Search found 465 matches

by financeperchance
Wed May 03, 2023 11:48 am
Forum: Forum Issues and Administration
Topic: Let's discuss the idea of a mute button please
Replies: 15
Views: 4440

Let's discuss the idea of a mute button please

There is a certain level of comment, let's call it "snarky" or mildly negative that does not quite rise to the level of being reportable to a moderator. For most here these are no big deal, but for those who have been victims of cyberbulling they can cause a lot of pain and distress due to a lot of sensitivity to such language. My suggestion is that a simple "mute" button would solve this issue. I think everyone here would agree that a diversity of users is important for a board like this one, and also that it's important that everyone have access to a helpful board like this one. Thank you.
by financeperchance
Wed May 03, 2023 11:03 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance
Replies: 22
Views: 2830

Re: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance

I remember a proxy vote we had for our federally chartered credit union many years ago. The pitch was for larger insurance on deposits that really nobody used. What they didn’t mention in the pitch was that we had to give up our federal charter and insurance for the larger insurance deposit amounts through a private insurance company… based in Barbados. I voted no, but the ayes had it and I promptly moved most of my money out. The CU eventually merged with someone else, and I still have a balance as backup cash. I keep two banks and the CU for redundancy and never exceed the insurance limits. Hi, perhaps I did not do a good job explaining this, but the banks that are members of the Massachusetts DIF also have FDIC insurance. The FDIC insur...
by financeperchance
Tue May 02, 2023 9:54 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance
Replies: 22
Views: 2830

Re: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance

It certainly looks like a good option for accounts that are a little above the FDIC limit, or are going to be above it for a limited period of time--rather than opening accounts at multiple banks, or playing account titling games at one bank. "Insured by someone" is better than "uninsured." The counterargument I guess is that it is better if the bank just doesn't fail. (The same thing is true of SIPC at some? most? brokerages--including Vanguard and Fidelity for sure--which carry private excess-of-SIPC coverage up to some limit like $50 million). Yeah, definitely agreed. If I were in the market for rolling CDs or something like that, I would take a good look at the Hingham Bank I mentioned in the top of the thread or an...
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 10:43 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?
Replies: 64
Views: 6885

Re: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?

Re the last post, the New York Times story says that IndyMac failed in July and the branches re-opened as OneWest branches the next March. This shows that even when the branches re-opened, the high deposit amount customers were still out money: https://www.fdic.gov/resources/resolutions/bank-failures/failed-bank-list/indymac.html This shows the retroactive coverage, up to today’s $250,000, that kicked in two years after the failure: https://archive.fdic.gov/view/fdic/3999 Okay. Looks like it was $94 million collectively lost in the end by the IndyMac depositors. Source: MARKETWATCH Don't worry too much about losing your bank cash. Bank-failure data don't support panic over uninsured deposits. I stand corrected on that and will delete what ...
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 7:09 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?
Replies: 64
Views: 6885

Re: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?

[got a fact wrong here and so am deleting]
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 6:44 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance
Replies: 22
Views: 2830

Re: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance

amphora wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 2:37 pm
chinchin wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 10:40 am The link you provided says the fund has $500 million in assets.
I think the DIF is great, but we don't know what would happen in a crisis where the DIF is depleted. It's a private organization so there's no government guarantee.
It was tested 20 years ago [edit: oops, 30 years ago; Geez time flies!]. According to the DIF site, "During the recession of the early 1990s, the worst financial period in the history of the Massachusetts savings bank industry, the DIF paid out more than $50 million to protect over 6,500 depositors in 19 failed member banks. Yet the DIF emerged from this period financially stronger than before the recession began."
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 6:42 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance
Replies: 22
Views: 2830

Re: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance

afan wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 5:47 pm Considering how small the fund is and that it lacks the federal support of the FDIC, the term "unlimited" is misleading. They may not cap the amount covered at the individual level, but their capacity to handle big losses would appear limited. I doubt the fund could have done the First Republic deal.

