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Many of our clients reside in or work in NY, NJ, PA and the New England
States (along with, of course, their FL place or AZ place for the
snow birds!) We usually communicate with clients via
telephone and email. Documents are sent to us and back to clients
using the U.S. Mail and via emailing PDF files, Excel files and so on.
This makes access as easy and quick as with a CPA firm right down the
street from where you live.
We find many of our clients pleasantly surprised to see an email response to
a question that they sent just before going to bed - is there waiting
for them when they wake-up in the morning. We often keep late hours and
check for emails...
From time to time people get audited. When this happens the examination
is handled from Connecticut via telephone and fax or the IRS audit file is
transferred to a local Connecticut IRS office (which sometimes, if we're
lucky, "gets lost in the shuffle" before it arrives).
Search for information by State:
http://www.sba.gov/hotlist/businessnames.html
Search to see if the entity name you wish to use is available
in the USA:
http://www.knowx.com/infoam.exe?form=corp/search.htm&userid=guest&password=welcome
State Secretary of the State Web Sites:
http://www.coordinatedlegal.com/SecretaryOfState.html
State Tax Department Web Sites:
http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/view.asp?a=1456&q=266120
State Tax Department Web Sites:
http://www.statelocalgov.net/state-ct.htm
State Tax Form Web Sites:
http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/link/forms.html
State Sales Tax Department Web Sites:
http://www.olivierandassociates.com/homepage/allstateslinks.html
State Tax-Free Sales Tax Holidays:
StateTaxFreeOffers.pdf
State Motor Vehicle Department Web Sites:
http://www.drivershandbook.com/handbooks/usa/
All 50 States' and D.C.'s Home Pages and Workers' Compensation Agencies:
http://www.comp.state.nc.us/ncic/pages/all50.htm
How To File For Homestead Exemption:
http://www.assetprotectionbook.com/homestead_exemptions.htm
Recent Tax Court Decisions:
http://www.jud.ct.gov/external/super/Tax/recent.htm
New CT tax information & publications:
http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/browse.asp?a=1529&drsNav=|
http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/browse.asp?A=1529&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=17949
2007 Electronic Filing Requirements Update:
http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/view.asp?a=1544&Q=401870
 Search to see if the entity name you wish to use is available
in Connecticut:
http://www.concord-sots.ct.gov/CONCORD/index.jsp
Connecticut new business tax guide:
http://www.ct.gov/drs/lib/drs/publications/pubsip/ip03-28.pdf
Connecticut individual "flat tax" calculator:
http://www.dir.ct.gov/drs/Taxcalsched/TCS2006.htm
Connecticut Sales tax information:
http://www.olivierandassociates.com/homepage/ctsalestax.html
Connecticut Sales tax "tax holiday" for Energy Star products June 1,
2007 through June 30, 2008:
http://www.ct.gov/drs/cwp/view.asp?a=1436&Q=382830
Fax Service Request Form:
http://www.sots.ct.gov/CommercialRecording/crdpdf/FAX%20FILING%20SERVICE%20REQUEST.pdf
LLC Articles of Organization:
http://www.sots.ct.gov/CommercialRecording/Forms/Ctllc/ORGANIZ.pdf
Certificate of Incorporation:
http://www.sots.ct.gov/CommercialRecording/Forms/Ctstock/INCORP.pdf
Articles of Dissolution of an LLC:
http://www.sots.ct.gov/CommercialRecording/crdforms.html#LLCDomestic
http://www.sots.ct.gov/CommercialRecording/forms/ctllc/DISSOLUT.pdf
http://www.sots.ct.gov/CommercialRecording/Forms/Generic/Expedited%20Service%20%20Request.pdf
http://www.sots.ct.gov/CommercialRecording/crdpdf/FAX%20FILING%20SERVICE%20REQUEST.pdf
Connecticut Income Tax
Returns that received after June
29, 2006, were be stored by Connecticut DRS until a new computer system
was fully enabled. Returns were not be
processed during the transition period. Return processing
to resume on July 24, 2006, on a graduated schedule.
CT Tax Collections/Refund Unit: 860-297-4845
2009
Gov.
Rell, expects to save $40 million by instituting a 56-day tax
amnesty program in May and June 2009. That would give taxpayers a
chance to pay their late state taxes without penalties, and with a 25
percent reduction in interest fees.
2005-2006
The Audit Division Discovery Unit has begun an Affiliate Nexus
Project whereby state agency contracts are reviewed to determine if
all vendors and their affiliates are properly registered as required by
law.
The Audit Division’s Income Tax Subdivision undertook a reorganization
that included the creation of a new audit unit called the
Business and Employment Tax Audit, or BETA Unit. The goal of this
unit is to increase the accuracy and timely collection of taxes from
flow-through entities and withholding tax. Through specialized training,
a group of 20 examiners has been assembled to address complex tax issues
including abusive tax shelters and employment tax issues.
The BETA Unit appears to be an out of control Gestapo-like group with
little in the way of seasoned auditors, rather they may be sending out a
bevy of men with the heavy hammer of the law of largely unknown and
previously un-enforced State statutes to use Spanish Inquisition-like
tactics against Connecticut business while they go on a fishing
expedition looking for technical violations of the law.
