Diversified Accounting & Tax Services Inc.

06/30/2026

NEW WORKERS COMP REQUIREMENTS PER STATE FUND

What this means for WC- an employee at 6 hours a day is considered full time. 5.75 hours or less is part time based off the expected annual of more or less than 1500 hours. Effective at policy renewal, implemented earlier this year.

Change to Full-time and Part-time employee definitions

Earlier this year, we adopted new, standardized definitions to determine Full-time (FT) and Part-time (PT) employees. These definitions are:
FT: Employees expected to work 1,500 hours or more per year and work in a single class code
PT: Employees expected to work less than 1,500 hours per year

If your employee works under multiple class codes, report them as PT in each applicable classification, even if the employee meets the FT definition based on total annual expected hours.

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05/29/2026

SCAM ALERT- pretty sneaky one at that- see last four paragraphs if you wanna skip the story.

Lots of scams nowadays but this one I didnt catch right off the bat, or maybe I did and just thought I was wrong and being a pessimist but here goes, this one is personal, so pointing out my own blunder, but people should be aware. Dont Laugh...

Ok so my husband says hey, ###X ######X, asked me if I could zell some money, $850, for a bill for them as their Credit Union doesnt do zell, then he will have the board cut me a check before our meeting on Thursday. We just need to do asap so he can get a receipt from us for reimbursement in time for the check to be ready by Thursday.

I say OK, get me the info, he provides me a snippit of the email, I say no I need the invoice. So he asks for the invoice, gets it and gives it to me. I am not fmailair with the company but being the worrier I am, I look them up, a real company that does podcast advertising just like it says.

Invoice says can zell or pyapal or something else and provides the zell email address. Info for contact is the info for the company, I verify it online. I figure I can use the email for PP.

I dont want to zelle becuase I wanna pay Goods and Services so I have recourse and with my business CC, get my airline points, and its a company and doesnt note CC service fees. WIN WIN WIN for me. So I go to Paypal, type in the email address, its a persons email, not at the company, so I hesitate on that. Then I think about how AB5 made so many outisde sales subs instead of employees so that isnt completely crazy. So I type it in and nothing gets auto generated and that gives me pause again. Then my gut says somethings up. So I go to the companies website, find out how they take payment, use that email adddress and PP the $850. I include the invoice number the customer name and what its for.

I screenshot it and send it to Jeff so they can see payment made for the check reimbursement. Jeff sends it on to the President of his club. President (email has his name, but saying president for privacy) emails back that look slike the wrong email address, I tell Jeff nope I verified it on their website, he says hmm, the invoice doesnt have the word "The" at the front. I say nope I looked it up. President emails back again about timeframe to reimburse or something.

I say Jeff call him so we dont keep emailing. Jeff calls him and starts with hey my wife looked it up and verified the monies were being sent to the right place. Explains about the "The" word, the Pres says I have no specifics on what your handling I am not involved with that. Jeff says you sent me the email to do it. He says no I didnt. I say Jeff pull up the email and hover on the name.

Its a totally generic email, They were scamming him. I pointed out to the president that his email had been hacked probably, or the clubs, even though not using his email, to get his name and info and position and Jeffs name and info and position, etc.

I told him I had taken precautions when I paid so I could try and get it back. Logged into Paypal and disputed it, reported their email as fraud. Reported it to the bank as fraud. Just in case others were trying to use it.

Gave Jeff a hard time for never actually talking to the guy to verify, Wondered how many had fallen for it, its a pretty good scam, if you reach out to the right person, then chastised myself for being involved in it..........

We got out $850 back yesterday because I had paid GS (goods and services). Be careful you all in can happen to anyone. I thought Jef had talked to the guy, so never thought Jeff was getting scammed. I did worry the President was getting scammed, even made that comment to Jeff.

So the point, hover you mouse on an email address, before opening anything, clicking on anything, downloading anything (including google docs), or OF COURSE sending money on behalf of your non profit groups request, and verify the email address is who you think it is. As John Smith probably doesnt have an email address that says [email protected] as in India or? etc.

Country Codes: Foreign country extensions are often used, such as .ru (Russia), .cn (China), .uk (United Kingdom), .de (Germany), and .co (Colombia).