I am sticking with my too big to fail megabank.
It has the $250,000 of FDIC deposit insurance like any other bank. The Massachusetts DIF insurance is for amounts over the FDIC limits.
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 6:11 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?
Replies: 64
Views: 6885

Re: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?

Re people not actually losing money over the limit, I found this on a 2008 FDIC web page: https://www.fdic.gov/resources/resolutions/bank-failures/failed-bank-list/wamu-q-and-a.html The most frequent result is for the FDIC to transfer only the insured deposits in a merger transaction. The FDIC has been able to transfer all deposits in about 25% of the failures over the past 15 years. I think if you looked at the past 15 years as of 2023, rather than 2008, the percent noted above would be higher than 25. And the over-insurance-limits deposits weren’t all lost in the above-mentioned most frequent result, if only because depositors would be near the head of the line in bankruptcy proceedings. But I’m thinking we should take the limit seriousl...
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 6:08 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?
Replies: 64
Views: 6885

Re: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?

Hi, I just want to say that history has shown that you do not need to worry about money deposited in a US bank, whether insured or uninsured. Losing money over the limit is certainly rare, and I cannot find a definite recent example. But at a minimum, there can be uncertainty. See this link concerning a 2019 failure: https://www.fdic.gov/resources/resolutions/bank-failures/failed-bank-list/enloe-faq.pdf The insured balance in your deposit account(s) was transferred to Legend Bank, N.A. If you had more than $250,000 in your account(s), or if the total of your related accounts exceeds $250,000, your accounts may require review by an FDIC Claims Agent. Please contact the FDIC Call Center at 888-206-4662 to schedule an appointment with an FDIC...
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 1:44 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance
Replies: 22
Views: 2830

Re: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance

123 wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 1:38 pm Just use treasurydirect.gov, a mix of terms and auto-renewals should be able to handle just about everyone.
Definitely a good point too. I would note that the fixed rate portion is now 0.9%! https://www.treasurydirect.gov/savings- ... est-rates/
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 10:36 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Bank with unlimited deposit insurance
Replies: 22
Views: 2830

Bank with unlimited deposit insurance

Hi, I see people here worried about FDIC insurance limits. I just wanted to say that banks that are headquartered in Massachusetts have the option of joining the state's Deposit Insurance Fund, which insures deposits beyond the FDIC's $250k limit. Like the FDIC, the DIF has never lost a penny of any depositor's insured funds. The banks that are members of the DIF can be found here. The biggest one, the Hingham Institution for Savings, takes out of state deposits and offers a 9-month CD paying an APY of 4.25%: https://www.hinghamsavings.com/deposit-rates
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 10:27 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?
Replies: 64
Views: 6885

Re: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?

I have an issue with the limit on a conceptual level: Is its purpose to: A. Incentivize people to spread their deposits around for diversification's sake? B. Limit the FDIC's total exposure in the event of a single bank failure? C. Just avoid the appearance of bailing out rich people for "reasons." Because A and B are mutually contradictory. Each bank will set its deposit rates as needed to attract reserves up to whatever it thinks it needs to cover its lending operations, right? The bank doesn't care whether they get all that money from 100 depositors or 10,000, within reason. The FDIC might care, of course, for the reason stipulated in B - but in the opposite of A: they would prefer that fewer depositors fronted the whole amoun...
by financeperchance
Mon May 01, 2023 10:13 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?
Replies: 64
Views: 6885

Re: why do people deposit more than the fdic limit?

Hi, I just want to say that history has shown that you do not need to worry about money deposited in a US bank, whether insured or uninsured. The practical reality is that almost always the FDIC finds an acquiring bank that assumes all deposits. You can see this for yourself at the FDIC's failed bank history section: https://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/bank/bfb2023.html It's pointless to worry about your deposit in a US bank. There's literally nothing wrong with or incorrect about being over the FDIC insurance limits--if you disagree just look at the history for yourself. Of course I can point this out, point out the history and know it's pointless to tell people not to worry since they will anyway, but it's definitely the truth. There are...
by financeperchance
Sat Apr 29, 2023 2:38 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Laid-off - Can I retire? Advice
Replies: 23
Views: 6109