Example: Honest employee having the "correct" amount of
withholding and maybe even getting a small refund each year. And
an honest employer, withholding that "correct" amount of State tax from
their employees - based on marital status, State of residence,
claimed dependents and so on. But due to a little known State
statute which says that if the employer did not get a form CT-W4 signed
by the employee and then filed away the signed form and safeguarded it
for years, until the BETA unit arrives demanding to see it... that, per
CT Statutes, the withholding rate is retroactively ratcheted up to the
maximum tax rate of 5% and the employer now needs to make amends
(financially) for this "underwithholding" over the past several years...
even though the employee paid all his taxes each year!
To leave Connecticut and being subject to CT income tax by moving to the
State of Florida
Business owners in CT, where they also own a residence, often decide
to buy a home in FL and claim FL as their primary state of residence in
order to avoid CT income tax on passive and investment income.
- They register to vote in Florida
- They get a Florida driver's license
- They sleep at least 183 nights in FL
But pursuant to CT DRS Regulations, they are still considered a resident of Connecticut if
- They are domiciled in Connecticut
- Are not domiciled in CT but they maintain
a permanent place of abode in CT and spend a minimum of 183
days a taxable year in Connecticut.
- If they do not spend more than 182 nights in any
given state, then a further detailed analysis needs to
be performed
Domicile is defined as the place
where the taxpayer intends to make his permanent home and to which he
will return to
after an absence. Once established, the taxpayer's domicile remains fixed until
he relocates to a new state with the intention of making that state his permanent
home. The burden of proof is on the taxpayer, and not the state.
To determine domicile, the state will:
- Perform an analysis of
each of the taxpayer's residences
- Analyze the taxpayer's business ties in each state involved
- Consider the location of things that are near and dear to
the taxpayer
- Look at family
connections
- Look at proof of the amount of time spent at each
location
- Review expense receipts, airplane tickets, gasoline
purchases, credit cards, canceled checks, telephone and
utility bills
To be a FL resident and domicile - the taxpayer's FL residence should be worth more than
his CT residence. His most significant and important personal
property should be located in FL and he
should have documentary evidence of moving them down to FL.
Significant new purchases including automobiles and furnishings
should be made in Florida.
The
taxpayer may continue to maintain business ties in CT without
being considered
domiciled in CT, but it is important to develop significant business
interests in FL as well. Likewise, though the
taxpayer's family connections
may still be in Connecticut, he should develop strong personal
relationships in FL to support domicile in FL. The more time the
taxpayer spends in FL as opposed to CT, the easier it will be to
convince the CT tax dept
that he is legally domiciled in FL.
Search to see if the entity name you wish to use is available
in Rhode Island:
http://www2.corps.state.ri.us/corporations/corp_search/index.php
Search to see if the entity name you wish to use is available
in Massachusetts:
http://corp.sec.state.ma.us/corp/corpsearch/corpsearchinput.asp
Non-resident nexus rules changed on
1/1/2002:
http://www.dor.state.ma.us/help/guides/abate_amend/personal/issues/tradebuss.htm
Non-resident securities trader
limited partnerships:
http://www.dor.state.ma.us/rul_reg/tir/TIR_04_21.htm
Non-resident securities trader
limited partnerships:
http://www.dor.state.ma.us/rul_reg/tir/TIR_04_21.htm
Massachusetts Security Trading
Corporation instructions:
http://www.dor.state.ma.us/forms/corp04/cppdfs/addl/SC_inst.pdf
Massachusetts forms and
instructions:
http://www.dor.state.ma.us/forms/pkgx04/pkgx.htm
Search to see if the entity name you wish to use is available in Vermont:
http://www.sec.state.vt.us/seek/corpseek.htm
Search to see if the entity name you wish to use is available
in New Hampshire:
http://199.192.9.86/corporate/default.htm
Search to see if the entity name you wish to use is available
in Maine:
http://www.informe.org/icrs/ICRS;jsessionid=aaacCLL6OvWjrI3vcZ2d?MainPage=x
From time to time people get audited. When this happens the examination
is handled from Connecticut via telephone and fax or the file is
transferred here (which sometimes, if we're lucky, "gets lost in the
shuffle" before it arrives).
Taxpayers requiring
more assistance in their PLANNING, design and set-up of
their trading business and with the PREPARATION or the
REVIEW of their tax filings are encouraged to contact us
for personally tailored tax advice at our normal rates.
How
can a CPA help you?
Why work with a CPA?
Tax Mama's I can do it myself, thank you!
Smart
Money's Finding a Tax Pro
The Blade's Complicated Returns send filers to the Pros
What's needed to get started
right away?
Write to us first with an outline your situation and what you are
looking to accomplish (besides the obvious: lowering tax bill) :
GetMyConnecticutTaxesDone
Colin M. Cody, CPA, CMA
TraderStatus.com LLC
6004 Main Street
Trumbull, Connecticut 06611-2400
(203) 268-7000
MEMBERSHIPS
Member
PCPS
The
AICPA Alliance for CPA Firms
Partnering
for CPA Practice Success
American Institute of CPAs
Connecticut Society of CPAs
Institute of Management Accountants
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