Tax

Getting all of your accounting tasks done in December is always a challenge. Besides the vacation time you and your employees probably took for the holidays, there are those year-end, “Let’s-wrap-it-up-by-December-31” projects.

How did you do last month? Were you ready to move forward when you got back to the office in January? Or did you run out of time and have to leave some accounting chores undone?

Besides paying bills and chasing payments, submitting taxes and counting inventory in December, there’s another item that should have been on your to-do list: creating end-of-year reports. If you didn’t get this done, it’s not too late. It’s important to have this information as you begin the New Year and QuickBooks can provide it.

A Report Dashboard

You may be using the Reports menu to access the pre-built frameworks that QuickBooks offers. Have you ever explored the Report Center, though? You can get there by clicking Reports in the navigation toolbar or Reports | Report Center on the drop-down menu at the top of the screen.

Figure 1: QuickBooks’ Report Center introduces you to all of the software’s report templates and helps you access them quickly.

As you can see in the image above, the Report Center divides QuickBooks’ reports into categories and displays samples of each. Click on one of the tabs at the top if you want to:

• Memorize a report using any customization you applied.
• Designate a report as a Favorite.
• See a list of the most Recent reports you ran.
• Explore reports beyond those included with QuickBooks, Contributed by Intuit or other parties.

Recommended Reports

Here are the reports we think you should run as soon as possible if you didn’t have a chance to in December:

Budget vs Actual

We hope that by now you’ve at least started to create a budget for 2018. If not, the best way to begin is by looking at how close you came to your numbers in 2017. QuickBooks actually offers four budget-related reports, but Budget vs Actual is the most important; it tells you how your actual income and expenses compare to what was budgeted.

Budget Overview

Budget Overview is just what it sounds like: a comprehensive accounting of your budget for a given period. Profit & Loss Budget Performance is similar to Budget vs Actual. It compares actual to budget amounts for the month, fiscal year-to-date, and annual. Budget vs. Actual Graph provides a visual representation of your income and expenses, giving you a quick look at whether you were over or under budget during specific periods.

Income & Expense Graph

You’ve probably been watching your income and expenses all year in one way or another. But you need to look at the whole year in total to see where you stand. This graph shows you both how income compares to expenses and what the largest sources of each are. It doesn’t have the wealth of customization options that other reports do, but you can view it by date, account, customer, and class.

A/R Aging Detail

Figure 2: QuickBooks’ report templates offer generous customization options.

Which customers still owe you money from 2017? How much? How far past the due date are they? This is a report you should frequently be running throughout the year. Right now, though, you want to clean up all of the open invoices from 2017. A/R Aging Detail will show you who is current and who is 31-60, 61-90, and 91+ days old. You might consider sending Statements to those customers who are way past due.

A/P Aging Detail

Are you current on all of your bills? If so, this report will tell you so. If some bills slipped through the cracks in December, contact your vendors to let them know you’re on it.

Sales by Item Detail

January is a good time to take a good look at what sold and what didn’t in 2017 before you start placing orders for 2018. Make sure you watch this closely throughout the year because looking at monthly and annual totals will help you identify trends–as well as winners and losers.

QuickBooks offers some reports in the Company & Financial and Accountant & Taxes categories that you can create, but which really require expert analysis. These include Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, and Statement of Cash Flows. You need the insight they can offer on at least a quarterly basis, if not monthly. If you need assistance setting up a schedule for looking at these, please contact the office.

• By Leon Clinton
• January 31, 2018

Safe harbor methods are used by individual taxpayers when determining the amount of their casualty and theft losses for their homes and personal belongings. Four of the safe harbor methods may be used for any qualifying casualty or theft loss, and three are specifically applicable only to losses occurring as a result of a Federally declared disaster.

For instance, one of the safe harbor methods allows a homeowner to determine the amount of loss, up to $20,000, by obtaining a contractor estimate of repair costs. Another safe harbor method allows a homeowner to determine the amount of loss resulting from a Federally declared disaster using the repair costs on a signed contract prepared by a licensed contractor. The guidance also provides a handy table for determining the value of personal belongings damaged, destroyed or stolen as a result of a Federally declared disaster.