Obscure/Cheap Endings: Endings like .cc, .xyz, .biz, .info, and .top are cheap to buy in bulk and are heavily favored by fraudsters.

So hover on it all, if its email from someone you know, start a WHOLE NEW email to them and ask them to put the attachement in the body of your email, or verify it with them (which doesnt make it safe just tells you they think it is or they actually sent it). BUT BEWRAE OF CLICKING ON ANY EMAIL ANYTHING.

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05/29/2026

HEADS UP-Taxes owed on old taxes- Maybe not real!

If you get a letter form FTB (or IRS) for monies owed on an old tax returns, please know they can be wrong, and often are.

They can assess when they dont get a response form you. If you dont get the letter you wouldnt know to respond. I see it regularly, but today might have taken the cake on this one.

Dont blindly pay taxes owed requests. If you wanna skip the story go now to the last four/six small paragraphs.

In todays case, got a notice May of 26 for past due monies from tax years 2014 and 2015. No prior letters. Had two phone calls on my priority line, getting transferred, disconnected, and transferred again. 115 minutes later..... oops....... they said (not really but the equivalent), not your clients tax debt.

Somebody with the same name, but an ITIN instead of a Social didnt file their tax returns so they made a tax return (mind you a second one, didnt care one was already filed, didnt even look) Single, no dependents, no credits and assessed the tax and were now looking to collect it.

A few problems with this. We discovered upon numerous questions that 1- This person was in Califonria, but not in this County. 2- This person had an ITIN not a Social. 3- This person had a middle name, my client does not. 4- This person had a completely different address. 5- My client had filed a tax return so penalty 'A' for non filing really didnt apply.

Sooooo my client got a letter of monies due, and a follow up letter of monies due. I mention to Ms. Claudia at FTB, after she says she is removing it, its pretty crazy you can do all of this and attach to my clients account/file/bank without ever reaching out to them. Her response [oh we cant, we have to do due process, send a notice of change, request for documentation, verification of income, notice of assessment] etc. I say he never got those, these are his first corespondence received. She says oh no thats wrong, the first letter was June of 2018, then September, then.... and i ask her ohhh those went to the address in L.A.? She says yes I can see them here.... I said cool, he doesnt live in LA nor has he ever, you sent letter to the actual ###XX ######X that you are looking for. So then we have established no due process. She stopped stuttered and said [well we wouldnt know that]. I said you would have if you sent the letter in the beginning to the address you sent these to, when you decided he was liable for this debt, you know to the address you had on file for him. That is negligence. I think actually Gross negligence. By the same definition you apply to taxpayers.

She says you dont have to get foreceful with me. I point out he took off work early, spent two hours in my office, incurred that debt because you guys didnt care enough to verify info. I am frustrated at your lack of care, ethics, competence, due process, and follow through. Not to mention your lack of protocol in assigning it to begin with. She says we got the info from the IRS. I said you cant even have two returns for the same person, no one even bothered to look. She says he didnt ask. I pointed out again he had no idea to ask as he HADNT RECIEVED ANY CORRESPONDENCE . She says [oh yeah I see he filed married with dependents and got a refund for those years}. I say no one ever looked up if a return existed, how would you have two returns for the same year for the same person? She sais something like oh we dont the other is under a differnt ITIN. And I said well there you go. I guess you guys should have started there.

So thats a lot but here is why. I am willing to bet money he is not the first, nor the last to have this issue, luckily I have done his tax returns for the last 15 years and had the receipt of filing and the old returns and the original income forms to verify the one they assessed on wasnt his.

I am sure there are poeple that dont have the same accountant, or their accountant didnt keep old files, or they dont remember, or they are afraid to take on the IRS or FTB right now, for general reasons or US status reasons. I feel bad for them.

Some will just pay the moneis to be done with it. His today was almost 5k. Not horrible in the idea of what IRS or FTB can try and hit you for, but more then enough to hurt or maybe even devastate you in todays economy.

Someone can help you, just ask, your library, your preparer, your neighbor, your church, your employer, someone has the knowledge or knows someone that does. So ask, ask me if you have no other options. But dont just pay it, and most definately dont ignore it, so you dont miss your allowed timeframe to take care of it.

