From steve.purkeypile at dor.state.or.us Fri Oct 8 13:22:01 2010 From: steve.purkeypile at dor.state.or.us (PURKEYPILE Steve) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 20:22:01 +0000 Subject: [Revenews] DOR website lets you do more transactions online, anytime Message-ID: New website lets you do more state income tax transactions online, anytime SALEM-Do you do a lot of your financial business on the internet? Well, now you can check on and pay your state personal income taxes online, too. "How Much Do I Owe?" is the Oregon Department of Revenue's secure interactive website that makes paying your state personal income taxes easier and faster than ever. The site lets you make electronic tax payments. You can also check your tax balance and payment activity for the last 10 years. Soon, you'll be able to change your address and set up payment plans. "This service is another step in our strategy to make it easier for people to pay their taxes," said Cleve Bench, chief information officer. "For example, if you make a payment online, it'll show up in your account within two days." The website went live in July. So far, nearly 4,000 Oregon taxpayers have visited the site. "'How Much Do I Owe?' allows people to do business with us in a way that's convenient for them, when it's convenient for them," Bench said. "How Much Do I Owe?" is the online cousin of the popular "Where's My Refund?" site in which taxpayers can track the status of their tax refund. The department launched that site in 2005. Last year, it had nearly 900,000 unique visits. You can get to both sites from the department's homepage, www.oregon.gov/dor. For tax information, forms, and publications, visit www.oregon.gov/dor, or call 1-800-356-4222 toll-free from an Oregon prefix; 503-378-4988 in Salem and outside Oregon; or e-mail, questions.dor at state.or.us. For TTY (hearing or speech impaired), call 1-800-886-7204. -30- Steve Purkeypile Personal Income Tax Policy Oregon Department of Revenue -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From steve.purkeypile at dor.state.or.us Fri Oct 8 13:22:50 2010 From: steve.purkeypile at dor.state.or.us (PURKEYPILE Steve) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 20:22:50 +0000 Subject: [Revenews] FW: Proposal to eliminate the Form 40S - input requested Message-ID: The Department of Revenue is considering eliminating the Form 40S beginning in the 2011 tax year (2012 tax season) and we want to hear your thoughts before proceeding. We appreciate hearing from our practitioner community before making any significant changes to our forms. Below, we've detailed some of the reasons which led us to consider eliminating the Form 40S, however the decision is not yet final. If you have any comments, please email prac.revenue at state.or.us by October 15, 2010. DO NOT reply to this email. Background: Most Oregon residents file using the regular Form 40. If a taxpayer's income consists of straightforward sources (such as wages, interest, ordinary dividends, and unemployment), they claim the standard deduction, and have income less than $100,000, they may be able to use the shorter Form 40S, to file their Oregon personal income tax return. For TY 2009, the department has processed a total of approximately 1.7 million personal income tax returns. The department processed 206,000 40S forms (96,000 of which were traditional paper). The department believes that eliminating the Form 40S will be totally transparent to a taxpayer using software to prepare their return. This is because the questions and answers that are asked by the software are the same for both forms. Proposal: In looking at ways to be more efficient, we believe it is time to eliminate the Form 40S. As more and more people either use software or a preparer, we need to view our traditional paper as the alternative filing method, and not the conventional way of filing a tax return. We need software prepared returns and electronic filing to drive our processes, not traditional paper filers. By eliminating the 40S, we: * Save current agency resources currently used to support the paper, 2-D barcode, legacy e-file, and MeF versions of the Form 40S (Communications, IT Services, Processing Center, and Policy & Systems resources). * Are better positioned to support both the legacy and the MeF systems for four years until legacy is phased out. (Not having to support the Form 40S allows us to use our current resources to maintain the two systems without additional help). * Save a small amount of printing costs. It takes almost four pages for the two 40S forms and instructions. * Can more easily accommodate future legislative changes to our forms. * Eliminate inconsistencies between the forms due to space limitations (i.e., political party contribution only available on the 