NYSSCPA Members in the News
David Young (Rochester)
Tax filing extensions
WROC Rochester News 8
CPA Dave Young of Young and Company discussed some tips about tax filing extensions Monday on News 8 at Sunrise. Many people will missing filing their tax return by the Monday, April 18 deadline. Young said in that situation you should do two things - file for federal and state extensions with Form 4868 and Form IT-370.
Other Accounting and Finance News Stories
A Quick Tax Fix for Vacation Home Rentals
CPA Practice Advisor
By now, most of your clients who rent out vacation homes for part of the year know the drill. They must be careful to stay within the boundaries for “personal use” to be able to deduct a loss from the rental business on their tax return. But that’s often easier said than done. At least, your clients can benefit from a little-known rule when they’re getting ready for the summer rental season. If you spend most of the day at your home fixing up the place – for example, cleaning inside, making minor repairs and tidying up the grounds – the day doesn’t count towards personal use.
IRS Warns of Tax Scam Targeting Preparers
Accounting Today
The Internal Revenue Service is warning tax professionals about a new scam in which cybercriminals obtain remote control of tax preparers’ computer systems, complete and file client tax returns, and redirect tax refunds to thieves’ accounts. The IRS said it knows of only a handful of cases to date, but warned the scam has the potential to impact the filing of fraudulent returns in advance of the April tax deadline and is yet another example of tax professionals being targeted by identity theft criminals.
America's tax code is a growth industry
Standard-Examiner
The Internal Revenue Service wants you to have a rotten weekend at least if you owe them money and you tend to procrastinate. Seems predictable that the IRS would drag out the April 15 deadline for a tortured three-day weekend. But if you mistakenly think you missed the deadline on Friday, relax. You have until Monday at midnight. The income tax ritual has become a part of our cultural heritage, giving new meaning to T.S. Eliot’s line from “The Wasteland”: “April is the cruellest month.” April means we get to see Statues of Liberty waving signs on Harrison Boulevard. April means your CPA’s family begins to wonder what she looks like.
Companies Seeking Accountants with Data Analytics Skills
Accounting Today
Businesses are facing a significant shortage of accounting and finance professionals who have data analytics skills, according to a new report. The Institute of Management Accountants and the staffing company Robert Half polled nearly 500 finance executives and managers for the report. The survey found deficiencies in high-demand skills such as data and decision analysis, data mining and extraction, process improvement and the ability to identify key data trends.
Wall Street Veterans Bet on Low-Income Home Buyers
New York Times
As the head of Goldman Sachs’s mortgage department, Daniel Sparks helped make the bank more than a billion dollars betting against the market as housing prices began to crash in 2007. Today, he is betting on home buyers who no longer qualify for mortgages in the fallout of that housing crisis. Shelter Growth Capital Partners, an investment firm Mr. Sparks founded in 2014 with two other former Goldman Sachs executives, has been buying homes that were foreclosed on during the financial crisis and later resold to buyers under long-term installment contracts.
Emerging Markets Get Surprise Lift
Wall Street Journal
A wave of interest-rate cuts by emerging-market countries is helping extend a sharp rally in their stock and bond markets, delivering investors returns that few had forecast heading into 2016. During the past month, central banks in India, Indonesia, Turkey, Hungary and Taiwan have lowered rates in a bid to counter soft economic growth. Analysts say more developing nations may follow in coming months, likely adding fuel to a two-month-long surge that has taken the MSCI Emerging Markets stock index up 6.6% for the year, reversing a double-digit decline.
What CPAs Should Know about Pass-Through Entities and IRS Form 8971
Accounting Today
Many CPAs are involved with estate planning and need to determine the assets and liabilities of a client. Clients often create limited liability companies for tax and creditor rights protection. In fact there are well over 3 million partnership returns filed with the IRS each year. LLCs make up the majority of the partnership returns that are filed (over 60 percent). CPAs who prepare the Forms 1065 each year for a client may or may not be involved in estate planning.
10 Dumbest States for Financial IQ: 2016
ThinkAdvisor
Americans are famous for spending now and paying the piper later, but the latest financial literacy ranking by WalletHub.com shows that some states are further behind than others when it comes to understanding finances. Last week, we looked at the website’s ranking of the Top 10 Smartest States for Financial IQ. Now we look at the states with the lowest financial IQ, whose citizens are more likely to have credit card debt, less likely to have formulated a household budget and prone to spending more than they earn. Even the best of states fell far short of a perfect 100 score.
Record for Stocks: So Close but Hard to Reach
Wall Street Journal
After the Dow Jones Industrial Average kicked off 2016 with its worst-ever five-day start to a year, the blue-chip index is flirting with its all-time high. The momentum of the recent rally, which has sent the Dow up 14% from the year’s low in February, could carry major U.S. indexes to fresh records. The outlook for stocks in coming months has improved since the Federal Reserve in March signaled a more cautious path for raising interest rates this year.
Possible election outcomes for Wall Street: Bad and worse
Crain’s New York Business
Bernie Sanders must be giving heartburn to the people who work on Wall Street. The insurgent candidate’s speeches and ad blitz make it clear that, if elected president, he would try to break up the big banks, raise their taxes and generally make their lives much more difficult. Hillary Clinton isn’t much of an alternative for the city’s finance industry. She says she will be as tough on Wall Street as Sanders, just more realistic about how to go after the titans.