As I do each January, on Saturday I attended the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Tax Professionals annual New Jersey State Tax Seminar held each year at the Woodbridge Hilton.
The chapter does an excellent job each year and I always look forward to this seminar, if for nothing else than to learn what new ways the State of New Jersey has legislated to nickel and dime individual and small business taxpayers in the Garden State.
For some reason the Hilton changes the layout of the room every so often, from, in word processing terms, “portrait” to “landscape”. This year the room was set up so that we faced the front of the room. This method causes some participants to be “locked in” to a wall. The optimum layout would have the tables face the side of the room. This allows for easy flow and egress for all. Luckily I arrived early enough so that I got a seat that allowed me to exit easily, without having to climb over a row of people.
As usual, the day begins with a free continental breakfast – certainly adequate, nothing special – no complaints.
The first presentation was on “Accounting and Legal Aspects for Guardianship” presented by Carole Hedinger, the Chief Clerk of the Ocean County Surrogate Court. Carole was a poised and experienced public speaker, and gave an excellent and informative presentation. However, while the topic was interesting, this was a State Tax Seminar offered by an organization of Tax Professionals, and not the annual seminar of the NJ Society of Accountants (actually called The Accounting Financial, and Tax Professionals of New Jersey). The topic did not involve tax preparation or filings – Carole did not discuss preparing the payroll or tax returns of a “ward” or how to report guardian commissions. While I do have a client who is the guardian of her disabled brother, she takes no commissions and her guardianship does not affect her tax returns.
Carole did make a point that if we came across an elderly client who we felt was in need of guardianship we should make a referral, perhaps anonymous, to the county Adult Protective Service or Board of Social Services.
The second topic was similarly “out of place”. Robert H Davidson, Assistant Chief for Field Audit of Unclaimed Property for the NJ Division of Taxation, and has been with UP for many years. Robert spoke from the perspective of acquiring unclaimed property from “holders” rather than that of one who wished to search for and claim Unclaimed Property. The presentation was comprehensive and informative. As a speaker, Robert started out a bit “shaky”, but got better as he went along.
Again, an interesting and informative topic, but, while administered by the DOT, an accounting and not a tax issue – although it could possibly have an application to filing the Form 1120 or Form 1065 balance sheet for banks, brokerages, insurance companies, and larger public companies. If anything, the presentation should have concentrated more on how to search and file a claim, which was touched on only briefly at the end. And two hours of the agenda were devoted to this topic – certainly much more time than the topic justified.
I was surprised at the extent of the Unclaimed Property law and the extent of the State’s activity to identify and collect “abandoned” funds. Robert did point out that it is estimated that
1 in 10 NJ residents have unclaimed property held by the State of New Jersey or another state (in some cases the UP is turned over to the State in which the “holder” – bank or insurance company for example - is incorporated or headquartered). You can go
here to begin an Unclaimed Property search.
Robert also reported that the Unclaimed Property office does not issue the appropriate 1099 form to the recipient of funds to report the underlying source of the unclaimed property (i.e. 1099-R for IRA or pension monies, or 1099-B for sale of stock or mutual fund shares, or 1099-DIV for accumulated dividends). The State feels that it is the responsibility of the claimant to determine the taxability of the monies received. The only 1099 UP will issue is a Form 1099-INT to report the accrued interest paid by NJ on the abandoned funds.
Actually, I was able to find $4,500+ in “unclaimed property” for my father. Check out my WANDERING TAX PRO postings on “How I Made Over $4,500 by Watching Good Morning America”
Part I and
Part II.
Finally after lunch, included in the seminar fee, we got to the reason we were all there – New Jersey Tax Updates!
First up was the return of Maureen Adams as “Keynote Speaker”, apparently no longer the “Acting” Director of the NJ Division of Taxation but now the real thing. Her “keynote” presentation was very brief – only ½ hour – and dealt mostly with technology issues. Maureen was promptly shuffled away after her short talk before she could be faced with questions and complaints from frustrated NJ tax professionals – she certainly learned from last year’s appearance! Click
here to read my “review” of last January’s seminar.