Re: Laid-off - Can I retire? Advice

Good gosh, with those numbers, mortgage paid off etc., I would have retired $500,000 ago. DH’s health insurance is not affordable when he adds me to his employer’s offered medical plan. It costs same as COBRA. For the remaining this year, I will be on his employer’s plan. I am not expecting ACA subsidy this year due to unemployment + severance. Next year, I am considering to go on ACA plan and he will be on his employer’s plan. He will maximize his 401K and spousal IRA for me to keep MGI low so that I qualify for a partial ACA subsidy. Would this plan work? I've been on ACA plans off and on, most recently in 2022, and it has always worked just fine, especially when you can get the subsidy. You can see prices here: https://www.healthcare.gov...
by financeperchance
Fri Apr 28, 2023 8:05 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Awkward Vanguard Personal Advisor call
Replies: 30
Views: 5200

Re: Awkward Vanguard Personal Advisor call

daheld wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 7:55 am The most helpful thing for us was that it provided a buffer to not make any rash investment decisions.
Definitely an underrated point. In my 3 decades of investing now my biggest lesson is that we are each our own worst enemy and the behavioral mistakes we make are the most costly over time. It almost doesn't even matter what advice the advisor gives; it's all about preventing us from making changes. :)
by financeperchance
Fri Apr 28, 2023 7:58 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Awkward Vanguard Personal Advisor call
Replies: 30
Views: 5200

Re: Awkward Vanguard Personal Advisor call

Big Dog wrote: Thu Apr 27, 2023 12:12 pm In answer to your first question, yes, you should assume advisors will change as folks get promoted and change employers. (Isn't having someone promoted a good thing?)
Not necessarily.

[Unnecessary comment (image) removed by admin LadyGeek. Discussions are about issues, not people.]
by financeperchance
Tue Apr 25, 2023 9:00 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper
Replies: 59
Views: 6937

Re: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper

As with any great invention one cannot expect it to work flawlessly right off the bat. LOL That is like saying that we need to give time to a lightbulb invention that does not put on any light. What is your standard for acceptance of the product? Accuracy is the essence of any Information product. If the artificial intelligence makes up things, then it’s worse than nothing at all. Even worse, not even its developers can tell us how it came up with the answer. There's no auditable trail. IMO all these AI platforms getting released into the wild is reckless. They're not close to ready yet. Mistakes can be consequential. I hope it's not being used in engineering, medicine, law or anything important unless its used side by side with humans. It...
by financeperchance
Tue Apr 25, 2023 7:25 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper
Replies: 59
Views: 6937

Re: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper

Even worse, not even its developers can tell us how it came up with the answer. There's no auditable trail. IMO all these AI platforms getting released into the wild is reckless. They're not close to ready yet. Mistakes can be consequential. I hope it's not being used in engineering, medicine, law or anything important unless its used side by side with humans. It needs to be double-checked. The problem is that humans will get lazy and rely on it too much without questioning its answers. Companies that rush into using it too soon without safeguards will risk getting sued into oblivion when the AI screws up. Redundancy, not efficiency, will be the greatest benefit of AI if we use it that way. It will help reduce human errors by double-checki...
by financeperchance
Tue Apr 25, 2023 4:26 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper
Replies: 59
Views: 6937

Re: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper

As with any great invention one cannot expect it to work flawlessly right off the bat. LOL That is like saying that we need to give time to a lightbulb invention that does not put on any light. What is your standard for acceptance of the product? Accuracy is the essence of any Information product. If the artificial intelligence makes up things, then it’s worse than nothing at all. Even worse, not even its developers can tell us how it came up with the answer. There's no auditable trail. IMO all these AI platforms getting released into the wild is reckless. They're not close to ready yet. Mistakes can be consequential. I hope it's not being used in engineering, medicine, law or anything important unless its used side by side with humans. It...
by financeperchance
Tue Apr 25, 2023 3:08 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper
Replies: 59
Views: 6937

