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Need a Hand?
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Need a Hand?
Your Next Project Starts with Brownstoner
Thanks for the condo comments, Dave. (You redeemed yourself for suggesting that neither my accountant nor I look like Rentboys, however, true and sad that may be.) I’ll send you the link. I apologize since I thought I’d already shown you the condo pics when we lunched with m4l or went apartment hunting with Biff.
And, thanks, too, Arkady and Pete. The condo just finished putting on a new roof, and they did pointing within the last year or so, so there is, in fact, a new assessment on each unit, but I negotiated for the Sellers to pay the full assessment (lump sum, in cash, at closing).
quote:
“So I need the accountant to hold my hand” – Cobble
(hermph! and she yells and screams at me for my incessant hand holding! what a kettle she is!!)
*rob*
rob, if two diffferent people said it wasn’t an issue, forget about it. If you’re still worried, call them back and ask for something in writing.
My accountant made small mistakes on my forms for the last two years (but which cost me money) and this past year filed taxes without my review or electronic signature. These are not willful, negligant things but mistakes because he is either getting ADD or too many clients. He is not cheap either, so I have to decide what to do next year.
How much is the inspection, CGar?
“talking about a mistake on aline item or a judgement call on a deduction, which, 99.99% of the time are resolved at an audit.”
Agree (not sure about the exact numbers, but I think you’re basically right on this). But a lot of people erroneously think that as long as they can say with a straight face that something is a mistake they can’t get in trouble. No, if a judge or jury concludes that they intentionally evaded their taxes, they can go to jail. It amazes me how may people believe in this “mistake” idea – especially when it’s often people who are INTENTIONALLY EVADING THEIR TAXES who convince themselves it’s OK because they can say with a straight face that it’s a mistake, or they just didn’t understand the complexity of the tax laws, or whatever.
so i have a question…
like a year or so ago, maybe a little more i got a letter from the new york state department of taxation saying that i owed like 2000 (not sure HOW it would even be possible to be that high btw, but that’s what the letter said) dollars from the years 2003 and 2004 (so that’s 4000 dollars). and they tacked on penalties (?) of about 2000 dollars each for both years, saying i owed 8000 dollars!!!
i freaked, ignored it for a number of months, then decided the responsible thing to do would be see if i can work out a payment plan or something. the woman i talked to on the phone looked up my records and said that i was all clear and that i owed nothing. i thought that strange, maybe she looked up the wrong person? is this just dumb luck? i called back spoke to another person and they said the same thing, that i owed nothing.
can someone explain to me, what perhaps happened in this situation? did they just write me off or something? an internal error? i never got anymore letters about it since then, but i still have the original letter(s) i got about oweing.
should i have gotten the names of the people i spoke with who said i was all clear and owed nothing? im still afraid what if they both made a mistake and i still do owe. but i would have heard from them about this issue by now right? it’s been a long time since the original letter.
in 2003 and 2004 i am not sure if my NYS taxes were filed. i assume my federal was filed because i got refunds both those years.
*rob*
“I get brain freeze w/ official documentation & freelancer income is qute complicated if you want to write off a lot of outlay.”
Well, that’s just it Arkady, I get WAY NERVOUS when it comes to anything legal! I’m a ‘color in the lines’ person when it comes to that stuff. So I need the accountant to hold my hand and show me what I can LEGALLY do. I keep careful track of everything, use folders and notes throughout the year. Because I’m such a nervous nelly about it!!
fuuuuuuuucccckkkkkk! just typed a long message for Cgar and got the error screen!
Anyhoo, Cgar, ask the condo association if they can provide a copy of a report done by an engineer or inspection in the past couple of years that underlines any problems that he/she might have found in short or long run. I know my coop has that on file and any well managed condo/coop should at some point hire someone to look everything over. I wouldn’t worry about hiring your own inspector necessarily.