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Michael Gray, CPA’s Option Alert #113
An irregular alert for issues relating to employee stock options
June 17, 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
- Foreign account report is due June 30
- Extension season is here
- Exercise of nqso relating to divorce was taxable
- Revocation of Section 83(b) election allowed
- Please share your experiences with Michael Gray, CPA
- Community public access television needs our help
- Financial Insider Weekly broadcast time changes in Marin
- 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
Foreign account report is due June 30
The annual Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR), Form TD F 90-22.1, for 2012 is due June 30, 2013. The form is required for foreign bank and brokerage accounts either owned by a U.S. citizen or resident or over which a U.S. citizen or resident has signature authority. It also can apply to foreign financial accounts such as life insurance policies that have cash surrender values. The report is required when the total balances for the accounts equal or exceed $10,000. This is a separate report from your income tax return, and no extension of time to file is allowed. The penalties for failure to report are severe, and the IRS is on the war path about enforcing this reporting requirement, even though no tax may be involved.
You can get the form at the IRS web site, www.irs.gov. Next year (2014), electronic filing will probably be required for this form.
Extension season is here
The extended due date for 2012 individual income tax returns is October 15, 2013.
The extended due date for calendar year 2012 corporate, partnership and fiduciary income tax returns is September 16, 2013.
If you would like us to prepare your extended income tax return, please call Dawn Siemer at 408-918-3162 for an appointment.
We can also prepare amended income tax returns to clean up tax returns that were previously filed.
Exercise of nonqualified stock option relating to divorce was taxable
Allen Davis transferred shares of CNG, an S corporation, to his former spouse, Judith, as part of his property settlement relating to their divorce. He received an option from Judith to repurchase the shares. However, the plan was never to exercise the option with Judith. CNG immediately redeemed Judith’s shares.
CNG granted an option to Allen to purchase the shares from the company in a cashless exercise by giving up part of the shares.
Two years later, Allen exercised the option.
He didn’t report income related to the exercise, and didn’t claim a tax deduction relating to the exercise against his S corporation income. He claimed the option was in connection with a property settlement for his divorce and shouldn’t be taxable. The other shareholders did claim tax deductions against their S corporation income.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Tax Court in finding the option was granted in connection with Allen’s employment, and the exercise was taxable. Allen and Judith never intended for Allen to exercise the option with Judith since the company immediately redeemed her shares. Allen threatened to quit if the company didn’t agree to extend the option agreement to him. The option also included a provision that Allen notify the company if he made a Section 83(b) election when he exercised the option.
Allen also tried to claim his income should be reduced for a minority interest discount in a closely-held corporation. The Eleventh Circuit upheld the Tax Court’s ruling that the discount wasn’t allowed because the parties had negotiated a formula to determine the value of the shares.
(Allen L. Davis v. Commissioner, 2013-1 U.S.T.C. 50,330, May 16, 2013.)
Revocation of Section 83(b) election allowed
A taxpayer made a Section 83(b) election and, within the 30 day time period allowed for making the election, asked the IRS for consent to revoke the election. The IRS granted the request.
This is about the only scenario where the IRS will usually grant consent. If you change your mind about making a Section 83(b) election within the 30 day period, request consent for revocation immediately. After the 30 day period has expired, you are probably out of luck.
(IRS Letter Ruling 201322007, February 20, 2013.)
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. Here is a link for a list of public access television stations in California: www.communitymedia.se/cat/linksca.htm.
Marin County broadcast time changes for Financial Insider Weekly.
Starting Saturday, June 15, the broadcast time for Financial Insider Weekly will change from 1:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. in Marin County. The program is broadcast on Comcast channel 26 and AT&T U-verse channel 99.
Financial Insider Weekly broadcast schedule for June and July.
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 June and July:
- June 21, 2013, attorney Scott Haislet, “Passive real estate loss limitations and electing to be a real estate professional”
- June 28, 2013, attorney Scott Haislet, “Tax considerations for selling a principal residence”
- July 5, 2013, attorney Scott Haislet, “The new federal tax on net investment income”
- July 12, 2013, Dick Blakeley, The Blakely Group, Inc., “How family business meetings can help avoid financial elder abuse”
- July 19, 2013, Craig Martin, CFP®, The Family Wealth Consulting Group, “Asset class investing”
- July 26, 2013, Craig Martin, CFP®, The Family Wealth Consulting Group, “Investment diversification using alternative investments”
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 (Starting at 1 p.m. from June 15)
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.
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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!
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(Michael Gray is the author of Secrets of Tax Planning For Employee Stock Options, Stock Grants and ESOPs.)