Taxpayers have reported losses of more than $36 million, averaging more than $5,700 per taxpayer, to scammers impersonating IRS agents.

Article Highlights:

• Scams Impersonating IRS Agents 
• Protecting Against Scams 
• Protecting Against ID Theft 
• What To Do If Your ID Has Been Compromised 

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has indicated it is making significant progress in its investigation of the IRS impersonation scams that are sweeping the nation, causing reported taxpayer losses of more than $36 million and averaging more than $5,700 per taxpayer. To date, TIGTA has logged approximately 1.2 million calls reported by taxpayers, and nearly 6,400 people have reported that IRS impersonators have fleeced them. 

In one instance, a taxpayer was so convinced the scammer was an IRS agent he rushed off to make a payment and was involved in a traffic accident. He was so worried about the scammer’s threats of legal action that he actually left the scene of the accident so he could promptly get the funds wired to the scammer. In this case TIGTA was able to trace the victim’s wire transfer and ultimately nabbed a ring of five scammers. 

But these stories generally don’t have happy endings, so it is important for everyone to understand that the IRS never demands payment by wire, MoneyGram, debit cards or the like, and it always makes initial contact by mail. 

Protect Yourself and Loved Ones from Being a Scam Victim: 

1. Hang up on callers claiming to be IRS agents, IRS collection agents or state taxing authorities demanding immediate payments. They are not legitimate.
    
2. Take the time to educate your loved ones, especially those who might be vulnerable, about these scams and take steps necessary to protect them from scams.
    
3. Call this office if you need assurances or wish to confirm you do not have an outstanding balance with a tax authority.
    
4. Report scams and attempted scams on the TIGTA website. 

Protect Against Identity Theft – In addition to scammers, watch out for those ID thieves out there looking for vulnerable IDs to steal. You may think it will never happen to you, but if it does, it will become a nightmare and could take years to straighten out. So you need to protect yourself against ID theft by limiting the exposure of your personal and financial information as much as possible. 

What do ID thieves need to create havoc for you? Your name, Social Security number and birth date! Here are some tips to limit your ID exposure: 

• Don’t carry your Social Security card – or any document that includes your Social Security number (SSN), for that matter – in your wallet, purse or briefcase. Your Social Security card combined with your driver’s license provides scammers with the three pieces of information they need.
   
• Don’t give out either your SSN or your birth date without questioning the need and making sure it is a legitimate request and really necessary.
   
• Limit the number of credit cards and credit accounts you have. Each account has your SSN, so the more accounts you have, the greater the chance you’ll be caught up in a data breach and your ID will be compromised. It is far easier to deal with one credit card company than several if your ID is breached.
   
• Be proactive and periodically change the passwords for your online accounts that include sensitive financial information. It is a pain, but it could avoid you a major headache. • Although only the last four digits of your SSN are used on most financial documents, you should still pay close attention to documents that include your full SSN or birth date. Limit their duplication and distribution and ensure they are properly disposed of when you discard them.
   
• Never include your SSN, birthdate or other sensitive financial information in an e-mail or in documents attached to an e-mail. 

Use common sense and follow the “need-to-know” rule when disclosing your financial information. Careless safeguarding of your information can lead to big problems. 

Think Your ID Has Been Compromised? You should immediately: 

• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www.identitytheft.gov and complete a report. In addition to taking the report, the site will develop an ID Theft Affidavit that you can use when reporting the ID theft to creditors and others. The site will also walk you through various steps to be taken depending upon the specifics of your ID theft.
   
• Contact one of the three major credit bureaus to place a “fraud alert” on your credit records and review your credit report for fraudulent activity:
  
  o Equifax, www.Equifax.com, 1-800-766-0008
  o Experian, www.Experian.com, 1-888-397-3742
  o TransUnion, www.TransUnion.com, 1-800-680-7289 
   
• Contact your financial institutions and close any financial or credit accounts opened without your permission or tampered with by identity thieves.
   
• Report any fraud to your local police and retain a copy of the police report to use when reporting fraud to other agencies or creditors. 

You should also contact this office immediately so steps can be taken to avoid fraudulent returns being filed using your SSN. Even if someone has already e-filed a return and claimed a refund under your SSN, your refund may still be safe. 