Re: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper

As with any great invention one cannot expect it to work flawlessly right off the bat. LOL That is like saying that we need to give time to a lightbulb invention that does not put on any light. What is your standard for acceptance of the product? Accuracy is the essence of any Information product. If the artificial intelligence makes up things, then it’s worse than nothing at all. Even worse, not even its developers can tell us how it came up with the answer. There's no auditable trail. IMO all these AI platforms getting released into the wild is reckless. They're not close to ready yet. Mistakes can be consequential. I hope it's not being used in engineering, medicine, law or anything important unless its used side by side with humans. It...
by financeperchance
Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:11 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper
Replies: 59
Views: 6937

Re: Can ChatGPT predict stock movements - paper

I had a much longer post that I went ahead and deleted, but long story short I have tested paper trading this over the past couple weeks and was not able to get this study to replicate, and in fact all I have gotten so far is short-term underperformance averaging about 100 basis points per week compared with just buying the Vanguard Total World ETF. In fact to me the results I have gotten so far have been more consistent with the old adage buy the rumor, sell the news and that you only make money from individual stocks if you can correctly predict the future. In short, no machine is going to tell you what individual stocks to buy. I'm sorry but life is not that easy.
by financeperchance
Fri Apr 21, 2023 10:03 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Gated community - too much hassle?
Replies: 68
Views: 8641

Re: Gated community - too much hassle?

Visiting a friend in a gated community I had a traumatizing experience getting yelled at by the guard. No thanks, never again. At least in the state where I live, there's no point--the risk of home burglary is only 0.24% per year per house on average. In other words, you can expect your house to get burglarized once every 416 years. And that's if you have the average house. It will obviously be a lot less likely if you live in a wealthier area and don't know any potential burglars (since 2/3rds of the time the victim knew the burglar). So why be so afraid? It's ridiculous.
by financeperchance
Sun Apr 02, 2023 7:40 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: S Corp with a loss --> Can you just have the basis be same as accumulated adjustments account?
Replies: 7
Views: 618

Re: S Corp with a loss --> Can you just have the basis be same as accumulated adjustments account?

Form 7203 really isn't that hard, you should be able to recreate it for each of the missing years to find your basis. Or use whatever spreadsheet you were tracking it with prior to 7203. For 7203 you'll just use a few lines in Part I probably. But, with that said, for a very simple S-Corp such as you describe I can't think of a good reason why AAA, basis, and assets wouldn't all be the same. Unless there were loans or a prior C-Corp or something to complicate it. You should take the loss if you have the basis, don't just forget it if you're entitled to it. Remember you need 7203 in years with distributions too, and you should really track basis somehow every year. Thanks for the advice and guidance. I'll take a another look. And you're cor...
by financeperchance
Sun Apr 02, 2023 5:49 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: S Corp with a loss --> Can you just have the basis be same as accumulated adjustments account?
Replies: 7
Views: 618

Re: S Corp with a loss --> Can you just have the basis be same as accumulated adjustments account?

EdNorton wrote: Sun Apr 02, 2023 5:21 pm AAA can never be negative. So if AAA went to zero, your basis isn't equal to AAA.
:sharebeer
Looking at that tax form, if I can't just give the AAA number, then calculating the basis seems like a nightmare, and taking it to an accountant would cost many hundreds of dollars. So it's probably worth it to not bother claiming the losses on my personal taxes, right? The IRS doesn't care if you fail to report a K-1 that's negative, correct? (since it means more money for them)
by financeperchance
Sun Apr 02, 2023 4:00 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: S Corp with a loss --> Can you just have the basis be same as accumulated adjustments account?
Replies: 7
Views: 618

S Corp with a loss --> Can you just have the basis be same as accumulated adjustments account?

I had a loss in my S Corp, of about $3,000, in 2022 for the first time in awhile. I have already done the 1120-S and the K-1 on TaxAct. Now all of a sudden when doing personal tax Turbotax is presenting me with a complicated tax form, Form 7203. My S Corp is an extremely "capital-lite" business (think consulting-type of business) so I never put any significant capital into it, never loaned money to it, or anything like that.

