To register go to: http://www.irstaxforum.com , click on “Register,” then “Register as an Attendee,” and enter your contact information. In the drop-down box that says “Conference Role,” select “Partner Association.” After selecting NAEA and filling in your member number, the next screen will ask for your “Access Code” (NAEATEN) and an exclusive NAEA discount will be applied. The discount is only valid for early bird registration.

The cost of enrollment for those who pre-register is $206 per person, a savings of $129 off the late or on-site registration price of $335. Pre-registration ends two weeks prior to the start of each forum. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=223454,00.html

The New Mexico legislature authorized the Department of Taxation and Revenue to offer a tax amnesty of no more than 180 days in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 and to provide for a waiver of penalties and interest for participating taxpayers. The 2010 Tax Amnesty period began June 7, 2010 and terminates September 30, 2010. Tax Year 2009 is excluded arom amnesty. Important details available at: http://www.taxamnesty.newmexico.gov/index.html

Update: Albuquerque Journal, Jul 1, 2010 -- More than 2000 residents have inquired about the amnesty program since June 7. About 200 have applied.

Are you planning to trade-in your business vehicle this year, or soon? That trade-in could be a MAJOR mistake.  Because of trades, your vehicle could be hiding a tax deduction worth thousands of dollars, To illustrate, here is A True Story with a Fake Name.

Let’s start with some background and a few facts. Harriet Wilson started in her business 11 years ago. Over the years, she drove 4 cars for business, trading each one in to get the next. To deduct  the vehicles on her tax return, she took what she considered the easy road: IRS mileage rates. When she used the rates, she thought that was the end of it. In other words, she thought that her use of the rates ended all tax discussions involving those vehicles. In fact, Harriet planned on using the IRS mileage rates right up to her death. That’s how easy and pain free she thought the rates were.

Harriet’s BIG Mistake  Harriet did not know that embedded in every single mile she deducted using IRS mileage rates is a mileage rate depreciation number. By the way, Harriet is not alone in this assumption. Millions and millions think this way. In fact, Harriet first started down this track because her tax advisor told her this was the easy way to do it. This year Harriet is deducting her mileage at 50-cents-a-mile. Inside this 50-cent IRS mileage rate is 23 cents-a-mile of depreciation. What does this mean? This means Harriet has a gain or loss on the sale of a mileage rate vehicle.

How BIG Is the Deduction? When she first started, Harriet converted her personal car to business use. At that time, her personal car had a $25,000 fair market value. Then, a few years later, Harriet traded in that converted car on a new business car and paid $15,000 boot. Then, a few years after that, she traded in this car on a replacement business car and paid another $15,000 boot. Her last trade-in took place several years ago and again involved her paying $15,000 boot to consummate the transaction. Her total investment in vehicles is $70,000.

"There’s Money in Those Miles!” Over the 11 years, Harriet drove a total of 165,000 miles, every mile driven with no clue that she was depreciating the vehicle.  She incurred $33,000 in accumulated depreciation on these four vehicles over the 11 years. As you read this, Harriet’s adjusted basis for purposes of gain or loss on sale is $37,000 ($70,000 minus $33,000). We are just about done with the arithmetic, It’s really quite easy. Stay with us. She can sell this car to a third party today for $10,000. Her tax loss is $27,000 ($37,000 adjusted basis minus $10,000 selling price).

Why Harriet Is Smiling Today Harriet’s loss is the accumulation of 11 years of vehicle activity during which   Harriet never cashed in because she traded cars. You see, the trade-in of a vehicle is really a Section 1031 tax deferred exchange. Blindly, incorrectly, and luckily, Harriet was putting her tax loss in a bag for a rainy day. Today, she is selling the last vehicle outright and releasing the $27,000 tax deduction for use on this year’s tax return. Here is another way to think of this: When Harriet sells car number 4, she is really selling four cars. The trade-in rules pushed all of the old bases into one big pile.

Cash in Her Pockets In her 40 percent combined federal and state income tax bracket, the sale of vehicle number 4 at a loss of $27,000 puts $10,800 of after-tax cash in Harriet’s smiling pockets. This is her windfall—found money, really. Remember, she had no clue that this deduction existed until we explained it to her. Planning note. Harriet drove 100% for business. That’s a high percentage, and another story for another time. If Harriet had driven 93 percent of her miles for business and seven percent for personal purposes, her tax loss would have been $25,100 and the cash into her smiling pockets would have been $10,044.

Check Out Your Basis How did Harriet not know about this before? After all, she filled out her mileage logs and used IRS rates to deduct her business cars. She was doing everything right. Most people don’t know that depreciation is built into the IRS mileage rates. Think of it. Harriet could easily have missed this deduction all of her working life. That would have been terrible, don’t you think? Make sure that this does not happen to you.

Starting 2011 --- preparers who file 100 or more returns, must file electronically. Starting 2012 --- preparers who file less than 100 returns but more than 10 returns, must file electronically.

Pat,
The information on how to request your CAF listing is found on the www.irs.gov website under “Basic tools for Tax Professionals”, then under “Campus Responsibilities and Operations.”

I have copied the section from the website below and highlighted the tab which will, via a “URL,” lead you to the letter. Once you have submitted the letter you receive a copy and your file and instructions on what you need to do to “extend” “revoke” etc.

When I called to clarify the process - I found out that I had to prepare a Form 2848 for each POA I wanted to revoke. I then simply wrote in the area designated for the clients signature “PLEASE REVOKE AT THE REQUEST OF THE REPRESENTATIVE. NO LONGER REPRESENT THIS CLIENT.” I then completed the bottom portion as I did the original, i.e., if I signed it as an EA with my number I did the same. The next step was to fax it to the applicable office which is also included in the information that comes back to you in the package.

It is not hard just a little time consuming.