Under the safe harbor method individuals may use one or more cost indices to determine the amount of loss to their homes as a result of Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria (2017 Hurricanes). The cost indices provide tables with cost per square foot for Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (2017 Disaster Area).

These safe harbor methods are effective on Dec. 13, 2017, for losses that are attributable to the 2017 Hurricanes and that arose in the 2017 Disaster Area after August 22, 2017. IRS Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts provides more information on casualty and theft losses. Taxpayers can explore claiming these losses by filing an original or amended return for Tax Year 2016 or using the new revision of the 2016 Form 4684.

Questions about navigating casualty loss issues? Help is just a phone call away.

Late-Filing Penalty Relief for Partnerships

The Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 (Surface Transportation Act) changed the date by which a partnership, real estate mortgage investment conduits (REMICs), or other entity must file its annual return. For calendar year filers, the due date for filing the annual return or request for an extension changed from April 15 (April 18 in 2017) to March 15.

Many entities filed their returns or their extension request for tax year 2016 by the April deadline, and if not for the Surface Transportation Act, these returns and requests for extension of time to file would have been on time.

Fortunately, penalty relief is now available from the IRS for certain partnerships, real estate mortgage investment conduits (REMICs), and other entities that did not file the required returns by the new due date for tax years beginning in 2016 provided that the following conditions are met:

• The partnership filed the returns (Forms 1065, 1065-B, 8804, 8805, 5471, or other returns) with the IRS and furnished copies (or Schedules K-1) to the partners (as appropriate) by the date that would have been timely before the amendment made by the Surface Transportation Act (April 18, 2017, for calendar year taxpayers); or
• The partnership filed Form 7004 to request an extension of time to file by the date that would have been timely before the amendment made by the Surface Transportation Act and files the return with the IRS and furnishes copies (or Schedules K-1) to the partners by the 15th day of the ninth month after the close of the partnership’s tax year (September 15, 2017, for calendar year partnerships). If the partnership files Form 1065-B and was required to furnish Schedules K-1 to the partners by March 15, 2017, it must have done so to qualify for the penalty relief.

Notice 2017-71, which amplifies, clarifies, and supersedes Notice 2017-47, provides that additional acts, such as the making of various elections, of partnerships, REMICs, and certain other entities made by the date that would have been timely prior to amendment by the Surface Transportation Act are treated as timely.

An earlier release provided this relief only to taxpayers whose taxable years began and ended in 2016, but the revised guidance also applies to fiscal-year filers whose taxable years began in 2016 but did not end until 2017.

Please contact the office if you need further clarification.

• By Leon Clinton
• January 28, 2018

Beginning on January 1, 2018, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck are:

• 54.5 cents for every mile of business travel driven, up 1 cent from the rate for 2017.
• 18 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes, up 1 cent from the rate for 2017.
• 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations.

The business mileage rate and the medical and moving expense rates each increased 1 cent per mile from the rates for 2017. The charitable rate is set by statute and remains unchanged.

The standard mileage rate for business is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile, including depreciation, insurance, repairs, tires, maintenance, gas, and oil. The rate for medical and moving purposes is based on the variable costs, such as gas and oil. The charitable rate is set by law.

These optional standard mileage rates are used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes.

Taxpayers always have the option of claiming deductions based on the actual costs of using a vehicle rather than the standard mileage rates.

A taxpayer may not use the business standard mileage rate for a vehicle after using any depreciation method under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) or after claiming a Section 179 deduction for that vehicle. In addition, the business standard mileage rate cannot be used for more than four vehicles used simultaneously. Please call if you need additional information about these and other special rules.

In addition, basis reduction amounts for those choosing the business standard mileage rate, as well as the maximum standard automobile cost that may be used in computing an allowance under a fixed and variable rate plan and the maximum standard automobile cost that may be used in computing the allowance under a fixed and variable rate (FAVR) Plan were also announced by the IRS.

If you have any questions about standard mileage rates or which driving activities you should keep track of as tax year 2018 begins, do not hesitate to contact the office.

• By Leon Clinton
• January 25, 2018