February 17, 2010

Tax Season - 2009 Income Tax Return Preparation

Important Dates

Individual Data Organizers Due – Monday, March 8, 2010

Individual Tax Returns Due – Thursday, April 15, 2010

Individual Extension Requests Due – All Available Tax Data Due – Monday, March 29, 2010

Electronic Filing Cut Off Date – Monday, March 29, 2010

Entity Financial Data Due Date – Corporations, Partnerships, LLCs – Monday, March 8, 2010

Entity Tax Returns Due – Corporations – March 15, 2010 and Partnerships & LLCs - April 15, 2010

New This Year

Homebuyer Tax Credits and “Long-Time Resident” Tax Credits

Due to additional documentation requirements, individuals claiming these credits can no longer file electronically, dramatically slowing refunds up to 3 months.

First-Time Homebuyer

If you (and your spouse if married) purchased your main home located in the United States and have not owned a home for a 3-year period ending on the date of your purchase, you may qualify for the First-time Homebuyer Credit.

IRS Required Documentation

• Copy of your settlement statement showing all parties’ names and signatures, the property address, the contract sales price, and the date of purchase. In most cases, HUD-1, Settlement Statement. • Proof of residency (copy of utility bills) • Copy of driver’s license

Long-time resident of the same main home

If your (and your spouse if married) purchased your main home located in the United States and previously owned and used the same main home as your main home for any 5-consecutive-year period during the 8-year-period ending on the date you purchased you new main home after November 6, 2009, you may qualify for the Long-time Resident credit.

IRS Required Documentation

• Copy of your settlement statement showing all parties’ names and signatures, the property address, the contract sales price, and the date of purchase. In most cases, HUD-1, Settlement Statement •Proof of residency (copy of utility bills)

•Copy of driver’s license

•Copies of one of the following: Form 1098, Mortgage Interest Statement (or substitute statement), property tax records, or homeowner’s insurance records. These records should be for 5 consecutive years of the 8-year period ending on the purchase date of the new main home.

Employees - Consistent with the 2008 tax filing season, John Kirk, CPA/MA Tax and Radoslav Simeonov, MBA along with Gaylene DeBisschop will handle the bulk of the income tax interviews and tax return preparation. Steve Miller, CPA continues to provide contract services to a number of our firm’s clients.

Nance Dunev will once again join us for the 2008 income tax season to provide accounting and bookkeeping support for our clients as they organize their financial information to the income tax preparation process.

Appointments - We have not pre-assigned appointments this year. Please call Nyree Hotchkiss to make your tax appointment now since meeting times fill up quickly. Most of you will be seeing Gaylene, John or Rado for your initial tax preparation meeting. Tim will be available for the latter part of the tax appointment to do planning for 2010 and answer questions that may come up during your tax return interview meeting.

E-Mail & Web Site - Jorstad Incorporated's web site provides company information, financial tools such as loan amortization calculators, newsletters and other articles concerning financial and tax matters and a calendar of important due dates and deadlines. Please take a minute to tour our web site. All staff members have e-mail addresses as well.

You should have received your 2009 organizer in early January to assist you in the assembly and organization of your 2009 income tax return information. If you have not received your 2009 data organizer by the end of January, please call our office as soon as possible and one will be mailed to you or we can e-mail you a PDF copy. Please complete this data organizer as thoroughly as possible. The better organized you are, the faster your income tax returns can be completed which, in turn, will reduce the preparation time and costs. We are planning to use CCH Prosystems to process your 2009 income tax returns. We have used CCH Prosystems services for off-site printing for thirty years and we have been very pleased with their confidential and professional processing of returns.

Your 2009 income tax returns are due Monday, April 15, 2010. We can promise to have your returns completed and back to you by April 15, 2010 only if your organizer, tax information and engagement letters are in our office on or before Monday, March 10, 2010.

Extensions of Time to File -

We are happy to assist you in the preparation of your 2009 extension requests, if necessary. Because of the tax preparer liability associated with completing extension requests, we will not provide this service to our clients unless we have sufficient information to prepare a complete and accurate extension request in our possession by Monday, March 31, 2010. We encourage you to complete your organizer and, unless there has been a significant change from 2008, mail your completed organizer to the office, as soon as possible, especially if you are expecting a refund. If you have any questions regarding the completion of your organizer, please call our office for assistance. You may be called to review your tax information, as necessary, before your returns are finalized. Please send in your organizer if it is nearly complete except for missing partnership K-1 forms, etc. Please note in your organizer which forms are missing. If information in your organizer is no longer applicable, please line through it. If you are responsible for assembling information for partnership, corporation or trust income tax returns, please get this data to us on or before Monday, February 11, 2010. You should have received a data organizer for the trust income tax returns. (There is no such data organizer for corporate or partnership entities). . The following firm's hourly billing rates are effective January 1, 2010 (and remain unchanged from 2009):

Timothy J. Jorstad, CPA tim@jorstad.com $350. John H. Kirk, CPA john@jorstad.com $210. Radoslav Simeonov, MBA rados@jorstad.com $220. Steven P. Miller, CPA steve@jorstad.com $200. Gaylene DeBisschop, gay@jorstad.com $160. Nancy Mallonee, Manager Nancym@jorstad.com $200. Ratna Ross, Bookkeeper Ratna@jorstad.com $135. Liz Simpson, Bookkeeper Liz@jorstad.com $135. Deb Jorstad, Bookkeeper deb@jorstad.com $120. Nance Dunev, Bookkeeper nance@jorstad.com $120. Nyree Hotchkiss, Office Manager Nyree@jorstad.com $135. Administrative $135. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Timothy J. Jorstad