Harlan Lunsford wrote:

- quote -

To drive the point home, just yesterday an EA on another tax
board posted a message about how the DOP(e) or maybe it's
the OPR these days, sent him a letter threatening possible
sanctions for having filed about 4-5 years late!. No matter
that he always got extensions, properly so, and made
overpayments which resulted in refunds.

What IS this world coming to?

Cheer$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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- quote -

And a surprising number of taxpayers are willing to pay a
preparer hundreds of dollars to do this to avoid the
possibility of $50 in penalties.

Of course there are those with substantial but unstable
income for whom it is worth the cost.

Jo

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Jo Firey wrote:

- quote -

Interesting you should mention this, Jo. For these days,
the IRS DOP (director of practice) and his office is going
to go after practitioners (EA's, CPA's and attornies) who
are not current in their own 1040 taxes, and this includes
estimates. Presumably under 1000$ is still a safe haven,
although the article I just read doesn't address this one
little point.

Still..... 4% on the unpaid balance is pretty good interest
rate for many people.

Cheer$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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- quote -

Not to mention the amount of human time required to compute
your taxes 5 to 7 times a year: the actual tax forms, four
estimates, a december or january planning run, and a
postponement request in april.

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"Michael Roback" <roback[at]earthlink.net> wrote:

- quote -

For starters, the IRS doesn't know what you were planning to
pay in estimates so there would be no way for them to have
already assessed anything. The estimated you were planning
to pay may be more or less than the estimates actually
required for your 2003 taxes.

Just to give you an idea, I should pay estimates but I
choose not to. When I file my return I pay the penalty
which is computed as a percentage of the estimate I should
have paid from the date the estimate was due to the date I
pay the tax. It is a lot cheaper than carrying a balance on
a credit card. For me it is a matter of convenience.

On the other hand I have clients who are extremely careful
about estimates. Simply because they do not want to pay the
IRS one dime more than they have to.

Just fill out form 2210 (?) when you do your taxes to
compute the penalty. It won't be that much.

Jo

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My estimated tax payments for this year were $960 per
quarter for the Fed, nothing owed to the state. I am in
California. First payment, I made without a problem before
4/15. I had thought that I had made the second one as I put
a check in the envelope, stamped it and just found it today
1/12, never sent. I had been diagnosed with a illness
around that time and with building a house, I guess for some
reason it fell between the cracks, literally and
figuratively. Then for the third quarter, I didn't have the
money until the very end of December. I got the money
together for the last quarter and was set to send it in the
next day or two. Now I have got two payments to worry
about, the 6/15 and the 9/15. I can find a way to send both
6/25 and 1/15 in now but the question is... how much will
the penalties and interest be for 1) the $960 due 6/15 and
not sent until 1/15; and 2) the $960 due 9/15 and not sent
until 12/30. Also, is there a number I can call to verify
that a estimated tax payment has been received by the IRS
and whether they have assessed any penalties and interest.
What do I do?

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