado in the town of Smithville, Miss. Charitable giving could take years to return to pre-recession levels, non-profit leaders say.

Giving totaled $291 billion in 2010, according to the 2011 annual report by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. That’s up 3.8% from 2009 and follows two consecutive years of declines.

This year shows little change. Charity Navigator, a Glen Rock, N.J., organization that evaluates non-profits, anticipates donations will be flat during the holiday season. About 35% of non-profit contributions come from state, federal and local government grants and contracts, and those gifts are declining, CEO Ken Berger says. Only 15% is from individuals. Click here for full article.

Hefty consulting bills spark U. Heights debate Council wants to see breakdown, worried developer won’t pay

The city of University Heights has racked up more than $30,000 in bills after hiring two financial consultants to study the proposed One University Place development, an amount that has drawn the concern of some City Council members. Click here for entire article.