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NAIC 2001 Club Tax Printer: IRS-ready tax forms in a snap

http://www.naic-club.com/products/tax/

As the club treasurer, you are responsible for filing the club tax return and giving each of your fellow club members an official Schedule K-1 for their personal tax filings. Whether your club has gains or losses, there's no escaping the IRS. The NAIC 2001 Club Tax Printer makes this dreaded task easy and error-free. The tax printer:

  • features a step-by-step wizard to help you generate your club's IRS-required Form 1065 and Schedule K-1;
  • integrates automatically with NAIC Club Accounting (both 1.04 and 2, Windows and Mac);
  • handles withdrawn members or disbanding clubs with accurate withdrawal distribution reports;
  • and comes with complete, step-by-step instructions on what to send to the IRS, and what not to...

Get it on CD, by download, or online through your browser! More information is located at http://www.naic-club.com/products/tax/.
NAIC 2001 Club Tax Printers
...online at www.naic-club.com$36
...for Windows (by download)$49
...for Windows (on CD)$49 + $5 S&H
...for Macintosh (on CD)$49 + $5 S&H

Tax-Time Tips for Treasurers

Who needs to file taxes?

  • All investment clubs that were in operation during the fiscal year 2001.
  • Your club must file taxes even if your club is disbanding.
  • Your club must file taxes even if your club has no gains.

When should I prepare my taxes?

Before generating club tax forms, wait until you have all necessary data from your broker and bank. Remember that banks and brokers have until Jan. 31, 2002 before they have to deliver 2001 year-end statements, so you may have to wait until early February 2002 before you can close your 2001 year-end books. You must complete and remit your tax filings to the IRS before April 15, 2002.

How do I close my books?

  1. First, make sure all transactions for dates up to and including Dec. 31, 2002 are entered in NAIC Club Accounting or NAIC Online Club Accounting.
  2. Make sure you have created a valuation date for December 31, 2001. Don't use the Valuation Statement for your December meeting to close your club's year-end books.
  3. Use the audit task to check (and if necessary, correct) any internal inconsistencies which may have crept into your books. The audit task is located in the utilities area.
  4. Do a distribution of earnings for 12/31/2002. The distribute task is located in the utilities area.
  5. Go to the Reports Menu and print a Distribution of Earnings Statement for the interval January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2001, and an Income and Expense Statement and Balance Sheet for the same interval. Make sure every member of your club has access to these reports.

How do I prepare my taxes?

  1. Open the NAIC 2001 Club Tax Printer software program (info at www.iclub.com/tax). Use the simple question-and-answer format to print out your:
    1. Form 1065 (including Schedule D, supporting schedules for Schedule K)
    2. Schedule K-1 (one for each partner)
  2. Send one Form 1065 to the IRS, at one of the three distribution centers. Keep one for club records, and give one copy to each partner.
  3. Print 3 copies of each Schedule K-1. Send one copy of each Schedule K-1 to the IRS, keep one copy of each for the club, and give the third to the appropriate partner.

Meet Doug Gerlach This Weekend

Ever wonder what the Investment Club Therapist looks like in person? If you live in Southern California, you're in luck. Douglas Gerlach, popular author and ICLUBcentral's own investment club guru, is coming to the Barnes & Noble in Costa Mesa to sign copies of his latest book, Investment Clubs for Dummies.

Bring your whole club to meet Doug and his co-author Angele McQuade at their first book signing on Sunday, January 27th, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM. For directions or more information, contact Barnes & Noble:

Barnes & Noble (at Metro Point, near South Coast Plaza)
901 B South Coast Drive, Ste 150
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 444-0226

Investment Club Therapist: All Filled Up (But Wrong on the Expense)

Dear Doug:

How do clubs deal with sharing costs for dinners? We meet at a local University Faculty Club (not trendy but quite a lift to the ego) and have dinner. The cost is upwards of $50.00 per person; attendance is usually 50-75%. Aside from pure waste of capital and weight gain issues, how should this be managed and accounted for? For many years we "wrote it off" as an investment expense. But I can clearly see from your writing that this should not continue.

- Jon B. (Treasurer in trouble...)


Dear Jon:

It's gratifying to see my years of diligent study and training in investment-clubology finally showing results! As you have learned, feeding your members during meetings is not what the IRS considers a deductible expense, no matter how indispensable your club may find the practice. (Making investing decisions on an empty stomach is never recommended.)

While the cost of meals should never be considered a deductible investment expense on your club's books, there's no problem with paying for them from your club account--if you're using NAIC Online Club Accounting or NAIC Club Accounting for Windows version 2.0. In these programs, you can make an expense "deductible"`or "non-deductible", depending on whether it comes under the definition of an allowable club expense as determined by the IRS. (See IRS Publication 550 for complete rules on deductible investment expenses.) Alternately, you could use the petty cash account, allowing members to pay in additional cash to cover the costs of food at your meetings, and then paying out the expense from petty cash.

Now, your club has another problem--no, not with their waistlines--but with your tax returns to the IRS and your year-end member distributions. Since you've improperly recorded an investment expense, and then reported that to the IRS, the IRS expects you to file an amended return. But I'm a club therapist, not an accountant, so I'm not able to give you any specific tax advice or even tell you whether or not filing an amended return is necessary. (Try emailing ICLUBcentral tax experts Jerry Dressel or Rip West.)

I will, however, use this opportunity to make a point about investment expenses in general. While it's true that the IRS does categorize some expenses as "deductible," for most clubs and individuals, this is completely irrelevant. That's because investment expenses are only deductible to the extent that they exceed 2% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). If your AGI is $45,000, the first $900 (2% of $45,000) of deductible investment expenses in that year have no impact on your individual tax returns. Any investment expenses in excess of that first $900 do reduce your taxable income--if you have $1200 in allowable expenses, then only $300 is deductible.

While I can see how a person might spend $900 or $1200 a year in managing their portfolio (considering all the pricey software and data subscriptions and newsletters and advisory services that are out there) it's very hard for me to imagine that anyone who spends that much is seeing enough of a return to justify those costs.

My prescription: keep expenses to an absolute minimum, and don't be lulled by the notion of a "deductible" investment expense to rationalize spending money unnecessarily.

- Doug

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