Here we are at last call for corporate and partnership tax returns. You’ve got until midnight eastern time tonight to get the stragglers filed (or maybe you just spend the entire day postmarking things in advance).
This is usually about the time in the morning where a manager or partner shows up in your office with shoebox filled with receipts and a hand-written set of financial statements for a very important client.
While this scenario seems like the type of nightmare that would send most people running into oncoming traffic, we assure you that it does happen.
So if you’re a fighting fires on filing day, or you’re a veteran of the procrastination station and have tales that are worthy of campfire ghost stories, discuss your experiences in the comments.
As for the rest of you who finished your clients up yesterday, you’re probably not even at work, so sober up and get into the office, tomorrow is the holiday.
Category: Tax
GC Weekend: Take a Break, We Insist
Here it is, Sunday evening so we thought we’d check on all you weekend warriors. Now that the day is over, you can relax and do whatever it is you do on Sunday evenings. Personally, we’d recommend watching some lady slaying courtesy of Don Draper but if reading up on more healthcare policy debate is your thing, knock yourselves out.
Even though lots of you are probably too exhausted to keep your eyes open to read this, we’ll kindly remind you that there’s only two more days to go. Yes, we realize you 1040 prep experts still have a month to go and we’ll give your recognition in due course.
As for the rest of you, give yourselves a pat on the back and have a drink, do a jay, whatever gets you in the mood for love or simply vegging out in front of the tube because you’ve earned it. You’re going to make it through another tax season despite all those times you considered quitting in the middle of it.
And if this is your first tax season, special congrats to you. You’re well on your way to becoming a glutton for punishment courtesy of tax deadlines for many years to come. Cheers.
‘Sex Is Kind of Like Dancing, Right?’
ACORN, yes, Bill O’Reilly’s favorite non-profit, is giving tax advice. Apparently, prostitution qualifies as a performing art. Who are we to argue?
Yes, it’s almost ten minutes but it’s worth it.
Check out Part II over at TaxProf Blog.
Working the Weekend: Sept. 15th Deadline Edition
At this point for you tax peeps your days are probably running together. It’s fine. Tuesday is only how many days away? Just grab your favorite concoction to get your game back on and you’ll plow through.
Don’t worry tax trolls, we’ll get our own cocktail and check up on you this weekend to get you through it. Why? Because we’re solid.
If you’re having nightmares about 1065’s and whatnot, detail them for us in the comments.
A Week Really Isn’t That Long
We feel compelled to remind everyone that there is exactly one week to go until the corporate tax filing deadline of September 15th. By now, with seven days to go, most of you working in tax compliance have probably had one of the following experiences:
• A nervous breakdown
• MSG overdose
• Showered using the bathroom sink at the office
Regardless of your sitch, we’re here to get you to the finish line, even if the layoff rumors are still lurking. Discuss how things look down the stretch and drop us anything you hear regarding potential layoffs at your firm after the deadline.
You Guys! Corporations Actually Pay Taxes!
At least Schering-Plough appears to be on the hook for some. A tax court ruled that the drug dealer maker doesn’t get a refund of $473 million after it tried to avoid taxes altogether on $690 million it made through offshore subsidiaries.
We could get into the specifics but then we’d have mass suicides to explain.
What is interesting that Schering’s auditor, Deloitte, even called shenanigans, “stating that the transactions were used as a means of repatriating money from Europe without having it taxed as a dividend.”
Not sure when Deloitte first brought that up but Schering obviously wears the pants because these transactions took place in 1991 and 1992 and the ruling came down this week. So at least the law firm representing Schering made out okay on this one.
Court Rejects Schering-Plough $473M Tax Refund [Web CPA]
One More Way Facebook is Working Against You
Somehow we missed this last week but whatevs. State taxing authorities are apparently getting the swing of this whole Internet phenomenon.
We really thought the IRS had taken their game to the next level by putting videos on YouTube but States are really getting crafty by using social networking sites and Google to catch tax scofflaws.
Continued, after the jump
WSJ:
In Minnesota, authorities were able to levy back taxes on the wages of a long-sought tax evader after he announced on MySpace that he would be returning to his home town to work as a real-estate broker and gave his employer’s name. The state collected several thousand dollars, the full amount due.
This has us a little concerned. One minute you’re updating your Facebook status as “Just won $500 at my weekly poker game,” just to rub it in everyone’s face, and the next thing you know you’re filing an amended return because some jerk you met at a party, and for some reason added as a friend, happens to be an IRS agent and takes his job really seriously. Is no cash-only operation sacred?
And it doesn’t matter if you’re not into online social networking:
Now, when a tax dodger can’t be found, said Nebraska tax official Steven Schroeder, agents often turn to Google. One agent collected $30,000 of unpaid tax from a resident after a Google search found him listed as a high-ranking local marketing rep for a national firm.
Face it people. One way or another, you’re going to participate in your patriotic duty.
Is ‘Friending’ in Your Future? Better Pay Your Taxes First [WSJ]
Countdown to the End of Tax Season or Just the End?
For lots of you tax trolls out there, you might be seriously reconsidering your career choice at this particular moment. Oh sure, there are probably some of you who are so deranged that the excitement you feel at that this time of year is only rivaled by the stretch from mid-February to April 15 but you all need committed.
For the rest of you, the milestone of two weeks until the September 15th deadline is either the light at the end of the tunnel or simply just another day wandering in the darkness since you’ll be crawling across the ultimate finish line on October 15th.
So we’re calling on brave/insane tax soldiers out there to sacrifice a few moments of their chargeable time to let us know how it goes with two weeks to go until 9/15. Hours you’re working, the latest on post-deadline layoff rumors, nightmare clients, whatever moves you.
UPDATE: One source at a Big 4 firm describes it this way:
For me, it has been very reasonable. For others, it is miserable. The unreasonable requests are piling on to a teammate of mine. His senior gives him 40 hours of work and expects him to finish it in one night. They have no clue and shit rolls down hill. It’s amazing how poorly accountants gauge time. Sad.
Joe Francis Plans to Argue That Anything Related to Topless Girls is Deductible
Some might call Joe Francis a genius. Others may call him a pig. Regardless, the IRS is calling him a scofflaw tax evader. His defense strategy will entail an elaborate slideshow that will explain that Francis is the “business of sex” and that most of what he’s doing are business expenses.
Sex is a confusing business so Francis’s defense will help the jury understand:
Get informed, after the jump
• Mr. Francis is in the business of sex
• Mr. Francis IS Girls Gone Wild
• Girls Gone Wild is Successful
See? It’s not complicated.
The defense strategy will also include pictures of celebrity guests (with some misspelled names) that were at Francis’s beachside house in Mexico where he incurred “business expenses”. Francis will also present a slide that shows himself to be akin to Hugh Hefner and thus, proving that anything to naked girls should be allowed as a deductible expense.
Open and shut as far as we’re concerned.
Jennifer Aniston For The Defense? [The Smoking Gun via TaxProf Blog]
Today in IRS Shrewdness
an employee of Sunshine Maids, received a refund check for $122,783.51 from the service. When she reported the error to the IRS, she was instructed to void the check.
Despite the IRS error, and her honesty in reporting the mistake, she still owes $80 on her taxes.
House Cleaner Receives Accidental $122,783 Tax Refund [Web CPA]
The IRS is on YouTube and iTunes But Still Needs Our Help
We’re guessing that the IRS has been struggling for years to figure out how to relate better to the general public. They finally came to the conclusion that people like videos and audio as opposed to instruction booklets that make the New York Times look like a kaleidoscope. Clearly progress has been made, however, we still foresee challenges.
The biggest problem we have is that the videos are pretty much the live-action equivalent to the instruction booklets.
More, after the jump
Example:
Sorry we had to put you through that. Now our suggestions:
• Hugh Jackman or Megan Fox-types cast in the videos.
• A little song and dance, possibly performed by NPH.
• If a song and dance isn’t feasible, inject a little comedic relief. We’re thinking strategically inserted movie clips.
• Did we mention Hugh Jackman and Megan Fox?
As with anything in our society, celebrities (especially attractive ones) make everything better. Remember the Hollywood Vote Campaign videos? This is the model we would suggest the IRS strongly consider.
We’re fairly certain that Leonardo DiCaprio explaining how to avoid tax scams using his steely gaze will have a much greater affect on taxpayers than our friend here in the yellow blazer. Just a thought. If you’ve got other suggestions for the service on how to make their videos more watchable, discuss in the comments.
IRS Spotlights Recovery Credits on YouTube and iTunes [Web CPA]
Not Paying Taxes to Prove a Point Doesn’t Seem to Work
The expression “but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes” has once again proved resilient as a man in Mississippi has been convicted of not filing tax returns from 2002-2005. This occurred after he filed a civil lawsuit for $1.1 billion against the IRS claiming Congress did not have the authority to tax.
We really don’t have much experience in taking on the government over the constitutionality of taxes but conventional wisdom would probably suggest that if you’re going to sue the IRS for a billion dollars, not filing your tax returns in order to prove your point is not going to help your case.
Pearl man convicted of tax evasion [Clarion Ledger via TaxProf Blog]