40) * Allow consideration of other options like PDF fillable forms with 2-D barcode capability because of one less form to support (costs less money). While Form 40S is intended to be simpler and for taxpayers with less complicated tax situations, the suspense rates are not any lower than Form 40. We currently suspend 24.29% of traditional Form 40 and 24.26% of the traditional Form 40S. It's possible the suspense rate will rise slightly in the first year of not using the Form 40S. But, those numbers should drop as taxpayers acclimate to the 40 and we eliminate the wrong form errors (and start everyone with federal AGI). To soften the transition and to make the Form 40 easier for taxpayers who have relatively simple returns, we may consider changing the current Form 40 and moving some of the lines that are on the form onto a schedule. We have a schedule (Schedule OR-ASC) for the "overflow" of additions, subtraction, and credits that don't have a specific line on the form. We could use that schedule for those lines that we move off the Form 40. As a side note, there are about 18 states that offer only one full year resident form. One state eliminated their short form last year. Thanks for your input. We appreciate your help. Steve Purkeypile Personal Income Tax Policy Oregon Department of Revenue -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From steve.purkeypile at dor.state.or.us Fri Oct 8 13:28:15 2010 From: steve.purkeypile at dor.state.or.us (PURKEYPILE Steve) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 20:28:15 +0000 Subject: [Revenews] Proposal to eliminate the Form 40S - input requested Message-ID: The Department of Revenue is considering eliminating the Form 40S beginning in the 2011 tax year (2012 tax season) and we want to hear your thoughts before proceeding. We appreciate hearing from our practitioner community before making any significant changes to our forms. Below, we've detailed some of the reasons which led us to consider eliminating the Form 40S, however the decision is not yet final. If you have any comments, please email prac.revenue at state.or.us by October 15, 2010. DO NOT reply to this email. Background: Most Oregon residents file using the regular Form 40. If a taxpayer's income consists of straightforward sources (such as wages, interest, ordinary dividends, and unemployment), they claim the standard deduction, and have income less than $100,000, they may be able to use the shorter Form 40S, to file their Oregon personal income tax return. For TY 2009, the department has processed a total of approximately 1.7 million personal income tax returns. The department processed 206,000 40S forms (96,000 of which were traditional paper). The department believes that eliminating the Form 40S will be totally transparent to a taxpayer using software to prepare their return. This is because the questions and answers that are asked by the software are the same for both forms. Proposal: In looking at ways to be more efficient, we believe it is time to eliminate the Form 40S. As more and more people either use software or a preparer, we need to view our traditional paper as the alternative filing method, and not the conventional way of filing a tax return. We need software prepared returns and electronic filing to drive our processes, not traditional paper filers. By eliminating the 40S, we: * Save current agency resources currently used to support the paper, 2-D barcode, legacy e-file, and MeF versions of the Form 40S (Communications, IT Services, Processing Center, and Policy & Systems resources). * Are better positioned to support both the legacy and the MeF systems for four years until legacy is phased out. (Not having to support the Form 40S allows us to use our current resources to maintain the two systems without additional help). * Save a small amount of printing costs. It takes almost four pages for the two 40S forms and instructions. * Can more easily accommodate future legislative changes to our forms. * Eliminate inconsistencies between the forms due to space limitations (i.e., political party contribution only available on the 40) * Allow consideration of other options like PDF fillable forms with 2-D barcode capability because of one less form to support (costs less money). While Form 40S is intended to be simpler and for taxpayers with less complicated tax situations, the suspense rates are not any lower than Form 40. We currently suspend 24.29% of traditional Form 40 and 24.26% of the traditional Form 40S. It's possible the suspense rate will rise slightly in the first year of not using the Form 40S. But, those numbers should drop as taxpayers acclimate to the 40 and we eliminate the wrong form errors (and start everyone with federal AGI). To soften the transition and to make the Form 40 easier for