Well another tax season is over! Here is hoping that your season was profitable with short hours, no disputes or surprises, minimal overtime, no technology glitches and e-filing that went through first time, every time! Yeah, right.

Anyway what have you missed while you were gone? Please let me bring you up to date on a few things and I promise not to get too detailed right after tax season!

On the tax front we will avoid most things for now and catch up in the next few months, but here are some interesting tax tidbits for you that we will be discussing in seminars this year:

• If you missed my tax season newsletter you might have missed this one: Instructions to 2010 Form 1040 line 29 and newly printed Publication 535 now state that Medicare Part B premiums qualify for the self employed health insurance deduction. The deduction would also be available for Medicare Part D premiums. Premiums for a spouse would not qualify. Greater than two percent shareholders of an “S” corporation would qualify as well if the S corporation paid the premiums directly or reimbursed the owners for the premiums.

At the end of March the IRS released the new Pub. 535 which also says that self employed taxpayers may amend prior year returns to deduct Medicare  premiums as part of the SE health insurance deduction.

• In TC Memo 2011-42 the court held that an Amway business was not operated with a profit motive and denied all losses. The taxpayer did have gross revenues but much of the revenues were from purchases from the taxpayer’s other businesses. Additionally the taxpayer did not operate in a business like manner even though they had a separate checking account, because the account was not used  as a tool for increasing profitability.

• In TC Memo 2010-261 the court determined that taxpayer who bought 4-8 homes annually at foreclosure sales, renovated them and resold them were in the business as real estate dealers. The profits were therefore ordinary income rather than capital gains.

• Schedule E is being re-designed for 2011. Taxpayers will report more data on their rentals, including the type of property rented…a single family home, condo, commercial property and so forth. And filers will have to list the number of days the property was occupied as well as the number of days used for personal purposes.

• In TC Memo 2011-65 the court held that a couple that took large, casual, undocumented loans from their corporation were required to include the loans as dividend income because there was no security or written notes and because interest had never been collected.

• In TC Memo 2011-74 the Court determined that an accounting firm, taxed as a “C” corporation and therefore subject to the PSC tax rate, was not allowed to deduct “consulting fees” and “interest” paid to other entities controlled by the owners of the firm. The court was determined that no services were performed by the other entities and also applied the accuracy-related penalties of Sec. 6662.

• In Renkemeyer, Campbell & Weaver LLP v. Commissioner, 136 T.C. No. 7 (2/9/2011) held two important tax treatments. One, that a special allocation of income between partners to avoid self employment tax was invalid even though a written partnership agreement required the special allocation and, two that all distributive income was subject to self employment tax.

Self study books
We have just completed our 2011 Depreciation & Amortization manual to bring it up to date for the year end tax act as well as the brand new March regulations. Boring, but highly valuable! We have also completed several new courses for this year: Death, Taxes or College-Choose Two-an analysis of college savings plans, credits and deductions; we have a brand new 1 hour class/manual on Long Term Care Insurance; as well as a brand new manual on Social Security.

Finally we are wrapping up this week a new, much in demand course on Entity Conversions. This new class will cover 5 types of conversions in case study form, with forms, elections, entries and tax returns. It includes S to C corporate conversions as well as LLC to C conversions, C to S conversions, LLC to S conversions and sole proprietor to S conversions.

Most of our other self study short courses for 2011 are also now completed including Accounting Methods; Business Tax Credits; Clergy; C Corporations; Employee/Sub Contractor; Fringe Benefits; Estate & Gift Tax Update for 2011; HSA's HRAs and More; Like Kind Exchanges; Practice Management; Retirement Plans & IRAs; and  Technology;  and Top Tech Tips. These classes are also available via webcast and particularly our "On-Demand" self study streaming video.

Live Classes  

We will see you at all of the cities we were at last year, although with a new sponsor in Minnesota-the EA Society. We also will see you at several new cities: Albuquerque with the NMSPA, El Paso (Jennings), Memphis (Jennings), and Sarasota (Jennings). We have greatly expanded live class offerings in Denver, Ft. Collins, Salt Lake and Chicago. We have also made over 70 live classes available in our Clarksville, Indiana (metro Louisville) training center.

We will be offering on two separate occasions this year our EA review class using Gleim materials. We believe this will be unique in America because we are using two instructors to bring two levels of practicality, and both just passed the EA exam in 2011! Our grizzled veteran Bob Jennings took and passed all 3 parts in January, 2011 after 30+ years as a CPA and our young Turk, Ryan Barwe CPA just blew away his section of the exam. Because the exam is so academically oriented Ryan adds a practical level to the test taking that Bob's experience in practice cannot match. This class is available online live, and in our training center-and yes you will work your tail off! Pass the EA exam and we will also give you a free cpe class from us!

Vacations

For those of you traveling this year we have scheduled a week at a magnificent resort high in the New Mexico mountains in July 10-17. You can take 1 or 6 classes in all different topics and the resort is both family and adult oriented. We have also scheduled a golf outing, shopping trip, night under the stars at the White Sands National Monument, a horseback ride and chuckwagon dinner!. All of our speakers and staff are also attending this fun, educational event!

