Except for tax protestors, no one wants to fight with the IRS. That’s why there’s such a mystique about avoiding an audit. While what-triggers-an-audit theories abound, there are some basic things you can do to reduce your chances of being picked for an audit or at least to make any interactions with the IRS less traumatic.  Our advice doesn’t come with a guarantee.

1. Don’t claim flaky tax deductions.  So don’t be scared to take deductions and losses you’re entitled to, but don’t take tax positions you aren’t comfortable defending. If you take reasonable tax positions, you’ll likely find you won’t end up needing to defend them. And if you do face an audit, it will likely be far easier.

There are many old wives tales saying that certain items trigger an audit: home office deductions, passive losses, schedule C (sole proprietorship) activities, etc. You can’t predict the trigger (and you can drive yourself crazy trying), but you can adopt the “be reasonable” mantra about every item on your return, including these. So if you don’t have a decent claim for a home office, don’t claim it. If your money-losing sole proprietorship is really more a fun hobby, treat it as such.

2. Use a pro, or use software. Some argue a return prepared by a professional is less likely to be audited, but there’s little reliable data to support it. Nevertheless, having a professional prepare your return–or at least advise on anything quirky–is a good idea.

3. Disclose just enough. You’d be surprised how many professionals and amateurs alike try to submit too much information. If your return is complex, you may need to add explanations or disclosures in footnotes. Be concise, truthful and accurate, but don’t provide copies of sales agreements, settlement agreements, bank statements, etc., unless you are later asked to by the IRS.

4. Check your math. Make sure you add, subtract and multiply accurately. Check your numbers through each step and do some simple math checks when you finish. This is another reason to use a software program. Remember, even if you use a software program, you don’t have to file electronically. You can print out your returns and mail them in. If you do make a math mistake, you are likely to get a math correction notice from the IRS. This isn’t an audit. But your goal is to minimize such interaction with the IRS bureaucracy, which isn’t known for the best mail handling practices.

5. Account for every Form 1099. Form 1099 comes in many varieties, including 1099-INT for interest, 1099-DIV for dividends, 1099-G for tax refunds, 1099-R for pensions and 1099-MISC for miscellaneous income. These forms are sent by payers of such funds to both you and the IRS. So regardless of how many 1099s you receive, make sure they all are accounted for on your return. There are also Forms 1098 which lenders send (to you and the IRS) recording how much interest you paid. The IRS matches your return against the 1098s and 1099s. So one way to guarantee an IRS query is to fail to account for something. If a Form 1099 is wrong–say it reports more income than you had–you can explain or deduct it on the return, but you need to first report it.

A last word: No matter how careful you are, there’s no way to guarantee you’ll never have a tax controversy. Sometimes your number just comes up. While audit rates for most types of tax returns are low, there is always a chance you will be examined. Try to be ready.

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 How You Can Benefit from the Premium Tax Credit

If you purchase Health Coverage through the Marketplace, you might be eligible for the premium tax credit. The law bases the size of your premium tax credit on a sliding scale. Those who have a lower income get a larger credit to help cover the cost of their insurance. In other words, the higher your income, the lower the amount of your credit.

You will figure your credit on Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit (PTC). You must complete this form to claim the premium tax credit and reconcile any advance credit payments with the premium tax credit you are eligible to claim on your return. Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement, which you will receive from your Marketplace, provides information you will need when completing Form 8962.

Additionally, the premium tax credit is a refundable tax credit. This means that if the amount of the credit is more than the amount of your tax liability, you will receive the difference as a refund. If you owe no tax, you can get the full amount of the credit as a refund.

However, if you receive advance payments of the credit, you will reconcile the advance payments with the amount of the actual premium tax credit that you calculate on your tax return. If your actual allowable credit on your return is less than your advance credit payments, the difference, subject to certain caps, will be subtracted from your refund or added to your balance due. If your actual allowable credit is more than your advance credit payments, the difference will be added to your refund or subtracted from your balance due.

Remember that filing electronically is the easiest way to file a complete and accurate tax return.
Rink & Robinson, PLLC provides electronic services to all of our clients.

 What is the North Carolina New Hire Law?

North Carolina State Law, G.S. 110-129.2 and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, 42 U.S.C. 653A, requires all employers to report newly hired and re-hired employees to a state directory within 20 days of their start date.

Who must report?

• Under North Carolina State Law, G.S. 110-129.2, and the Federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) all public, private, non-profit, and government employers are required to report their new hires.

Who must be reported?

Employers are required to report the following employees:

• New employees: Employers must report all employees who reside or work in the State of North Carolina to whom the employer anticipates paying earnings. Employees should be reported even if they work only one day and are terminated (prior to the employer fulfilling the new hire reporting requirement).
• Re-hires or Re-called employees: Employers must report re-hires, or employees who return to work after being laid off, furloughed, separated, granted a leave without pay, or terminated from employment. Employers must also report any employee who remains on the payroll during a break in service or gap in pay, and then returns to work. This includes teachers, substitutes, seasonal workers, etc.
• Temporary employees: Temporary agencies are responsible for reporting any employee who they hire to report for an assignment. Employees need to be reported only once; they do not need to be re-reported each time they report to a new client. They do need to be reported as a re-hire if the worker has a break in service or gap in wages from your company.
• Payroll companies who contract with employers to report New Hire information will be held to the same standards as individual employers.

~Failure to report a new employee could result in a fine up to $25 per violation.~

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

IN THIS ISSUE:  Individual Estimated Tax  & Penalties for Late Payment or Filing

Have you wondered what penalties are applied by the IRS if you fail to file your income tax return on time (without qualifying for a filing extension) or if you fail to pay your taxes on time?