taxpayers who have relatively simple returns, we may consider changing the current Form 40 and moving some of the lines that are on the form onto a schedule. We have a schedule (Schedule OR-ASC) for the "overflow" of additions, subtraction, and credits that don't have a specific line on the form. We could use that schedule for those lines that we move off the Form 40. As a side note, there are about 18 states that offer only one full year resident form. One state eliminated their short form last year. Thanks for your input. We appreciate your help. Steve Purkeypile Personal Income Tax Policy Oregon Department of Revenue -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From david.farr at dor.state.or.us Fri Oct 8 15:10:31 2010 From: david.farr at dor.state.or.us (FARR David) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 22:10:31 +0000 Subject: [Revenews] 2010 IT-1 filing requirement Message-ID: The 2010 Oregon Inheritance Tax Return, Form IT-1, is required to be filed if the gross value of the decedent's estate is $1 million or greater. This is true even if there is no requirement to file the federal Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation Skipping Transfer) Tax Return. Additional information you may find helpful: Inheritance Forms...................http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/forms-fiduciary.shtml Inheritance Tax (Home)............http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/inher-general.shtml Inheritance Tax Advisories.........http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/inher-adv.shtml You may also email questions to the Estate Tax Unit. estate.help.dor at state.or.us Joanna Mitchell, Estate Tax Auditor Oregon Department of Revenue estate.help.dor at state.or.us -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cathleen.m.tavares at dor.state.or.us Tue Oct 12 10:41:50 2010 From: cathleen.m.tavares at dor.state.or.us (TAVARES Cathleen M) Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:41:50 +0000 Subject: [Revenews] Payrolltax News LISTSERV Oct, 2010 Message-ID: Payrolltax News LISTSERV October 2010 Welcome all new subscribers! Please share this information with anyone who would benefit from it. New Information: 1. IRS Changes: IRS has announced it will no longer be mailing Publication 393, Federal Employment Tax Forms, to employers due to the continued growth in electronic filing, and to help reduce costs. They also will no longer be sending out payment coupons, instead urging taxpayers to use EFTPS (Electronic Federal Tax Payment System). The Oregon Tax Coupons (Form OTC) will be mailed in mid December. However, Oregon is following the federal treatment of electronic payments. If you are required to use EFTPS for federal purposes, you must use EFT for Oregon purposes. For more information on EFT, refer to our website at http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/index.shtml under "Electronic Funds Transfer". Paper forms and booklets will still be provided by the Oregon Department of Revenue for reporting payroll withholding taxes: * Oregon Domestic (Form OA) returns will be mailed in November 2010. * Oregon Agricultural (Form WA) returns will also be mailed in November 2010. * Combined Payroll Tax Booklet and forms will be mailed in mid February 2011. Additional forms can be ordered or downloaded from the Employment website at www.oregon.gov/EMPLOY/TAX . Look under the section "Reporting Methods" for "Forms" 1. WBF (Workers Benefit Fund) Tax rate: The WBF tax rate for 2011 will not change. The assessment rate will continue to be 0.028. (Note: Additional 2011 tax rate information will be provided in a future newsletter.) Reminders: 1. Contact Information: This is the time of the year when important tax information is about to be mailed; therefore, it is very important that your contact information is current. If you have either relocated or changed your telephone, e-mail, or other contact information, be sure to submit the "Change in Status" form located at http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/forms-payroll.shtml to update your account. This ensures that you will receive important information such as law changes, new tax rates and tax forms. 1. Payroll Reports (Form OQ)- No Payroll to Report: You are required to file form OQ for all quarters while your payroll withholding account is active, even if you have no payroll to report. The easiest way to file is to submit a "no payroll/no hours worked" report vial the Interactive Voice Response System (IVR). Simply call 503 378-3981 and follow all the prompts. Remember, this can only be used for "no payroll/no withholding" returns. If you will not have Oregon payroll for an indefinite period of time, you can request to put your account on "inactive status". While inactive you would not be required to submit quarterly tax reports until you again hire employees. Complete the "Change in Status" form indicating the current date of your last payroll and send it in. When you again have employees, simply contact us at 503 945-8091 opt 2 and request to re-open your account. ***Upcoming Classes: Where: Lane Community College Small Business Development Center. 