OOPS!
They did it again! The NJ chapter of the
National Association of Tax Professionals held another truly “famous” State Tax
Seminar at the APA Hotel in Iselin (formerly the Woodbridge Hilton).
In the
25+ year history of this annual event, always at this hotel (a good central and
easily accessible location and I hope it will continued to be held here), I
have missed only 2, due to snow. As I
have always said, this seminar is a “must attend” for any tax professional who
prepares NJ state individual or corporate income, payroll, inheritance, and/or
sales tax returns.
As an
aside, after registering in the morning I came across Tony Ferrara, a colleague
from my days in Jersey City, who operated a tax practice across the street and
up the block from my Newark Avenue office.
He had continued the practice began by his father, just as I had
continued the practice started by my mentor James P Gill, and his ongoing
practice is probably older than my ongoing practice. I often see Tony at this seminar. He told me he had recently attended a Gear-Up
tax update seminar where the instructor mentioned me by name, citing my
reputation for preparing all my 1040s by hand.
I am curious to discover the name of this instructor, which Tony promised
to send to me.
Obviously,
as I said last year, the value to the tax pro of this seminar usually depends
on the degree of changes to the tax law that affect current and ongoing
filings. While there was not much new
with NJ taxes and property tax benefit programs for 2017, there was obviously a
huuuge change to federal income taxes going forward at the end of 2017. While the theme of this seminar is “state”
taxes, and I have always believed it should be limited to state tax changes and
issues, it has often included some federal updates.
The event
always includes a buffet breakfast, in the seminar area, a buffet lunch,
previously in another room in the hotel, and an afternoon dessert break. The meal offerings have always been very good
– with the full buffet breakfast among the best of those offered at tax seminars
I have attended over the decades.
This
year the lunch, limited to salads and sandwiches, was also held in the seminar
area. I thought this change was “more
better” than moving to a separate room, as it saved time and allowed for more of
it to be devoted to the true “meat” of the day - the tax presentations. I would, however, preferred if the lunch buffet
had included hot items, as it always had in the past. There was no afternoon dessert break this
year, with minimal dessert choices offered as part of the lunch buffet. I would prefer the separate dessert break – and
I missed the “diabetic-friendly” sugar-free cookies that had been available in
the past.
As
always, following greetings from new chapter President Mary Rose Martino and
seminar chairperson Tony Manziano, the presentations got underway with the “keynote”
speaker, always the current Director of the Division of Taxation or a
representative. This year we heard from
Acting Director John Ficara.
I have
always felt that over the years, with very few exceptions, these presentations
have been of no real substantive value to the tax pros in the audience. I do accept that this practice is probably a good
and necessary one, and, thankfully, very little time in the schedule is allotted
to the Director’s presentation. Mr.
Ficara, was a good and obviously knowledgeable speaker and talked in general about
what is going on with the Division to modernize and improve services But there was really nothing of consequence
to “take away”. There was no time for
audience questions or comments, and he did not address real systemic issues
with the Division, such as its continued unethical practice of remaining “silent”
on taxpayer overpayments or unidentified payments.
Perhaps
for the future seminars registrants could be asked to submit to the chapter in
advance written systemic questions and concerns for the seminar chair to present
to the Director instead of the nice but mostly useless keynote address.
What
followed for most of the rest of the day was the real reason we all came – the presentation
from “Jake and Company”, aka the Division’s “Taxation University”. Jacob Foy was charged with discussing “tax
updates”, and began by telling us that, once again, NJ refunds will NOT begin to be issued until March 1st.
He
went on to clarify that homeowners who chose to prepay some of their 2018
property tax payments in December 2017 due to the changes for 2018 in the GOP
Tax Act will not lose any of their
tax deduction on the NJ-1040 or with regard to the property tax relief
programs. For NJ-1040 purposes, the
state only cares that what is considered the calendar year’s tax assessment –
taxes due on February 1, May 1, August 1, and November 1 - are paid in full. They do not care in what year these assessments
are paid. You can only deduct up to
$10,000 (coincidentally the same limitation used in the GOP Tax Act) in 2017
property taxes on the 2017 NJ-1040, and
you can only deduct taxes due in 2018 on the 2018 NJ-1040 , regardless of when you actually gave the money to your municipality. So, prepaying 2018 taxes in 2017 does not increase your 2017 NJ-1040
deduction, and it does not reduce
your 2018 NJ-1040 deduction.
