Just
as I always knew, before he retired, where one of my 1040 clients would be
every year on New Year’s Eve – he was the technician that worked the machine
that dropped the ball at midnight on One Times Square – you can be sure where I
will be (barring weather or health complications) on the second Saturday in
January every year - at the APA Hotel Woodbridge in Iselin NJ for the “Famous NJ
State Tax Seminar” presented by the NJ chapter of the National Association of
Tax Professionals.
In
the almost three decades that this event has been held I have missed only a few
offerings, due to snow. 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, and certainly
worth, for me, the 2-hour 100 mile drive each way.
The
event always includes a breakfast and lunch buffet, both now offered in the
seminar area, which I prefer. Last year the
lunch buffet was limited to salads and sandwiches, and I had commented that I
would prefer it include hot items.
Someone was listening, as this year the lunch buffet included cold
salads and sandwich makings and several hot offerings. I was pleased. And the breakfast buffet continues to be among
the best of those offered at tax seminars I have attended over the decades.
As has
become the custom, after welcoming remarks from chapter Board members the
seminar begins with a “keynote address” by the current Director, of Acting
Director, of the NJ Division of Taxation.
This year we heard from, still only Acting Director, John Ficara.
I
repeat my comment from last year’s “review” of the seminar –
“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 . . . 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.”
This
year’s address was truly redundant, touching briefly on topics that were
discussed in more detail by the other NJDOT representatives in subsequent
presentations, and, again, nothing about the Division’s ongoing systemic
issues.
To
again repeat a comment from last year’s review post –
“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.”
The
rest of the morning was devoted to the presentations of NJ state tax updates
from “Jake and Company”, aka the Division’s “Taxation University”. Although it is no longer “Jake and Company”,
but now “Bill and Company”. Jacob Foy,
who had been the Supervisor of the “Taxation University”, and had been speaking
each year at this seminar since 2005 (when his hair was down to his shoulders
and often tied in a pony tail), in the earlier years part of the popular “Jim
and Jake Show”, is now the head of the, I believe, Taxpayer Communications Unit,
apparently a newly created position. Jake
was replaced as TU Supervisor by William Malkin. Bill has some huge shoes to fill; he got off
to a good start Saturday. Good luck,
Bill!
Jake
has truly been very helpful to NJ-NATP and its members, and specifically to me
personally with various client issues, over the years. I thank Jake for all his help in the
past. He assured me that he would
continue to attend this “famous” state tax seminars in the future.
The
first topic was “NJ Tax Updates” presented by Alexis Reid, another frequent
speaker at the seminar and good friend to NJ-NATP, who has also provided
invaluable help to me personally in dealing with client issues and NJDOT
FUs. I will be discussing the many changes
to NJ state individual income taxes in detail in an upcoming post, once the
2018 Form NJ-1040 and instructions are available at the Department’s
website. Alexis did report that the NJ-1040,
and its supplemental schedules, has been substantially revised, and the
instruction booklet has been totally rewritten.
I look forward to reviewing the new editions, and, again, will report on
the changes in detail in the future TWTP post.
NJ
business taxes were discussed next, by Christina Quinones. There have been several changes in the area
of sales tax. “Transient Rentals”,
rentals of residential property located in NJ for less than 90 days, are now
subject to the NJ state sales tax, which remains at 6.625%. Rentals that are managed by realtors – the tenant
deals with, receives the key from, and pays the rent to a realtor – are exempt
from the tax. The entity that collects
the rent – Airbnb,
VRBO or other such
agencies or the actual landlord for direct private rentals – is responsible for
collecting and remitting the sales tax.
NJ
now charges a “surcharge” on rideshare services, like those provided by Uber
and Lyft. Again, the entity that
collects the rideshare fee – Uber or Lyft or the individual driver – is responsible
for collecting and remitting the surtax.
There
were no changes to the NJ property tax relief programs – the Homestead Benefit
and the Property Tax Reimbursement – but Taxation University provided a review
of the various qualifications with William Malkin and Tilesha McCall.
Actually,
there was one change to the calculation of the Homestead Benefit. It is now, in most cases, based on 5% of the
2006 property tax assessment instead of the previous 10%. This 5% was used to calculate the benefit
provided issued on May 1, 2018. The 2019
budget provided a supplemental benefit equal to the amount paid in May to be
issued on November 1, 2018.
The
morning ended with a presentation by Jake on the current NJ Tax Amnesty program,
which ends tomorrow (January 15th).
As
an aside and follow up to last year’s comments, I was glad that the schedule
this year did not include another full presentation on NJ state inheritance and
estate taxes.
After
lunch was perhaps the most important presentation of the day – at least for NJ
tax pros who prepare or consult on payroll – “New Laws Regarding Sick Pay” by
John Baldino of Humaresco. It dealt with
the, in my opinion, ridiculous and complicated “New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act”,
signed into law on May 2, 2018, and which became effective on October 29, 2018.
John
began the presentation by telling us to write on the front of his handout “I
did not write this law!” He discussed much
of the program in detail, fielding a multitude of questions from the audience,
but did not have time to cover everything.
As I said this was a very important topic, and it was appropriate not to
limit the questions. More time should
have been given to John, as there were important items not adequately covered
and questions unanswered due to the time constraint.
Again
as has become custom, the final item of the day was a combination of NY state
tax updates and federal updates by popular NATP speaker Kathryn Keane. The big news for NY for 2018 is the state’s “decoupling”
from the GOP Tax Act. As with NJ, I will
discuss the NY changes in detail in an upcoming post when the 2018 IT-201 and
IT-203 are available.
Kathryn
followed the NJ state discussion with a review and update of the GOP Tax
Act. I left before this began, having
already sat through 4 redundant GOP Act presentations in 2018 and because of my
2-hour drive back to PA. As I have said
for the past several years, I very strongly believe that federal topics should NOT
be a part of this seminar. It should be
limited to state tax issues only – NJ and NY and possibly PA. The time allotted to the federal portion of
KK’s talk should have been given to John Baldino for the Sick Leave Act. In addition, the 10 or so minutes wasted
giving out tote bags as prizes should have also been given to John.
As
usual, the NJ chapter, and the state’s Taxation University, did a great job and
once again deserve my annual kudos. And
John Baldino was an excellent addition to the roster. I hope he can return in the future to speak
on a different topic.
One non-state
thing I was happy to learn on Saturday – the 2020 NATP National Conference will
be held in San Antonio. I last attended a
tax conference there in 2004. At a class
taught by former IRS Director of National Public Liaison Beanna Whitlock she
asked the assembled tax pros who still prepared tax returns manually – without using
tax preparation software. Of course, my
hand was the only one to go up. Beanna
came over to where I was sitting and said, “I
want to shake your hand. You are the
only person in the room who actually knows how to prepare a 1040.” Needless to say, I have told that story many
times in many venues over the years.
TTFN
