NJ-NATP EDUCATION

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I am back from the National Association of Tax Professionals annual conference in Austin, Texas. Click here to read my trip narrative, and click here to read my discussion of the conference (contiued on Tuesday).

Speaking of NATP – at the luncheon for NJ-NATP members held on the first day the information for the Thursday, September 30th “2010 ANNUAL MEETING AND CONFERENCE” were announced.

Held, as usual, at the Hilton Woodbridge in Iselin NJ from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (registration begins at 7:30 AM), the conference will feature IRS speakers discussing (among other topics) -

• Preparer Registration
• Health Insurance Credits
• The HIRE Act
• Criminal Investigation

And lawyer Jay Soled will discuss “Mitigating Professional Liability for Tax Return Preparation Mistakes”.

The cost, which includes continental breakfast, lunch and afternoon dessert, is $200.00 for members, $250.00 for non-members, and $357.00 for new members for registrations postmarked before September 15th, and $260.00 for both members and non-members and $367.00 for new members for registrations postmarked on or after the 15th or at the door.

Click here to download the registration form.

Breakfast workshops (9:00 to 11:40 AM) will be held at the Holiday Inn of Tinton Falls on Thursday, October 28 (Estate and Inheritance Taxes discussed by attorney Michael K Feinberg – click here for the registration form) and at the Marriott Newark Liberty Airport on Thursday, December 9 (New Federal and State Tax Preparer Requirements discussed by Kathryn Keane – click here for the registration form).

NJ-NATP will be collecting for TOYS FOR TOTS at all three events – so bring an unwrapped toy.

And don’t forget the annual “NJ STATE TAX SEMINAR”, again at the Woodbridge Hilton, on Saturday, January 8, 2011.

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OOPS! I almost forgot to report - the NJ chapter of NATP won the CHAPTER OF THE YEAR award at conference! Congratulations to Marilyn et al.

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TAFN

YE-HA - OFF TO TEXAS!

I leave the heat of New Jersey for the heat (but apparently less humidity) of Austin, Texas this afternoon (Sunday) – to attend the annual conference of the National Association of Tax Professionals. This will be my first conference, and my first flight, in a couple of years. I return Friday (July 23rd) late afternoon.

When I return I will post about the trip itself (this will be my first visit to Austin, though I have previously been to San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Houston in Texas) and let you know what I learned at the conference over at THE WANDERING TAX PRO.

I will not have, as hoped, finished all of the GD extensions in the “to be done” box (as usual my “eyes were bigger than my stomach” so to speak) before boarding the plane – and I expect those remaining will still be in the box when I return.

TAFAW

THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL!

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The NJ Division of Taxation began to mail out Property Tax Reimbursement (aka Senior Freeze) checks to qualified NJ senior and disabled homeowners yesterday (July 14th) – or so they have said.

About 109,000 checks were mailed out to qualified homeowners who submitted their application by the original June 1st deadline. Those who submitted applications after the deadline was extended to August 2nd will get their check as their form is processed.

Only those who received a reimbursement check last year will get one in 2010.

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However, qualified seniors and disabled homeowners who did not get a check last year, either because they did not file an application or because their application was not accepted, should still submit a current application by the August 2nd deadline - even though they will not receive a check. The reason to do so is to establish 2008 as the “base year” for real estate taxes.

For more information on the program click here.

TAFN

NEW DIRECTOR FOR NJ DIVISION OF TAXATION

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Michael Bryan (no, not Marie Osmond's son) has been sworn in as the new Director of the NJ Division of Taxation.

The new Director is described in the official press release as a “tax and accounting professional with more than 20 years of public and private sector experience”.

According to a news item, "Bryan began his tax career in 1987 as a revenue agent conducting field examinations for the Internal Revenue Service in Philadelphia. He then joined Coopers & Lybrand as an associate and assisted clients with tax and audit matters. He joined Comcast {where he served as senior director for tax audits and international tax -rdf} in 1994."

A resident of Haddonfield NJ, Bryan is a CPA with a BS in Accounting from Drexel University and a Masters in Taxation from Temple University.

Bryan replaces Acting Director Cheryl Fulmer.