In the M-2 section of the 1120-S, it has my Accumulated Adjustments Account as $23,000 for the end of 2022. Can I just put that as my basis, in order to simplify everything? From what I understand, that AAA number is basically a floor and one's basis would never really be below that, correct?
by financeperchance
Thu Mar 30, 2023 4:00 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: If you are going to dissolve your s corp, can you skip paying the registration fee the final year?
Replies: 3
Views: 553

Re: If you are going to dissolve your s corp, can you skip paying the registration fee the final year?

MP123 wrote: Thu Mar 30, 2023 2:23 pm The IRS won't care either way, just file 1120S marked final and Form 966.

The state that the S-Corp is registered in might want you to be current in order to disolve. Or they may administratively disolve after a while if you aren't current. It varies by state.

If you're registered as a foreign corp in one of the two states you may be able to skip the fee if you are no longer doing business there.
That's helpful, thank you!
by financeperchance
Thu Mar 30, 2023 12:20 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: If you are going to dissolve your s corp, can you skip paying the registration fee the final year?
Replies: 3
Views: 553

If you are going to dissolve your s corp, can you skip paying the registration fee the final year?

This is one of those questions that these various online tools like ChatGPT and Google have been decidedly unhelpful, so I hope anyone here may know the answer. I intend to be done with my S Corp, effective this year, or really effective as soon as possible. 1. Do I still have to pay the state registration fee to keep it active? It's still active with two states (FL and GA), and this costs a few hundred bucks. I have no reason anymore to keep it active--about 10 or 15 years ago when it was a much bigger business I thought I needed it for liability protection, but that's no longer relevant. 2. As another way to save the hundreds of dollars in fees, before the deadline can I just dissolve the Corp literally tomorrow (March 31st) and just file...
by financeperchance
Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:14 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: “Stop Playing”..What Does This Really Mean?
Replies: 98
Views: 12443

Re: “Stop Playing”..What Does This Really Mean?

My standard answer would be the question can’t be answered without knowing what the $10 millionaire expenses are. :happy Say $200,000 plus taxes. Maybe $250,000 to $275,000 total. What was wrong with my idea? The Tax Managed Balanced Fund will get you $235,000 a year just in distributions right off the bat. Another thing I would do if I were in your shoes, with all due respect, is to examine my spending. At $20,000 a month, that is really off the charts. Where does all that money go? Nothing at all is wrong with that. Effectively that's been my answer for years. 50% in mostly Vanguard Total Market and 50% in muni bond funds at the peak of the yield curve. But I keep seeing so many references to "quitting the game" that I'm wonder...
by financeperchance
Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:53 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: “Stop Playing”..What Does This Really Mean?
Replies: 98
Views: 12443

Re: “Stop Playing”..What Does This Really Mean?

Leesbro63 wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:35 am
delamer wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 11:16 am My standard answer would be the question can’t be answered without knowing what the $10 millionaire expenses are. :happy
Say $200,000 plus taxes. Maybe $250,000 to $275,000 total.
What was wrong with my idea? The Tax Managed Balanced Fund will get you $235,000 a year just in distributions right off the bat. Another thing I would do if I were in your shoes, with all due respect, is to examine my spending. At $20,000 a month, that is really off the charts. Where does all that money go?
by financeperchance
Mon Mar 27, 2023 10:41 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: “Stop Playing”..What Does This Really Mean?
Replies: 98
Views: 12443

Re: “Stop Playing”..What Does This Really Mean?

It was suggested to me that my concern about TIPS in high tax bracket taxable accounts is really about something wise. And after thinking about it, I agree and decided to launch a new topic. What does “if you won the game, stop playing” actually look like? In particular, what does “stop playing” look like for the person with $10m+ in a taxable account and is in a 40% federal income tax bracket? If it were me in that position I would strongly consider just putting all the money that I won't need for the next several years into the Vanguard Tax Exempt Balanced Fund: https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vtmfx It's a "good enough" option. Indeed, if you've won the game, no need to keep playing. That'...
by financeperchance
Mon Mar 27, 2023 10:29 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