Jake
also spent time on the increased Retirement Income Exclusion and the new tax
credit for honorably discharged veterans that affect the NJ-1040. He said the Division will be flexible in
considering documentation of a taxpayer’s veteran status, and will accept
copies of the DD214, DD256, and a driver’s license with veteran status – which is
a license which has the word “VETERAN” on it.
I was
pleased that Jake announced the state’s corporate business income tax return
(CBT) e-file “mandate” has once again been suspended, as NJDOT is not yet able
to allow corporations to submit their CBT-100 and CBT-100S returns directly to
the state online, as it does with 1040s via the NJWebFile system.
He
also discussed the new totally redone format of the NJDOT website. Unlike the recent IRS website redo, the NJDOT
changes are very much an improvement, and, in my opinion, “more better” than
the old website. Jake asked us to
provide our comments on the new format via the “Give Us Your Opinion) feedback option on the website.
Next
up was the tag team of Abra Watson, from TU, and Robert Skala, a NJDOT auditor,
who gave a good and informative presentation on the calculation of the NJ-1040
credit for taxes paid to other jurisdictions.
Nothing new here, but a helpful, and apparently enlightening to many, review
of the rules.
A discussion
of the Property Tax Relief programs – the NJ Homestead Benefit and the Property
Tax Reimbursement Program – by frequent TU presenter, and friend of NJ-NATP,
Alexis Reid was scheduled next.
Unfortunately, Alexis took ill and had to leave, so Abra was asked to
fill in at the last minute. She did a
great job with the subject. Again,
nothing new here – just a review of ongoing rules, especially for homeowners
who should have been in the PTR program for several years but are just joining
now, and those who were in the program but, although still qualifying, for some
reason did not submit applications for a couple of years and want to get back
in. If a qualified homeowner has never
filed a PTR application, but should have been doing so, he or she should file a
separate PTR-1 application form or each of the past missing years. No checks will be issued for missed years,
but a correct base year will be established.
After
lunch we returned to NJ state taxes with a presentation on the NJ Inheritance
Tax, now the only “death” tax assessed by NJ since the state estate tax was
repealed effective January 1, 2017, by Michael Rosen, Chief Auditor for the
Inheritance Tax Branch of NJDOT. While
Michael is a witty and knowledgeable speaker, although not a particularly “vibrant”
one, I personally have absolutely no interest in the Inheritance Tax return – I
do not prepare them and I no longer live in NJ – so I pretty much “zoned-out”
during his discussion, as if it were an “ethics” presentation.
As
another aside, one voice that was definitely missed at this year’s seminar was
that of John Kelly, a former NJDOT employee and frequent speaker at this event in
the past, who had become a member of the audience a few years ago after retiring
from his state position. In the past
couple of years he provided helpful insight and historical perspective on the
NJ issues being presented from his seat in the audience.
Alexis
was supposed to talk about NJ Sales Tax next, but as she had left this presentation
was cancelled to provide more time for Kathryn Keane of New York, another
NJ-NATP favorite speaker, to give a brief presentation of NY State Tax Updates –
there were basically none – and, of perhaps more interest to the audience, a
federal tax update. I also have no
interest in NJ Sales Tax issues, so this was ok with me.
What
we really wanted to hear from KK was a review of the Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act. Unfortunately, she began with, for
many in the room a redundant (we had already heard this “stuff” at the NATP Annual
Conference, the NATP Tax Forum, and/or the NATP year-end 1040 Update) talk of some
other federal developments. This took time
away from what, as I previously said, we really wanted to hear.
To be
fair, an hour and a half at the end of the day is certainly not sufficient time
to discuss in detail, and provide any true guidance or insight on, the new GOP
Tax Act. KK did a yeoman’s job – but she
was not even half-way through her presentation by the scheduled 4:40 PM end of
the seminar. She stayed on and
continued, but due to travel requirements, many audience members, myself
included, had to leave at this point so we missed much.
If NJ-NATP
is going to devote time to the GOP Tax Act, and it should if national NATP is
not going to offer a specific seminar throughout the US relatively soon after
the end of the tax filing season, it should offer a separate half-day, or more
appropriately full-day, seminar, perhaps led by KK or John Sheeley, in May – maybe
it’s regular May offering expanded to a full day. Or maybe it can join with NY-NATP and PA-NATP
for a joint full-day seminar on the topic.
For
future January state tax seminars, I would like to see presentations on SUI,
SDI, and FLI taxes from the NJ Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services or
the Department of Labor. These taxes
have been ignored in past years. Just a
thought.
That said,
I certainly once again give my “kudos” to NJ-NATP and Jake and Company for
another excellent “famous” state tax seminar.
It certainly did what it attempted to do – and, as usual, did it well.
TAFN