On the plus side - Fulmer did actually promptly and personally respond to an email I sent her a while back concerning a systemic problem with NJWebFile. But on the minus side – she refused to attend and address the NJ chapter of NATP’s annual State Tax Seminar. Both of her predecessors had addressed the annual NJ-NATP seminar.

I look forward to possibly seeing and hearing from new Director Michael Bryan next January.

TAFN

STILL SKEPTICAL

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I just came across the following – which sheds some light on my previous post on claiming a refund for excess FLI contributions:

“On January 11, 2010, Senate bill number 3065 passed both houses of the legislature and was signed into law on January 14, 2010. This bill provides for annual adjustments in family temporary disability contribution rates commencing in calendar year 2011 and provides the worker, who was employed by two or more employers subject to the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation and Temporary Disability laws, the right to claim a credit for excess Family Leave Insurance (FLI) worker contributions. Unfortunately, the passage of this bill was beyond the deadline to include worker contributions for Family Leave Insurance (FLI) on form NJ-2450, ‘Employee s Claim for Credit’, for 2009.”

It still sounds a bit “fishy”. The law creating the Family Leave Insurance program, and authorizing employee contributions, was passed more than a year earlier. Why were provisions for annual adjustments and the right to claim a refund for excess contributions included in the original legislation?

I still think screwing NJ workers out of refunds for excess contributions was on the minds of the crooks in Trenton all along.

It will be interesting to see if a refund of excess FLI contributions is included on the 2010 Form 2450.

NJ SCREWS TAXPAYERS AGAIN! (SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?)

For 2009 the State of New Jersey added a new employee benefit for which required employee contributions were withheld. In addition to making required contributions via payroll deduction for Unemployment Insurance and Disability Insurance employees now must also make contributions for Family Leave Insurance. This mandatory withholding began in January of 2009.

Just like SUI and SDI contributions, there is a per employee maximum contribution for FLI. For 2009 the maximum was .09% of the first $28,900 of wages – or $26.01. And, as with SUI and SDI, if an employee had more than the maximum $26.01 withheld from multiple employers in 2009 he/she is entitled to a refund of the excess withholding.

For many years now taxpayers could request a refund of excess SUI and SDI contribution withholding from multiple employers as part of the Form NJ-1040 filing. A Form NJ-2450 would be included in the filing of the NJ-1040, and the excess withholding would be added NJGIT withholding and estimated tax payments – and would increase one’s refund or reduce one’s balance due. For 2009 employees can still claim a refund of excess SUI and SDI withholding on form NJ-2450.

However, employees could not request a refund of excess FLI contributions on the 2009 Form NJ-2450! Taxpayers who paid too much FLI had to file a separate request to get their money back.

As per the NJDOT notice which I quoted back in February of 2010 –

“Excess family leave insurance (FLI) contributions cannot be claimed as a credit on the 2009 New Jersey income tax return. A worker who received wages from two or more employers subject to the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation and Temporary Disability laws, and contributed more than the maximum of $26.01 for FLI during the calendar year 2009, must file a UC-9A to receive a refund of the excess FLI contributions. If form 2450 has been filed for excess UI, DI and WF contributions for 2009, then do not include the contributions for UI, DI and WF on form UC-9A.

1. Download and complete form UC-9A (2009)

2. Make copies of W-2 wage statements. In the absence of W-2 wage statements, form UC-52 (2009), Employer Certification of Wages and Deductions must be submitted

3. Mail completed UC-9A and supporting documentation to:

Division of Employer Accounts
Worker Refund Unit 2009
PO Box 910
Trenton NJ 08625-0910”

You can click here to download the UC-9A and UC-52.

While in certain circumstances one could be entitled to a refund of more than $26.01, I expect that in more than half, if not more than two-thirds, of the cases the FLI refund would be less than $25.00 – and in many less than $10.00. It would cost more to pay a tax professional to prepare the additional paperwork than the actual refund itself. And many employees will consider the potential refund too small to waste their time on the application.

Since the FLI law was in effect for all of 2009 the State of NJ had plenty of time to revise the NJ-2450 and NJ-1040 to allow for the processing of the additional refund. So how come the DFBs (in this case I do not mean Damned Food Bureaucrats) in Trenton did not permit the refund to be requested on the NJ-2450?

