EDD opens portal: plus: taxtalk highlights.

• Author: Williams, Leonard W.
• Position: CATax

The California Employment

Development Department has opened Us new web portal (https://eddservices.edd.ca.gov) to give businesses and tax practitioners access to employer information.

You will need to sign up for an account to use the portal. After setting up and verifying your account, click on the e-Services for Businesses login near the Lop center of your screen to get started.

You will be able to access information for clients who have granted you permission. While you don't have to send in any documentation to support your ability to access the information, you should have permission in your files. It doesn't need to be a power of attorney, just permission saying that you are allowed access.

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Once in, you will have access to payment history and can make changes to employer accounts, including business address, mailing address, etc. You can review previously filed returns that have been filed under this new system. So it will take a while before you have a history of returns.

Parent/Child, Grandparent/Grandchild Exclusion from Reassessment

The applicable statue has been amended (California Board of Equalization Letter to Assessors 2011/005) to allow:

1. The trustee of a transferee's trust to file a claim for exemption on behalf of the transferee;

2. The trustee of a transferor trust to file a claim for exemption on behalf of the transferor; and

3. The trustee of a transferor trust or the trustee of the transferor's trust is allowed to inspect a claim filed by that transferee or trustor.

Employees or Self-employed?

How do you handle reporting the income of taxpayers who've been categorized as employees by EDD, but the IRS allows to be treated as self-employed?

IRS Form 8919, which is to be completed and attached to the taxpayer's Form 1040, may be used in this situation. The purpose of Form 8919 is to compute and remit the taxpayer's share of uncollected FICA and Medicare taxes if one is an employee, but was treated as an independent contractor by his or her employer.

Each year, California has several disasters, such as floods and wildfires. Employers are allowed certain extensions to file and pay taxes with the EDD if the employer, CPA, enrolled agent or bookkeeping service is affected by one of these disasters

To find out what extensions have been granted for which disasters, and what relief may be available, visit www.calcpa.org/EDDdisaster.

Jim Counts is CalCPA's Committee on Taxation's liaison to the EDD and is...