We will also (Bob & Jean Jennings) be attending the NSA convention in Anchorage in August and co-sponsoring an event with our friends from the Alaska Society.

Webcasts & On Demand Training

We have 150 scheduled webcasts this year-the internet is just taking over. If you have never done one give a 1 or 2 hour class a shot to see if you like it. We also are converting all of our live 1,2 and 4 hour classes to "On Demand" cpe so that you can get the slides, video, audio and manuals whenever you wish.

Anything Else?

We have changed all of our printed material in 2011 to printing on 100% re-cycled paper in our effort to reduce some of the mess out there.

TITLE OF NEWSLETTER

Mid Season Tax Update Below is a partial list of Mid Season Tax Updates from Jennings Seminars. To view all Mid Season Updates, please visit TaxSpeaker.com's Blog by Bob Jennings, CPA Instructions to Form 1040 and newly printed Publication 535 now state that Medicare Part B premiums qualify for the self employed health insurance deduction.   In TC Memo 2011-26 an employee of a private security firm working in a combat zone was not allowed to use the combat zone pay exclusion even though the work he performed was similar to that performed by the armed forces.   In Rolfs v. Comr, 135 T.C. No. 24 (11/4/2010) the court disallowed a charitable contribution deduction for the value of a personal residence that a taxpayer had the local fire department burn for training purposes. This continues a series of taxpayer losses in similar deductions. In 1973’s Scharf TC Memo 1973-265 the court allowed such a deduction.   In TC Memo 2010-286 the IRS held that a daughter could deduct medical costs and real estate taxes paid by her Mom. The Court said that Mom made a “deemed gift” to the daughter   In IRS Announcement 2011-14 the IRS announced that money spent on breast pumps and breast-feeding supplies qualifies as a medical expense and is eligible for itemized deductions or reimbursement through Flex spending accounts, HRA and HSA’s.   In Rev. Rul. 2010-25 the IRS determined that where an initial mortgage over $1,000,000 was used to buy a home, the next $100,000  > Read Full update TaxSpeaker.com's Blog by Bob Jennings, CPA INN OF THE MOUNTAIN GODS - Week of OUTSTANDING CPE and FUN for your entire family! Register Today Gather up your family and spend your summer family vacation at the beautiful Inn of the Mountain Gods in New Mexico. You can enjoy 6 days of CPE from some of the nation's top speakers and have plenty of time to enjoy your vacation with the family! Something for everyone in your family from the kids to Mom and Dad. Golf at the Inn - Ruidoso, New Mexico has three beautiful and challenging golf courses including our own course – Inn of the Mountain Gods Championship Golf Course. Kids Summer Program Our fun-filled kids activities program is designed for children 5-12 years old. Kid Activities are offered on Saturdays from the summer months of June to the end of August. Additional activities are offered on holiday weekends. Your little ones will experience activities that are fully supervised that include arts and crafts, outdoor and indoor activities, games, movies, special theme activities, prizes, lunch or dinner and a snack. Pool, Hot Tubs, Fitness Room, Arcade, Fishing, Sporting Clay Range, Horseback Riding Stables, Boat Rentals available See Inn Of the Mountain Gods website for details. We are offering multi-day discounts Contact us for details. When making your reservations with the hotel, be sure to mention Jennings Seminars' room block. Many group activities will be planned throughout the week. Keep watching our website. Many options for CPE AVAILABLE. Register Today! . - Download FLYER Connect with us: Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook LinkedIn YouTube podcast Read RSS Feeds Share this email: *|MC:SHARE|* MARCH Lunch with Bob Mar 2 – Out of State Returns – Out of state returns-what to look for, where to go for information, common traps from big states of California and New York. NOTE: This course will qualifies for CPE credit but will be clearly discussed in layman's terms so your CLIENTS would benefit from attending! Mar 9 – S Corporations – We'll discuss S corporation tax return issues-loans, drawings & salaries. Mar 16 – Like Kind Exchanges – We will review the new (and old) grouping rules, passive activity overview and rudimentary basis overview Mar 23 – Home Office and Travel Issues – We will review the home office requirements, tax home rules and per diems Mar 30 – LLCs - Issues to remember -  We will review return filing issues, guaranteed payments, federal id #'s and problems Visit Our Free Download Section for useful practice tools Contact Us: TaxSpeaker.com P: 812-288-1513 or 877-466-1040 F: 866-223-2696 Email: info@TaxSpeaker.com view email in browser |unsubscribe | update your profile | forward to a friend Jennings Seminars is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN, 37219-2417. Web site: www.nasba.org NASBA Sponsor # 108251. In accordance with the standards of the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, CPE credits are granted based on a 50-minute hour. IRS CE for Enrolled Agents Sponsor Number 346. "We have entered into an agreement with the Office of Professional Responsibility, Internal Revenue Service, to meet the requirements of 31 Code of Federal Regulations, section 10.6 (g), covering maintenance of attendance records, retention of program outlines, qualifications of instructors, and length of class hours. This agreement does not constitute an endorsement of the Office of Professional Responsibility as to the quality of the program or its contribution to the professional competence of the enrolled individual."   Our tax programs are accepted by the Oregon Board for licensed tax consultants.

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