However, you cannot e-file and instead must file a paper return with the proper documentation; you will ultimately receive the refund you are due, but it will be severely delayed. Once the IRS recognizes that your SSN was used to file a fraudulent return, it will block your SSN from filing and assign you an alternative filing number for the subsequent year. 

For more information on how and what to file when someone else has filed using your SSN, please contact this office.

Tax Breaks for Hiring Your Children in Your Family Business

Article Highlights:

• Child Under the Age of 19 or a Student Under the Age of 24 
• Kiddie Tax 
• Tax on a Child’s Earned Income 
• Deduction for the Business 
• Employment Taxes 
• IRAs and Retirement Plans 

With school vacation time just around the corner and employees heading out for summer vacations, you might consider hiring your children to help out in your business. Financially, it makes more sense to keep the family employed rather than hiring strangers, provided, of course, that the family member is suitable for the job.

Rather than helping to support your children with your after-tax dollars, you can instead hire them in your business and pay them with tax-deductible dollars. Of course, the employment must be legitimate and the pay commensurate with the hours and the job worked. The following are typical situations encountered when hiring family members.

Employing a Child – A reasonable salary paid to a child reduces the self-employment income and tax of the parents (business owners) by shifting income to the child. When a child under the age of 19 or a student under the age of 24 is claimed as a dependent of the parents, the child is generally subject to the kiddie tax rules if their investment income is upward of $2,100. Under these rules, the child’s investment income is taxed at the same rate as the parent’s top marginal rate using a lower $1,050 standard deduction. However, earned income (income from working) is taxed at the child’s marginal rate, and the earned income is reduced by the lesser of the earned income plus $350 or the regular standard deduction for the year, which is $6,300 for 2016. Assuming that a child has no other income, the child could be paid $6,300 and incur no income tax. If the child is paid more, the next $9,275 he or she earns is taxed at 10%.

Example: You are in the 25% tax bracket and own an unincorporated business. You hire your child (who has no investment income) and pay the child $11,800 for the year. You reduce your income by $11,800, which saves you $2,950 of income tax (25% of $11,800), and your child has a taxable income of $5,500, $11,800 less the $6,300 standard deduction) on which the tax is $550 (10% of $5,500).

If the business is unincorporated and the wages are paid to a child under age 18, he or she will not be subject to FICA – Social Security and Hospital Insurance (HI, aka Medicare) – taxes since employment for FICA tax purposes doesn’t include services performed by a child under the age of 18 while employed by a parent. Thus, the child will not be required to pay the employee’s share of the FICA taxes, and the business won’t have to pay its half either. In addition, by paying the child and thus reducing the business’s net income, the parent’s self-employment tax payable on net self-employment income is also reduced.

Use the same example from above. Assuming your business profits are $130,000, by paying your child $11,800, you not only reduce your self-employment income for income tax purposes, but you also reduce your self-employment tax (HI portion) by $316 (2.9% of $11,800 times the SE factor of 92.35%). But if your net profits for the year were less than the maximum SE income ($118,500 for 2016) that is subject to Social Security tax, then the savings would include the 12.4% Social Security portion in addition to the 2.9% HI portion.

A similar but more liberal exemption applies for FUTA, which exempts from federal unemployment tax the earnings paid to a child under age 21 while employed by his or her parent. The FICA and FUTA exemptions also apply if a child is employed by a partnership consisting solely of his parents. However, the exemptions do not apply to businesses that are incorporated or a partnership that includes non-parent partners. Even so, there's no extra cost to your business if you're paying a child for work that you would pay someone else to do anyway.

Retirement Plan Savings - Additional savings are possible if the child is paid more (or works part-time past the summer) and deposits the extra earnings into a traditional IRA. For 2016, the child can make a tax-deductible contribution of up to $5,500 to his or her own IRA. The business also may be able to provide the child with retirement plan benefits, depending on the type of plan it uses and its terms, the child's age, and the number of hours worked. By combining the standard deduction ($6,300) and the maximum deductible IRA contribution ($5,500) for 2016, a child could earn $11,800 of wages and pay no income tax.

However, referring back to our original example, the child’s tax to be saved by making a $5,500 traditional IRA contribution is only $550, so it might be appropriate to make a Roth IRA contribution instead, especially since the child has so many years before retirement and the future tax-free retirement benefits will far outweigh the current $550 savings.

If you have questions about the information provided here and other possible tax benefits or issues related to hiring your child, please give this office a call.

June 2016 Letter

This month's newsletter discusses the recent federal rule changes impacting salaried employees who will be entitled to overtime pay in late 2016. There is also information to help protect a recently departed loved one's identity from being stolen. These articles, plus recent announcements from the IRS regarding audit rates, and new Health Savings Account (HSA) limits for 2017 round out this month's newsletter.
Should you know of someone who may benefit from this information please feel free to forward this newsletter to them.

Ghosting Identity Theft What everyone should know To most people "ghosting" is the act of breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend by breaking off all contact. Now there is a new ghosting phenomena; stealing the identity of a recently deceased loved one. Ghosting protocol Would-be identity thieves scour obituaries to find as much personal information as possible about the recently departed. The more information available about the loved one the better. With this information, thieves can make purchases, open credit cards, create false IDs, and file fraudulent tax returns. This activity can go unchecked until all the proper paper work is filed on the deceased. It can be a nightmare to clear up the mess, all while dealing with the grief associated with losing someone close to you. What can be done There are actions available to reduce the risk of this happening. Less is more. When creating an obituary, avoid being too specific on information that could be used by ID thieves. Print a birth year, but not the day and month. Omit the maiden name and the address of the deceased. Home unattended. During the funeral and visitation, consider having a friend or relative stay at the home of the deceased. Thieves are known to target homes for burglary during the service. Notify the bank. Remove the deceased's name from joint bank and credit card accounts. Immediately close solo credit card accounts. Closely monitor any activity in the accounts. Be proactive. Knowing it can take Social Security months to inform all interested parties of the death, proactively contact anyone who may need to know of the death. Report the death to Social Security. File a final tax return. Cancel the driver's license to avoid duplicates being ordered. Work with credit agencies. Contact the major credit agencies and follow their instructions to place a death notice in their records. This should help stop a thief from opening new accounts. Obtain a free credit report from one of the credit agencies and look for suspicious activity. Wait a few months and review a free credit report from a second agency. Continue to monitor activity on the deceased's credit reports. Fortunately, as long as your name is not on the accounts, family members are rarely liable for any illegal activity. But cleaning up the mess can be a real hassle.

New Overtime Rules Employer and employee alert On May 18, 2016 President Obama and Labor Secretary Perez announced new Department of Labor overtime regulations that go into place December 1, 2016. The Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has information everyone needs to know to comply with these new rules. The changes Any worker making $47,476 or less must be paid overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a given week. This is true whether the employee receives a salary or hourly pay. The overtime rate must be at least time and one-half. Up to 10% of the compensation amount can be in the form of nondiscretionary bonuses or incentives. Highly compensated employees (HCE) is now defined as $134,004 or higher. The old rate was $100,000. Those above these income levels are exempt from the overtime rules as long as a minimal duties test is met. The new rule is effective December 1, 2016 The wage amount will automatically reset every three years. The next change will be January 1, 2020. Actual implementation documentation has not been published in the Federal Register. Final regulations could still change slightly. What this means to you There will be change. Any salaried employee who makes less than the $47,476 amount will see a change. It could take any of the following forms: move from salaried employee to hourly employee a raise to $47,476 or more move from a flexible work-week to a scheduled work-week to comply with a strict 40 hour work week increase in the tracking of hours Flex hours a thing of the past? Your work hours must now be tracked. Because of this, working from home and working flexible hours is more difficult. While the legal burden of reporting is placed on employers, employees will now need to track their work time. Required reporting. While the Department of Labor provides flexibility on how employers track hours, the standard of reporting will probably be tested through legal action. Here are some of the options per the Department of Labor. Time clock. Have everyone track their hours by punching in and out. Personal recordkeeping. Have each employee track their daily hours and report them to the employer each pay period on a timesheet. Hard scheduling. Publish a schedule of hours for each employee. Record any deviation from the schedule and place the documentation with payroll records. Note: Please refer the U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet #21 for a summary of the FLSA's recordkeeping regulations. More than a raise. While many are touting this as a potential raise for more than 4 million employees, many believe two other objectives are in play. The first is to broaden employment. Employers may hire additional people to avoid the necessity of paying overtime. The second possible objective is to help re-establish a work and leisure balance. No matter what the pundits say, the true impact of this change is unknown. The only certainty is that all employers now face additional administrative duties and potential legal action for non-compliance. This includes businesses, schools, and non-profit organizations. What is important at this point is to be aware of the upcoming change and plan for it.

The Chances of Being Audited 2015 audit statistics show continued changes What are the Chances? Every year the IRS publishes the statistics on the number of tax returns they are examining. Provided here are the last three years of published information and a look back to 2008 to see any trends: Percent of Individual Tax Returns Audited Fiscal Year Year 2015 2014 2013 2008 All Individual Tax Returns 0.84% 0.86% 0.96% 1.00 % No Income (AGI) 3.78% 5.26% 6.04% 2.15% Income under $25,000 1.01% .93% 1.00% .90% $25,000 - 50,000 .50% .54% .62% .72% $50,000 - 75,000 .47% .53% .60% .69% $75,000 - 100,000 .49% .52% .58% .69% $100,000 - 200,000 .64% .65% .77% .98% $200,000 - 500,000 1.54% 1.75% 2.06% 1.92% $500,000 - $1 million 3.81% 3.62% 3.79% 2.98% $1 million - $5 million 8.42% 6.21% 9.02% 4.02% $5 million - 10 million 19.44% 10.53% 15.98% 6.47% $10 million and over 34.69% 16.22% 24.16% 9.77% Note: These audit rates are stated as a percent of total tax returns in each Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) class as claimed on individual tax returns. In general the examinations are for tax returns filed in the previous calendar year. Source: IRS Data Books Observations: Overall, you have less than 1 out of 100 chance of being selected for an audit. The .84% audit rate is down .02% versus 2014. The IRS is continuing its focus on returns with no AGI or negative income. This group's 3.78% audit rate is down versus last year, but is still significantly higher than the 2.15% audit rate in 2008. The IRS continues its focus on who pays the income tax. Those with incomes over $500,000 continue to have audit rates significantly higher than in 2008. Over 1/3 of those with incomes over $10 million were faced with an audit. Having good records Your best defense in case of an audit is retaining adequate records for as long as you need them. This includes retaining copies of original tax returns and any supporting documentation. Please keep all receipts, statements and cancelled checks that support any tax return entry. Also retain legal documents, confirmation of asset purchases, asset sales, real estate transactions, mileage logs, and informational tax forms. Remember the IRS can audit your tax return for three years after the later of the filing date or when you filed your tax return. This time-frame is six years if your income is understated by more than 25%. Include any state record retention requirements as you review when it is safe to destroy old records. This can add one to two years to your recordkeeping requirements.

2017 Health Savings Account Limits Announced The savings limits for the ever-popular Health Savings Accounts (HSA) are now set for 2017. The new limits are outlined here with current year amounts noted for comparison purposes. What is an HSA? An HSA is a tax-advantaged savings account to pay for qualified health care costs for you, your spouse, and your dependents. When contributions are made through an employer, they are made on a pre-tax basis. There is no tax on the withdrawn funds, the interest earned, or investment gains as long as the funds are used to pay for qualified medical, dental, and vision expenses. Unused funds may be carried over from one year to the next. To qualify for this tax-advantaged account you must be enrolled in a "high deductible" health insurance program as defined by HSA rules. The limits Health Savings Account (HSA) Limits NEW! 2017 2016 Change Maximum Annual Contribution Self $3,400 $3,350 +$50 Family $6,750 $6,750 nc Add: 55+ catch up contribution $1,000 $1,000 nc Health Insurance Requirements Minimum Deductible Self coverage $1,300 $1,300 nc Family coverage $2,600 $2,600 nc Out-of-pocket Maximum Self coverage $6,550 $6,550 nc Family coverage $13,100 $13,100 nc Source: IRS Rev Proc 2016-28 Note: To qualify for an HSA you must have a qualified High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP). A plan must meet minimum deductible requirements that are typically higher than traditional health insurance. In addition, your coverage must have reasonable out-of-pocket payment limits as set by the above noted maximums. Not sure what an HSA is all about? Check with your employer. If they offer this option in their health care benefits, they will have information discussing the program and its potential benefits.

As always, should you have any questions or concerns regarding your situation please feel free to call.