If you sold stock or securities through a broker, the broker will issue you a 1099-B. This form is intended to report all the details of each sale including the sales price and cost basis (usually what you paid for the stock). This requirement is new and the form provided by the broker will not yet capture all sales.


The reporting requirements for assets held overseas are increasing and the penalties for failure to report them are becoming increasingly harsh. Not all foreign holdings must be reported. If, for example you hold stock in a foreign company through a U.S. broker, those holdings do not have to be separately reported. However, if you hold any other types of foreign assets, including bank accounts and securities accounts, please let us know. If you have any doubt as to whether any of your assets are foreign, please discuss those assets with us.


Californias Franchise Tax Board has stated that they will require parcel numbers and other information pertaining to property taxes for any taxpayer who deducts property tax. Although this requirement isnt slated to take effect in 2012, we would like you to provide us with your property tax statements this year so we can do a preliminary review of them in preparation for the new requirement.


California requires payment of use tax if you purchase goods out-of-state that are used, consumed or stored in California, when no sales tax is collected on the purchase. Most such purchases are made over the internet or by mail order from out-of-state sellers. Taxpayers who dont hold a California sellers permit have the option of reporting the use tax on their California income tax returns.

You have the option of totaling all such purchases and we will compute the use tax. Your second option is a lookup table. If all of your purchases were under $1,000 each, we can use a lookup table to compute your tax. The table is based on your income. If your adjusted gross income is $75,000, for example, your use tax is $49 based on the lookup table. If your purchases are both over and under $1,000, you may total just the purchases that are over $1,000 and we can compute the use tax on those and use the lookup tables for the small purchases.


Its not all bad, however. There are a number of tax benefits that we can use to reduce your tax liability for this year and the future. There are tax credits for employers providing health insurance, small businesses increasing the number of employees, and an amnesty for payroll taxes, which has some major flaws, but could benefit your company.

Roth IRA conversions are still available and can be a useful way to reduce the tax youll pay later when you need the money.