Michael Gray, CPA’s Option Alert #109
An irregular alert for issues relating to employee stock options
February 8, 2013
© 2013 by Michael Gray, CPA
ISSN 1931-2768
(If you find this information valuable, please pass it on to a colleague!)
Table of Contents
- Make your tax preparation appointment now.
- Refundable minimum tax credit has expired
- Have you recovered your old minimum tax credits?
- Please share your experiences with Michael Gray, CPA.
- Community public access television needs our help.
- Financial Insider Weekly broadcast schedule.
- Follow me on social media!
- Check out my blog
- Do you know about our other newsletters?
- Consult with a tax advisor
- Subscribe to Michael Gray, CPA’s Option Alert
Make your tax preparation appointment now.
If you would like to schedule an appointment for a tax preparation interview, also please call Dawn Siemer on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday at 408-918-3162.
Refundable minimum tax credit has expired
Although many other Bush tax cuts were extended in the Fiscal Cliff tax legislation, the refundable minimum tax credit was not. It expired as of December 31, 2012.
It appears income taxes will again be on the table as Congress negotiates on the federal budget.
Write to your representatives in Congress and ask for an extension of this important relief.
Have you recovered your old minimum tax credits?
Some potential clients have told me they haven’t recovered their old minimum tax credits, incurred before 2008. The refundable minimum tax credit was designed to recover these credits by treating them as a refundable tax payment. If you would like us to look at your old tax returns to find out if there is “hidden money” in them in the form of unrecovered minimum tax credits, call Dawn Siemer on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 408-918- 3162 to make an appointment.
If you miss filing an amended return in time to meet the statute of limitations, you will lose the refund. So call 408-918-3162 right away.
Please share your good experiences with Michael Gray, CPA.
As you know, more and more people are going to the internet to find information about service providers. We hope you will share some good words about experiences that you have had with our firm. Some of the sites where you can share your experiences include yelp.com, siliconvalley.citysearch.com, and Google+.
Community public access television needs our help
As you can see below, public access television is a vital part of our educational outreach to various communities. These are usually nonprofit, charitable organizations, like public television stations. Unlike those stations, most of the programming for the public access stations comes from local producers.
This programming includes the local arts, productions by students at local schools, community outreach by churches, independent local producers discussing current social issues, educational programming by local providers like ourselves and much more. In other words, public access television makes a unique, important contribution to the communities it serves.
With the difficult times we are experiencing, many public access stations are facing severe financial challenges, and might not survive without more community financial support. I urge you to consider making a donation to your local public access television station.
Financial Insider Weekly broadcast schedule for February and March.
Financial Insider Weekly is broadcast in San Jose and Campbell on Fridays at 8:00 p.m., Pacific Time. You can watch it on Comcast channel 15 for San Jose and Campbell. The show is broadcast as streaming video at the same time at www.creatvsj.org.
Here are the scheduled interviews for February and March:
- February 8, 2013, David Beck, CFP® of Bay Area Planners, “How to prepare for the challenge to families of financing a college education”
- February 15, 2013, Professor Patricia Cain of Santa Clara University School of Law, “Tax developments for same sex couples”
- February 22, 2013, Professor Patricia Cain of Santa Clara University School of Law, “Estate and gift tax planning for same sex couples”
- March 1, 2013, attorney G. Scott Haislet, “Section 1031 Tax-Deferred Exchanges”
- March 8, 2013, attorney G. Scott Haislet, “Short sale and foreclosure wars”
- March 15, 2013, attorney Bernard Vogel III, Silicon Valley Law Group, “Alternative forms for businesses”
- March 22, 2013, attorney Michael W. Malter, Binder & Malter, LLP, “What you should know about bankruptcy for individuals”
- March 29, 2013, Tom W. Anderson, President, Retirement Industry Trust Association, “How to invest in real estate using your Roth or IRA account”
Financial Insider Weekly is also broadcast as follows:
- Sunday at 5:30 a.m. on Comcast Channel 27 in Santa Cruz County and on Charter Communications Channel 73 in Watsonville and Capitola
- Monday at 1:30 p.m. in San Mateo County on PenTV, Comcast Channel 26 and Astound Channel 27
- Monday at 3:30 p.m.on Comcast Channel 27 in Santa Cruz County and on Charter Communications Channel 73 in Watsonville and Capitola
- Monday at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Pacific Time on cable channel 19 in Morgan Hill and broadcast on the internet at the same time as streaming video at www.mhat.tv
- Monday at 6:30 p.m. on Midpeninsula Media Center, Comcast Channel 28 in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Stanford, Menlo Park & Atherton
- Monday at 7:30 p.m. on Comcast channel 15 in Saratoga
- Tuesday at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Pacific Time on cable channel 19 in Morgan Hill, Broadcast on the internet at the same time as streaming video at www.mhat.tv
- Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Comcast channel 26 and AT&T U-verse channel 99 in Marin County.
- Wednesday at 3 p.m.on Comcast channel 27 in Santa Cruz County and on Charter Communications Channel 73 in Watsonville and Capitola
- Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Comcast channel 28 in Hayward, Alameda and Fremont and on AT&T U-Verse Channel 99, Hayward public access TV 28 in California
- Thursday at 5:30 p.m. on Comcast channel 27 in Santa Cruz County and Charter Communications channel 73 in Capitola and Watsonville
- Friday at 11:30 a.m. on Comcast channel 27 in Santa Cruz County and Charter Communications channel 73 in Watsonville and Capitola
- Friday at 1:30 p.m. in San Mateo County on PenTV, Comcast Channel 26 and Astound Channel 27
- Friday at 3:30 p.m. on KCAT, Comcast channel 15 in Los Gatos
- Friday at 4 p.m. on cable channel 15 in Cupertino, Los Altos and Mountain View.
- Friday at 6 p.m. on Comcast and Astound channel 29 in San Francisco, online streaming video at www.bavc.org, “public access TV“
- Friday at 8 p.m. on Comcast channel 28 in Hayward, Alameda and Fremont and on AT&T U-Verse Channel 99, Hayward public access TV 28 in California
- Saturday at 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Midpeninsula Media Center, Comcast Channel 28 in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Stanford, Menlo Park & Atherton
- Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on Comcast channel 26 and AT&T U-verse channel 99 in Marin County.
Past episodes are available at https://www.youtube.com/user/financialinsiderweek.
Let me know any ideas that you have for topics or guests. Guests will usually have to be located in or near the Silicon Valley in California.
Hope you can watch or record the show. Please tell your friends about it!
Michael Gray regrets he can no longer personally answer email questions. He will answer selected questions in this newsletter.
For your questions about dependent exemptions, see IRS Publication 501 at www.irs.gov.
Follow me on social media!
If you enjoy Twitter, please follow me at twitter.com/michaelgraycpa. I would especially appreciate retweets of our messages announcing episodes of Financial Insider Weekly.
I’m also on Facebook and Linked In. You can also follow me on other social media sites, www.facebook.com, www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgraycpa, and Google+.
Check out my blog.
I have also started a blog at michaelgraycpa.com. Check it out!
Do you know about our other newsletters?
For general tax developments, tax planning ideas, business development ideas and book reviews, subscribe to Michael Gray, CPA’s Tax & Business Insight.
We are now offering our real estate tax newsletter, Michael Gray, CPA’s Real Estate Tax Letter, free of charge. Like this newsletter, we will talk about new developments, have reports on special tax concerns, and answer questions and answers. To subscribe and read a sample issue, visit realestatetaxletter.com.
Consult with a tax advisor
For our readers who aren’t tax advisors, this newsletter is intended to alert you about tax issues that could affect you. It is not a substitute for advice from a professional tax advisor. You will find that getting advice from a qualified advisor is a worthwhile investment.
Tax advisors should view the newsletter as an alert to become aware of issues relating to employee stock options for further research and study.
Subscribe to Michael Gray, CPA’s Option Alert!
To receive the next issue of Michael Gray, CPA’s Option Alert with more employee stock option tax developments and answers to questions from our readers automatically via email, subscribe by filling out the form below.
(Michael Gray is the author of Secrets of Tax Planning For Employee Stock Options, Stock Grants and ESOPs.)