Why else but the fact that, as I stated above, they knew damned well that the refund would be too small by itself for employees to either pay a professional to prepare the paperwork or spend the time to file the refund request themselves – and the State of NJ would keep the money, money which rightfully and legally belongs to the contributing employees, to further fatten its corrupt elected officials and their cronies and supporters.

I do not expect the 2010 NJ-2450 or NJ-1040 to reflect the 2010 FLI overpayments. The bastards in Trenton who run the legislature are not going to give up a source of easy money.

Don't just bend over every time an elected official asks you to. If you were screwed out of a legitimate refund of excess FLI contributions please write or call your “representatives” at the State House and tell them what dirty f---ing bastards they are!

TAFN

NEW MEMBER BENEFIT AT NATP

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Here is another reason why membership in the National Association of Tax Professionals is a must for all serious tax preparers – a new “social networking community” called “Member to Member” which is set to begin later this summer.

Member to Member will allow NATP members to network with other members more effectively. With this new member benefit you can -

• Ask colleagues to be your friend,
• Join groups with topics that interest you,
• Network with other Chapter members,
• Get a sneak peek of the “You Make the Call” for the Week, and
• Download audio recordings or podcasts on different tax topics.

As I have posted at TWTP –

“I have absolutely no use for FACEBOOK or MY SPACE, and cannot understand why anyone who is not a high school or college student would have any. I certainly have no intention of making personal information available to the great unwashed masses. If I want to share information or pictures with family and friends I can always send them an email.”

So I am not looking to use this new feature as a “social” network to find new friends. I have plenty of friends as it is, thank you. But I do see its value as a way of connecting with other tax professionals on federal and state tax issues – looking for answers and/or guidance on tax issues that are new or confusing to me, verifying that my thinking or tax law interpretation is valid, and both discovering and spreading the word on new tax-related resources.

NATP has asked me to be a “leader” of this new service and to preview the new site before it is open to the general membership. I will be previewing M2M next week – and will let you know what I think.

BTW – if you are interested in becoming a member of NATP, or in receiving info on NATP membership, email me at rdftaxpro@yahoo.com with “NATP Membership” in the “subject line”.

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TAFN

NO NJ HOMESTEAD REBATE CHECKS FOR 2010

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According to “N.J. Budget 2011: Property Tax Rebates for Summer 2010 Cut $848.2M” at NJ.COM, the recently passed NJ State budget “eliminated rebates for nearly 103,700 renters and cut rebates for everybody else by 75 percent”.

The article explains that -

“The rebates will no longer be sent in the summer as checks, but rather deducted from local property tax bills, starting in May 2011. The state has had to figure out technical details to make it work — including how to protect residents' private IRS information.”

This new procedure, which, to be fair, was also initially proposed by Corzine at the beginning of his career (before he decided to spend his tenure sitting on his arse and doing nothing but support the selfish actions of the State’s corrupt Democratic Party), is much “more better” than the current one of sending out checks. And I expect that the new procedure will provide a substantial savings to the budget via reduced administration costs.

I have always said that a rebate check, whether issued by the State of NJ or the federal government, is nothing but a political gimmick. A taxpayer receives a check in the mail and it is expected that he/she will feel obligated to the party that provided the check and run out and vote for the candidates of that party. I do seem to recall that in the early years of the NJ Homestead Rebate program the checks would arrive on November 1st - just in time for the election.

Receiving a rebate check “after the fact” – a refund of the previous year’s property tax payments – can also FU one’s 1040 filing by artificially and incorrectly increasing one’s AGI - and therefore reducing many tax benefits and possibly increasing taxable Social Security and Railroad Retirement benefits. Reducing one’s actual current real estate tax payment via a direct credit would have no affect on AGI - it would simply provide a smaller deduction on Schedule A.

If this change in procedure does go through properly I, as a tax preparer, will no longer need to waste valuable time during the season contacting the taxpayer, or doing an online inquiry, when he/she forgets to tell me the amount of the rebate check received. I will not need to know the amount of the rebate anymore – just the amount of net real estate tax paid.

TAFN