Maureen reported that access to NJWebFile, usually available about now, will begin late this year due to contractual problems with the “vendor” who operates the service (?). It may be available as early as January 23rd – but definitely by January 31st.
She reminded us that employers with 5 or more employees must now file the NJ-927 online, and reported that employers who filed 2 or more consecutive 2007 Form NJ-927s online will no longer receive quarterly paper forms.
More information will soon be available on the “
business portal” (NJ Gateway). And there is now increased matching of federal and NJ data – both income tax and customs data – as well as matching data from other states in the Northeast to NJ information. NJ is looking for individuals who should be filing NJ-1040NRs and who should be paying “use” tax.
Maureen was followed by the annual presentation on “New Tax Legislation” by John Kelly, a truly colorful character who is currently the Acting Chief of NJDOT’s Office of Legislative Analysis. John’s appearance was more for comic relief than providing substantive information. He made brief mention of new legislation, but deferred the “meat” and any questions to colleagues “Jacob and Jim”, whose presentations would follow.
The true “meat” of the day was reserved for, unfortunately, the last 1 ¾ hours of the agenda – which turned out to be only about 1 ½ hour. Taxpayer Service Representatives Jim Gordon and Jacob Foy returned to review and discuss various NJ individual, business, sales tax and electronic filing changes.
The “Jim and Jake Show” was truly excellent. Both are confident and colorful speakers who are extremely well-informed on their topics, and they provided the best presentations of the day.
Jim spoke on the Film Production Tax Credit, a little known and little claimed (only 19 taxpayers claimed the credit last year) tax credit of 20% of the “qualified film production expenses” paid, providing that at least 60% of the total production expenses (other than post-production) were for services performed or goods provided in New Jersey. To qualify a film must be at least 15-minutes long and intended for a national audience. Other restrictions apply. Jim mentioned that it could apply to a video created for the internet. For more information read the instructions for
NJ Form 318.
He spent the rest of his limited time reviewing the withholding requirement for construction contractor services which became effective on January 1, 2007. Jim had also discussed this new way for the State of New Jersey to assess penalties on the unsuspecting public in his presentation last year. See my January 2007 post on the subject, “
What The ….?” as well as my
review of last year’s State Tax Seminar.
Both Jim and Jacob prefaced their presentations by saying “It is my job, and that of the NJ Division of Taxation, to administer tax law” – basically “don’t blame us for this stuff – we didn’t make it up, the state legislature did!”
Jacob gave a review of sales tax changes, discussing the many “quirks” in the definitions of taxable items. He reinforced my decision to no longer accept any clients who collect and remit sales tax (along the line with my decision to no longer accept corporate and partnership clients) – there is too much potential aggravation and agita!
The “Jim and Jacob Show” should have been the featured presentation of the day – and allowed much more time in the agenda. I certainly would have preferred an hour or so more of these guys, and more time to quiz Maureen, to the lengthy and unnecessary presentation on Unclaimed Property.
All in all it was a good seminar. Even the unnecessary topics were interesting and informative. In the future, though, I would like to see the agenda devoted solely to state tax topics, with more presentations on NJ-1040 topics, such as how to reconcile a federal K-1 from a partnership or Sub-S Corporation to the NJ-1040, and NJ payroll tax returns and filings, and include a brief New York State, and maybe even Pennsylvania, state tax update.
In her welcoming comments, NJ-NATP President Colette Taylor mentioned that the chapter will be sponsoring more “breakfast seminars” like the one on ethics held on December 6th (I did not attend as I was in Atlantic City at a NSTP year-end seminar). The next one, not yet determined, will be held in Mt Laurel NJ. I will provide information here as it becomes available.
Before I go I just want to report that the
2007 “OPT OUT” form is not available online. Click here to download.
TAFN
