Business Meals Expense: When Does the 50% Limitation Apply?
Tue, 08/03/2010 - 13:43 | by Tammy Opheim
Employee-related meals are treated differently than qualified business meals. Employee-related meals are excluded from the gross income of the employee as a fringe benefit and fully deductible by the employer provided that it is furnished (1) on the employer's business premises and (2) for the convenience of the employer.
Whether meals are furnished for the convenience of the employer is a question of fact to be determined by analyzing all the facts and circumstances. In general, if the employer furnishes the meals primarily to enable the employee to perform his or her duties properly, it is excluded from gross income.
E-filing Required for Certain Tax Preparers
Mon, 08/02/2010 - 12:32 | by Lisa Clark
The IRS has announced a change in the requirement for e-filing in the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 (WHBAA). The original requirement stated that beginning in 2011, tax return preparers who expect to file more than 10 individual, estate, or trust returns must file them electronically. Under the relaxed rule, return preparers must file electronically in 2011 only if they anticipate filing 100 or more returns. The IRS website further provides that tax return preparers will be required to start using electronic filing beginning Jan. 1, 2012 if they anticipate preparing 11 or more federal individual or trust tax returns during the year.
Unemployment Benefits Extension Signed!
Tue, 07/27/2010 - 08:59 | by Tammy Opheim
President Obama signed the Unemployment Benefit Extenders Bill on July 22, 2010. The bill extends unemployment benefits through November 30, 2010. The program, which expired on June 2, 2010, will extend up to 73 weeks of federal benefits to people who have exhausted their initial 26 weeks of state jobless benefits (for a total of 99 weeks). They are also eligible for retroactive payments for the period when benefits lapsed. The passage comes after weeks of political wrangling over the measure's cost and benefit to the economy.