1445 Willamette St. Eugene OR. 97405 * Payroll Tax Basics, 3-4:30 pm, Thursday Oct 21, WILD 117 Learn the basics on correctly reporting and paying state payroll withholding taxes * Classifying a Worker as an Employee or Independent Contractor, 3-5 pm, Thursday Oct 28, WILD 117 Learn the difference between the federal and state guidelines on what constitutes an employee versus an independent contractor, and the issues and legal ramifications that arise when employees are not correctly classified. * LLC's and S-Corps, 3-4:30 pm, Thursday Nov 4, WILD 117 Learn more about these particular entities as this workshop will cover how these are taxed and some of the common misconceptions. ***Classes will be held depending on enrollment. For more information and to register for classes, please call 541 463-5255. (Note: Additional outreach and educational opportunities will be provided in the next LISTSERV.) The Payrolltax-News e-mail list provides employers with complete and up-to-date payroll tax information. Employers can self-subscribe here. Representatives in the Business Division will send information to employers through this list. Employers can request additional information by e-mailing payroll.help.dor at state.or.us. As a standard practice, e-mail sent from the department will be in text form only. Department of Revenue will not open attachments. Questions about list content and subscription problems should be directed to the list owner: Cathy Tavares Oregon Dept of Revenue Cathleen.M.Tavares at state.or.us 503-945-8762 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From megan.c.denison at dor.state.or.us Wed Oct 13 08:56:15 2010 From: megan.c.denison at dor.state.or.us (DENISON Megan C) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:56:15 +0000 Subject: [Revenews] Electronic returns from 10/5/10 Message-ID: <898FDCAADAADC84F855E6DF64437E51A247344556A@MBX14.EXCHPROD.USA.NET> Good morning, We are hearing from several practitioners and software companies that they are missing acknowledgements from returns filed on or around Tuesday, October 5th. We are working with the IRS on this issue to identify and download the returns that are affected. This is not only an Oregon issue. At least a dozen states are reporting that they did not receive returns from the IRS. We will send an update out to the list serve as we receive more information. At this point, we ask that you do NOT mail the returns to the department. This could cause a delay in processing your client's return once we receive the electronic return. We understand that the extension deadline is fast approaching. Please be assured that we are working diligently to resolve this problem as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience. Megan Denison Operations and Policy Analyst Electronic Filing and Return Processing Oregon Department of Revenue 503-945-8415 - message line Electronic.filing at dor.state.or.us -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From megan.c.denison at dor.state.or.us Wed Oct 13 11:55:11 2010 From: megan.c.denison at dor.state.or.us (DENISON Megan C) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:55:11 +0000 Subject: [Revenews] FW: Electronic returns from 10/5/10 - Update Message-ID: <898FDCAADAADC84F855E6DF64437E51A2473445780@MBX14.EXCHPROD.USA.NET> Update - As of 11:55 AM we have received and acknowledged all the returns that were missing from 10/5/10. Please check your acknowledgements and contact us if you experience any further issues. Thank you, Oregon Department of Revenue Electronic Filing Team 503-945-8415 - message line Electronic.filing at dor.state.or.us ________________________________ From: revenews-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us [mailto:revenews-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of DENISON Megan C Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 8:56 AM To: revenews at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Subject: [Revenews] Electronic returns from 10/5/10 Good morning, We are hearing from several practitioners and software companies that they are missing acknowledgements from returns filed on or around Tuesday, October 5th. We are working with the IRS on this issue to identify and download the returns that are affected. This is not only an Oregon issue. At least a dozen states are reporting that they did not receive returns from the IRS. We will send an update out to