The phone call started out friendly, and then all of a sudden the call center rep accused me of making a math error. :D I was like, "No, $7,000 * .006 = $42. Not $420. If I am going to owe $420 every year from now on, please let me know." :shock: :shock: :shock: :D One of the scenarios I went over in my head was the Verizon Math thing if you remember that from a few years ago. Based on the experience I just had though, although they do understand math I think IRS call reps must have an internal policy that they should avoid ever admitting a mistake, as clearly whoever did the data entry had put in an extra zero. The only way you owe $420 in FUTA as an employer paying unemployment taxes to the State of Florida is if you have 10 em...
by financeperchance
Mon Mar 27, 2023 6:54 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

It's funny the first time you hear from the IRS. I went from a couple days ago in sheer panic thinking I'd get arrested or have my assets seized... to right now being somewhat irritated lol.

The phone call started out friendly, and then all of a sudden the call center rep accused me of making a math error. :D I was like, "No, $7,000 * .006 = $42. Not $420. If I am going to owe $420 every year from now on, please let me know."

Anyway the upshot is I will need to re-print out the exact same FUTA return I did before, but this time with the "Amended" box checked, and send it through certified mail.

Thanks to everyone who helped out by replying in this thread.
by financeperchance
Sun Mar 26, 2023 8:38 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

In the State of Alaska S Corp owners do not pay unemployment tax and pay the 6% Futa tax if the company has no other employee's . I am a bookkeeper and file multiple 940 returns. Those with employees ,other then themselves, pay the .6% generally. There Is a worksheet to fill out in this situation to determine the tax due. There are 2 questions asked on the form that determines if the worksheet is necessary. Thanks. Hopefully it's a simple matter of explaining to the IRS agent on the phone that I do in fact pay unemployment tax on myself as the sole employee to the State of FL. Do you agree that it will be that simple? I'm a little bit nervous about the call lol. BTW, the way Alaska handles it makes more sense to me... I always did think it...
by financeperchance
Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:12 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

Harmanic wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 9:00 am
financeperchance wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:59 pm
I panicked and stupidly went on EFTPS and paid the $378.87 without even thinking about it.
This is the way I have dealt with disputes. Pay what they ask and then file an appeal. When successful, they paid back the amount with interest.
Thanks, I appreciate hearing that. This thread has been extremely helpful to me. Just a quick question, how was the IRS on the phone? Were they pretty reasonable?
by financeperchance
Sun Mar 26, 2023 8:07 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

Was this written by Chat GPT? Please state your source for the tax rate. Seeing a comment like this is not good for my stress levels on a Saturday night when I can't call the IRS until Monday morning. :D So, the 940 form itself is here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f940.pdf When you have just one employee (i.e., myself), what goes in line 7 is $7,000. In line 8 it says to do 7,000 x .006, which equals $42. What did you put on lines 9-11? Also, did you pay your state unemployment tax by January 31st? Thanks for your help with this. I left lines 9-11 blank. Is this the correct move? The wording on the form is a bit confusing, but I have always paid FL unemployment tax on the first $7,000 of income and none of it is excluded from state une...
by financeperchance
Sun Mar 26, 2023 7:38 am
Forum: Forum Issues and Administration
Topic: Bogleheads and ChatGPT
Replies: 325
Views: 44544

Re: Bogleheads and ChatGPT

Heads up: The moderators are now seeing active member posts which are using ChatGPT to provide investment advice. Some of those posts contain incorrect information. This is a financial forum. Incorrect information will put your life's savings at risk. Our first priority is to ensure the information is accurate. If a member is using AI to generate a post and does not disclose that fact , the moderators will take action. We're working with the site owners on this. Until a path forward is found, we'll do what we can to mitigate the situation. You know it's interesting, if you Google "how much is futa tax" the top AI-generated answer in big font is 6.0%. This is actually in most cases not really correct, but it requires a bit of deep...
by financeperchance
Sun Mar 26, 2023 5:17 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

Golfer-- wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 12:02 am My understanding is only Companies who have employees pay the lower percent. If a Company employes only the owner, at least in my State, the full 6% is due. When filling out 940 Form the first page has 2 questions regarding this situation. Depending on your answer the % is .6 or 6.
If I am an S Corp owner in your state, and I am the only employee, do I pay state unemployment taxes too? My guess is the answer is probably not, otherwise it would mean the total is 12%. But please let me know.

24 hours and 45 minutes until I can finally call the IRS. In case anyone wants to know how to slow down time, this is the way.
by financeperchance
Sat Mar 25, 2023 9:23 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

Was this written by Chat GPT? Please state your source for the tax rate. Seeing a comment like this is not good for my stress levels on a Saturday night when I can't call the IRS until Monday morning. :D So, the 940 form itself is here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f940.pdf When you have just one employee (i.e., myself), what goes in line 7 is $7,000. In line 8 it says to do 7,000 x .006, which equals $42. Per the link supplied by @Artsdoctor the federal unemployment tax rate for businesses paying unemployment tax in FL is indeed 0.6%, not 6%, since there is a 5.4% credit reduction. Hopefully this is all correct. Let me know if I'm missing anything please. One thing I need to do of course is to figure out my approach. I imagine I don't ...
by financeperchance
Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:18 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

Artsdoctor wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:17 pm It should be 0.6%. You were correct in paying $42. There was no reduction in the credit for FL based on the DOL website:

https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/futa_credit.asp
Thank you
by financeperchance
Sat Mar 25, 2023 6:15 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

Re: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

Based on your description, it seems like you might only owe $42, not $420. If you paid your state unemployment taxes on time, your FUTA tax rate should be 0.6% (not 6%) on the first $7,000 of income for each employee. So, $7,000 x 0.006 = $42 appears to be the correct amount. There is no harm in contacting the IRS to discuss the issue. In fact, it's better to clarify any misunderstandings and make sure your tax payments are accurate. Keep your documentation handy, as they may ask for specific details or proof of your state unemployment tax payments. If there is indeed an error, the IRS should be able to help you correct it and potentially refund the excess payment you made. It's always better to address tax issues proactively rather than l...
by financeperchance
Sat Mar 25, 2023 5:59 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying
Replies: 25
Views: 3789

IRS claims I owed 6% in FUTA tax not the 0.6% I've always been paying

I live in FL, self-employed with an S Corp and have been paying unemployment taxes to the state of FL. My understanding is that if you pay state unemployment taxes, then your FUTA tax rate is 0.6% not 6%. So you're supposed to pay $42 on your 1st $7,000 in income. I just got a scary mailer from the IRS claiming this... Tax you owe: $420.00 Payments you made: -$42.00 Interest charges: $0.87 Amount due by April 17, 2023: $378.87 I panicked and stupidly went on EFTPS and paid the $378.87 without even thinking about it. However, if you look at the 940 tax form that you fill out, it even says, "line 7 x 0.006 = line 8". Line 7 was $7,000. Seven thousand dollars times 0.006 equals $42! My questions are: 1. I'm correct that I only owe $4...
by financeperchance
Wed Mar 08, 2023 9:11 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: S-corp taxes, on 1120-S, if an S corp is using cash accounting, can it count interest added to loan balance as expense?
Replies: 2
Views: 275

Re: S-corp taxes, on 1120-S, if an S corp is using cash accounting, can it count interest added to loan balance as expen

With cash accounting you need to recognize the expense when it's incurred, so that sounds like it was in 2023. If you hadn't paid the EIDL loan off you'd still be making payments, so it wouldn't be correct to take the whole interest expense when it was posted. There was special treatment for the PPP loans including interest since they were forgiven, I'm really not sure about EIDL but you might look into it. Many thanks. Yeah, I think the interest probably gets booked in 2023. I think something I have learned is that accrual accounting starts to make sense once you have a loan and once things start to get more complex, since you can match expenses to when they actually happened and cash accounting starts to become cumbersome. Yeah, the PPP ...
by financeperchance
Wed Mar 08, 2023 7:38 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: S-corp taxes, on 1120-S, if an S corp is using cash accounting, can it count interest added to loan balance as expense?
Replies: 2
Views: 275

S-corp taxes, on 1120-S, if an S corp is using cash accounting, can it count interest added to loan balance as expense?

