January 04, 2012 
TMatters 
Welcome to the 2011 tax filing season! We have printed tax organizers and have plans
to mail them next week. Last year we
tried emailing organizers but found that many clients change emails frequently,
and do not have the capability to print.
As a result, we will be mailing all organizers again this year. Our lines start ringing in early January with
people looking for their organizers so we know how valuable a tool these
organizers are to clients.
As a reminder, 1099 forms are due to recipients by January
31st. Please be advised that you must file a form 1099 MISC if you
paid $600 or more in fees, commissions, or other forms of compensation
to an individual or independent contractor, who is NOT your employee, for
services performed in your trade or business.
The penalty for not completing these forms has doubled this year. Be sure to contact us if you need us to
complete these forms for you.
An important
business deduction that clients tend to forget is the amount of miles driven
for business. A business can elect to
deduct either the amount of miles or the actual expenses for a vehicle. The standard business mileage rate for 2011
is .51 cents per mile for the period from January – June and .555 cents per
mile for the period from July – December.
This is an incredibly important deduction for many business owners.
Also, there will be
penalties on the Massachusetts tax return for individuals without health
insurance. Be sure to provide us with
the form 1099-HC indicating that you have health insurance. If you receive coverage through either social
security or MA Health, be sure to let us know so that you don’t receive a
penalty for not having health coverage.
Once again, we will
be scheduling appointments in the Orleans office on Tuesdays during the filing
season. We encourage you to
mail your completed tax organizers along with all of your tax information to
our Westport office. This allows
us the opportunity to work on your taxes and compile a list of questions or
missing information that we can then obtain from you via appointment, email,
phone or fax. Also, please be sure to
make a list of any questions you might have for us so that we can answer all of
your questions after thoroughly reviewing your information.
Additionally, we are pleased to announce that we have formed
an alliance with BizChecks Payroll.
BizChecks is the local alternative to the huge, impersonal and expensive
national payroll companies.
Additionally, their attention to detail and accuracy as well as their
reasonable fee structure is designed to meet the needs of many of our small
business clients. If you are currently
working with a large payroll company, I suggest you consider changing to
BizChecks. Be sure to let them know that
you are a Taxing Matters client so that we can obtain access to year-ending
payroll reports needed for your tax preparation. Please call Patty Dunigan at
866-932-9700. You can find them on the
web at: www.bizcheckspayroll.com.
I am looking forward to working with you in the upcoming tax
season.
Happy New Year!