Penalties for Late Payment or Filing

Failure to pay:

Separate penalties apply for failing to pay and failing to file. The failure to pay penalty is the “gentler” of the two, running at 1/2% for each month (or part of a month) the payment is late. For example, if payment is due April 15 and is made May 20, the penalty is 1% (1/2% times 2 months (or partial months)). The maximum penalty is 25%.

The failure to pay penalty is based on the amount shown as due on the return (less credits for amounts already paid, e.g., via withholding or estimated payments), even if the actual tax bill turns out to be higher. On the other hand, if the actual tax bill turns out to be lower, the penalty is based on the lower amount.

For example, if your payment is two months late and your return shows that you owe $5,000, the penalty is 1% (see above), which equals $50. If you are audited and your tax bill increases by another $1,000, the failure to pay penalty is not increased because it’s based on the amount shown on the return as due. On the other hand, if the audit reveals that your tax due should have only been $4,000, the penalty is reduced to $40.

Failure to file:

The failure to file penalty, also known as the delinquency penalty, runs at the more severe rate of 5% per month (or partial month) of lateness to a maximum of 25%. If you obtain an extension for your filing due date, you are not filing late unless you miss the extended due date. However, a filing extension does not apply to your responsibility for payment.

If the 1/2% failure to pay penalty and the failure to file penalty both apply, the failure to file penalty drops to 4.5% per month (or part) so the total combined penalty remains at 5%. The maximum combined penalty for the first five months is 25%. Thereafter the failure to pay penalty can continue at 1/2% per month for 45 more months (an additional 22.5%). Thus, the combined penalties can reach a total of 47.5% over time.

The failure to file penalty is also more severe in that it is based on the amount required to be shown on the return, and not just the amount shown as due. (Credit is given for amounts paid, for example, via withholding or estimated payments. So if no amount is owed, there is no penalty for late filing.) Thus, for example, if a return is filed three months late showing $5,000 owed (after payment credits), the combined penalties would be 15%, which equals $750. If the actual tax liability is later determined to be an additional $1,000, the failure to file penalty (4.5% × 3 = 13.5%) would also apply to this amount for an additional $135 in penalties.

A minimum failure to file penalty will also apply if you file your return more than 60 days late. In this case, the failure to file penalty is at least $135. Even here, however, if you owe no taxes, there is no penalty.

Reasonable cause:

Both penalties may be excused by IRS if your lateness is due to “reasonable cause.” Typical qualifying excuses include death or serious illness in the immediate family, postal irregularities, or bad advice (e.g., you needn’t file), given to you by your tax advisor or IRS itself. If you have questions on whether your particular situation could qualify as reasonable cause, please call.

Interest is assessed at a fluctuating rate announced by the government apart from and in addition to the above penalties. Furthermore, in particularly abusive situations involving a fraudulent failure to file, the late filing penalty can jump to 15% a month, with a 75% maximum.

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 affected a number of tax forms and revising those forms required extensive programming and testing of IRS systems, which delayed IRS’s ability to release, accept, and process those forms. Since those delays affected some taxpayers ability to timely estimate and pay their 2012 tax liability when requesting an extension to file, the IRS provided transitional relief.

Generally, IRS automatically assesses the failure to pay penalty against taxpayers who pay late, and then it sends notice and demand for payment of the addition to tax.

Individual Estimated Tax 

Why it is necessary for you to make estimated tax payments and the applicable rules for paying the minimum amount of estimated tax without triggering the penalty for underpayment of estimated tax?

 Individuals must pay 25% of a “required annual payment” by Apr. 15, June 15, Sept. 15, and Jan. 15, to avoid an underpayment penalty. (When that date falls on a weekend or holiday, the payment is due on the next business day.) The required annual payment for most individuals is the lower of 90% of the tax shown on the current year’s return or 100% of the tax shown on the return for the previous year. Certain high-income individuals must meet a more rigorous requirement. If the adjusted gross income on your previous year’s return is over $150,000 (over $75,000 if you are married filing separately), you must pay the lower of 90% of the tax shown on the current year’s return or 110% of the tax shown on the return for the previous year.

 Most people who receive the bulk of their income in the form of wages satisfy these payment requirements through the tax withheld by their employer from their paycheck.

If you fail to make the required payments, you may be subject to an underpayment penalty. The penalty equals the product of the interest rate charged by IRS on deficiencies, times the amount of the underpayment for the period of the underpayment. The penalty is avoided if you meet certain specified exceptions or waivers, described below.

Most individuals make estimated tax payments in four installments. In other words, we determine the required annual payment, then divide that number by four and make four equal payments by the due dates. But you may be able to make smaller payments under the annualized income method. This method is useful to people whose income flow is not uniform over the year, perhaps because of a seasonal business. For example, if your income comes exclusively from a business that you operate in a resort area during June, July, and Aug., no estimated payment is required before Sept. 15. You may also want to use the annualized income method if a significant portion of your income comes from capital gains on the sale of securities which you sell at various times during the year.

The underpayment penalty doesn’t apply to you:

• If the total tax shown on your return is less than $1,000 after subtracting withholding tax paid.
• If you were a U.S. citizen or resident for the entire preceding year, that year was 12 months, and you had no tax liability for that year.
• If you are a farmer or fisherman and pay your entire estimated tax by Jan. 15 of the following year, or pay your entire estimated tax by Mar. 1 of the following year and also file your tax return by that date.
• If for the fourth (Jan. 15) installment, if you aren’t a farmer or fisherman, file your return by Jan. 31 of the following year, and pay your tax in full.

In addition, IRS may waive the penalty if the failure was due to casualty, disaster, or other unusual circumstances and it would be inequitable or against good conscience to impose the penalty. The penalty can also be waived for reasonable cause during the first two years after you retire (after reaching age 62) or become disabled.

Make an appointment for a free consult for :  Individual tax estimates
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