I stupidly got an SBA EIDL loan in 2020. From what I can tell, it looks like the interest (about $1,000) got added to the loan balance last year, 2022.

I am doing my taxes right now. Can I count the $1,000 that was added to the SBA loan balance as an expense for 2022? I have paid the loan off in the past few weeks (in 2023) but had not paid it off by the end of 2022. Does this mean the interest counts as being an expense only when I paid it in 2023, using a strict definition of "cash accounting"? Or since the interest was added to the balance in 2022, is that when the expense should be counted?

Thanks very much if anyone can offer guidance.
by financeperchance
Mon Mar 06, 2023 2:19 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Is it okay to go to a dentist who is not in your dental insurance network?
Replies: 41
Views: 3976

Re: Is it okay to go to a dentist who is not in your dental insurance network?

Thanks everyone for the help and guidance. So I think the key takeaway is not to worry about whether a dental office is "in network" or not. Some of you bring up a good point that I need to have an open mind and not just automatically assume a dentist is scamming me. "Trust but verify" will be my motto and, as @PeninsulaPerson and @muffins14 point out, you can always say no to things (for example I care a lot about a healthy mouth and not at all about aesthetic appearance).
by financeperchance
Mon Mar 06, 2023 6:58 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Is it okay to go to a dentist who is not in your dental insurance network?
Replies: 41
Views: 3976

Is it okay to go to a dentist who is not in your dental insurance network?

I have searched and read through several threads and have not been able to figure out the answer to this. I haven't been to a dentist in well over a decade. This is because I know too many people who have been scammed by dentists, and I just didn't see a need for it. But my primary care doctor told me everyone needs to go to a dentist for their general health, so that's what I must do. So I finally found a dental practice that checks all the right boxes to avoid being scammed (multiple dentists practicing, great online reviews, locally owned, been in business for decades, etc.) The only financial box it doesn't check is that it's not in my dental insurance's network. Is this okay? What a confusing system dentistry is. Thanks for any guidance.
by financeperchance
Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:17 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I want to buy Docusign stock
Replies: 99
Views: 12516

Re: I want to buy Docusign stock

Not especially relevant to the original question of whether/when to buy the stock, but I am baffled by the ubiquity of Docusign and other electronic signature companies. I may be a dinosaur, but I prefer to print out, sign, and scan important documents. I suspect lots of people who use a Docusign-created document merely click on the "next" arrows without reading anything. Maybe they'd do that in a hard copy too, but it seems worse electronically. Also, it's much more difficult, if not impossible, to revise documents in docusign, which I suppose document-drafters view as an advantage. Still, forced e-signatures seem like a solution in search of a problem. I guess I hope all of these companies' stocks go to 0 so we can be rid of th...
by financeperchance
Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:48 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I want to buy Docusign stock
Replies: 99
Views: 12516

Re: I want to buy Docusign stock

KyleAAA wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 11:33 am I don't know if Docusign will turn out to be a good investment or not, but keep in mind this is the same group that was absolutely certain that Facebook would be a terrible investment when it IPO'd. They probably said the same thing when Google IPO'd, among countless others. It's a good thing we're indexers because none of us have any idea what we're talking about here.
So sad that I can't find it now, but I definitely know there was a thread here talking about how lousy Tesla stock was in 2018/2019, which in hindsight matches when the stock was about a tenth what it is now. Maybe the secret is to find those things where "everyone knows" the individual stock is terrible. :D
by financeperchance
Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:39 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: I want to buy Docusign stock
Replies: 99
Views: 12516

Re: I want to buy Docusign stock

nisiprius wrote: Tue Feb 21, 2023 7:22 pm We just bought a house and I was struck with how many of the firms we dealt with were not using Docusign, but a competitor. Several were using Dotloop, one was using Docusign, and one was using something else, I forget the name.
Yeah I found your post on page one to be very interesting last year. Definitely upset my confirmation bias at the time! It's a good point, if Docusign had any real moat it would be unthinkable to use anything else. But that most certainly was not the case. Dotloop is part of Zillow Group. Hope people aren't selling DOCU to buy ZG!