the list serve as we receive more information. At this point, we ask that you do NOT mail the returns to the department. This could cause a delay in processing your client's return once we receive the electronic return. We understand that the extension deadline is fast approaching. Please be assured that we are working diligently to resolve this problem as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience. Megan Denison Operations and Policy Analyst Electronic Filing and Return Processing Oregon Department of Revenue 503-945-8415 - message line Electronic.filing at dor.state.or.us -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From steve.purkeypile at dor.state.or.us Thu Dec 16 08:39:28 2010 From: steve.purkeypile at dor.state.or.us (PURKEYPILE Steve) Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:39:28 +0000 Subject: [Revenews] LISTSERV Dec. 2010 - DO NOT reply to this email Message-ID: Payrolltax-News LISTSERV Dec. 2010 I. Updates: Withholding Tax Formulas: The "Withholding Tax Formulas" have been updated for 2011 and are located in a PDF format at http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/payroll_updates.shtml The withholding tax tables will be modified effective Jan.1, 2011. However, the publishing of the tables will depend on when the federal tax law extending the federal tax cuts has been resolved. See our website at http://www.oregon.gov/DOR/BUS/payroll_updates.shtml for further information on withholding and transit tax updates. Affordable Care Act: As a result of changes made by the recently enacted Affordable Care Act, health coverage provided for an employee's child under 27 years of age is now generally tax-free to the employee for federal purposes, effective March 30, 2010. Previous law allowed such treatment for dependents under 19 years of age, or under 24 if the dependent was a student,. Oregon has not adopted these changes. As a result, any expanded coverage provided for adult children under the Affordable Care Act is taxable income to the employee receiving the benefit for Oregon purposes. The legislature may act to adopt this exclusion in the 2011 session, but at this time it cannot be predicted with any certainty that such action will occur. The department recommends that employers take the necessary steps to include these amounts on the affected employee's W-2 statement for tax year 2010. Please report this amount in Box 14 and label this amount "ACA Child." Do not modify the state wages in Box 16. This will allow taxpayers to easily identify the appropriate amount of income to report if the legislature does eventually decide to exclude these amounts from Oregon taxable income. We will post further updates and instructions to taxpayers on our website in January. If you have further questions, please email payroll.help.dor at state.or.us. II. Mandating Electronic Deposits: Oregon follows federal requirements on making payroll tax deposits and businesses will be required to electronically deposit withholding if they are mandated to do so by the IRS. You must register and pay your Oregon combined payroll taxes electronically via EFT if you are federally mandated to use the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). Due to the increased volume of EFT registrations please allow an additional 4 to 6 weeks for your EFT Confirmation. Continue to pay with check and coupon until this registration process is complete. EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) payments are a convenient way to make all tax deposits, including Employment, Transit, and the Workers Benefit Fund Assessment. Oregon will continue to mail paper OTCs (Oregon Tax Coupons) for those who deposit by check even though the IRS has chosen to do away with federal payment coupons. III. Important note: A. W2 Information: Employers are not required to include the Workers Benefit Fund Assessment not the Transit Tax information (TriMet or Lane Transit) on form W2 box 18. These are not considered to be "local taxes" for income tax purposes. Transit taxes are also paid by the employer and are not a deduction from an employees paycheck The Payrolltax-News e-mail list provides employers with complete and up-to-date payroll tax information. Employers can self-subscribe here. Representatives in the Business Division will send information to employers through this list. Employers can request additional information by e-mailing payroll.help.dor at state.or.us. As a standard practice, e-mail sent from the department will be in text form only. Department of Revenue will not open attachments. Questions about list content and subscription problems should be directed to the list owner: Cathy Tavares Oregon Dept of Revenue Cathleen.M.Tavares at state.or.us 503-945-8762 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: