Tuesday, February 15, 2011

More healthcare reform law news. IRS says it needs....

From usnews.com:

The Internal Revenue Service says it will need an battalion of 1,054 new auditors and staffers and new facilities at a cost to taxpayers of more than $359 million in fiscal 2012 just to watch over the initial implementation of President Obama's healthcare reforms. Among the new corps will be 81 workers assigned to make sure tanning salons pay a new 10 percent excise tax. Their cost: $11.5 million.

Click the above link to read more.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

February 2, 2011 Client Newsletter

Originally I was going to write about what a strange tax season it has been.  Delayed processing.  Terrible weather.  After spending an hour digging our vehicles out at home I was greeted with three foot drifts of snow and a still not plowed parking lot when I finally got to the office this afternoon.  Flu problems that seemed to have hit every one of your tax guys some time last month.

All that negative stuff has been thrown out the door today when I learned that the Senate voted for the first time to repeal a piece of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, rolling back a new tax reporting requirement that’s been universally panned by business owners. The amendment to repeal the 1099 reporting requirement passed 81-17 with broad bipartisan support.

The provision would have required business owners to file 1099 tax documents on all cumulative purchases from a single vendor that total more than $600 in a year.
It was included in the health law because it would have raised about $17 billion in previously uncollected taxes. A bipartisan collection of business groups have opposed the provision, arguing that it would bury them in paperwork.

Equally as unpopular is the new five percent, retroactive to January 1, 2011, increase in the Illinois Income Tax rate.  No chance for repeal I am afraid. If you haven’t already, you are required to now withhold from your employees at the new rate.  We received official Illinois Department of Revenue notice last Friday.  If you are using our paycycle payroll and tax service the new rate has now been changed.

We have just started processing your non employee 1099 forms this week.  The due date is February 15, 2011.  Call if you have questions.

When you are 70% sure of something, it is time to go for it. Figuring out the other 30% leads to diminishing returns which jeopardizes the window of opportunity. In other words, you have to know when "good" is "good enough".  More often than not we spend so much time being perfectionists, we miss the fact that small business success is always achieved by action.  And massive action is always been more successful because the day you quit the competition wins. There’s no question that action leads to results. The beautiful part of this formula is that results increase your belief about how much you can accomplish; which in turn helps you take more action. It’s a beautiful cycle that only leads to more success. Try it. It’s great!