Please tell others about this, I want people to know that it can be fixed.

Now I am off to try and find a waatchdog of some kind to see if this is an abuse of pwoer from the FTB, before others fall for it.

Take Care All

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05/19/2026

California has started a new benefit for those that live in Ca. It is the implementation fo the Delete Act. It is called Drop. It is a new requirement that if you sign up the data brokers must remove your info from their data bases. They can no longer sell your data.

From what I have read it sounds like a helpful thing. Read it for yoruself and see if you agree.

All I know is i dont need a car warranty, i dont want the approximatley 130k busisness loan I am almost qualified for, i dont want to sell my house, i dont owe the IRS any money, and I like my timeshare, its not for sale either.

The wbsite is

Protect your personal information. Data brokers collect, share, and sell your personal information. You can stop that from happening.

03/23/2026

With the raised amount on the SALT cap, the Sch A is being utilized a lot more. Remember even if you dont do a Sch A for federal it can still be helpful for state, as Ca and other states have a much lower standard deduction. Ca standard deduction for a married couple is $11,412 and a single is $5706. Don't let your Preparer skip the Ca becuase you dont meet the federal threshold.

Lastly remember your FINAL Closing Statement if you bought our refied your house in 2025. If you cant find it, your agent might be able to help.

Less than a month to go, hope you all already have your appointment.

Here's to much higher refunds this year, especially if you always have overtime, tips, a mortgage or a new car loan. 🥂

01/29/2026

Hey All, keep an eye out for email fraud, dont click on nor open things you have not verified, like these two scam emails i got today pretending to be mortgage and loan info. They actually look legit, until you see both came from the same email. Also check the email address the email came from to see if you know it or if it looks questionable.

01/21/2026

Two things are important here in regards to overtime exemptions for 2025.

The code is below, but currently how I read it. MFS cannot take the credit AND for anyone to take the credit they must have a print out from their employer of their pay for 2025. The last payroll check stub might qualify, unless in a state that has state overtime, ie California. Please have your last payroll stub or a verifiable statement from your employer and your W2 when doing your taxes. Most employers dont know this yet, if you ask yours you can supply the code below. AND not quite sure how an employer is going to provide that retroactively, especially with payroll that isn't weekly.

Section 70202(c) of the OBBBA added to the information reporting requirements
of the Code for employers and certain other payors for certain payments of qualified
overtime compensation by:
(1) adding new paragraph (a)(19) to section 6051 of the Code to provide that an
employer must include on the written statement furnished to the employee the total
amount of qualified overtime compensation (as defined in section 225(c)),

01/21/2026

Standard deduction increases

Tax year 2026

$32,200 for married couples filing jointly
$16,100 for single filers and married individuals filing separately
$24,150 for heads of household
Tax year 2025
$31,500 for married couples filing jointly
$15,750 for single filers and married individuals filing separately
$23,625 for heads of household

Marginal rates for tax year 2026
37% for income over $640,600 (single) or $768,700 (married filing jointly)
35% for income over $256,225 (single) or $512,450 (married filing jointly)
32% for income over $201,775 (single) or $403,550 (married filing jointly)
24% for income over $105,700 (single) or $211,400 (married filing jointly)
22% for income over $50,400 (single) or $100,800 (married filing jointly)
12% for income over $12,400 (single) or $24,800 (married filing jointly)
10% for income up to $12,400 (single) or $24,800 (married filing jointly)

Alternative minimum tax exemption amounts for tax year 2026
$90,100 for single filers (phased out at $500,000)
$140,200 for married couples filing jointly (phases out at $1,000,000)

Estate tax exclusion for tax year 2026
Basic exclusion amount is $15,000,000
Up from $13,990,000 for 2025 decedents

01/21/2026

No tax on reported tips starting in 2025 up to 25K for most

Effective 2025 through 2028, employees and self-employed individuals may deduct qualified tips they received in occupations the IRS identified as “customarily and regularly receiving tips” on or before December 31, 2024, and are reported on a Form W-2, Form 1099, another statement furnished to the individual, or on Form 4137 if the individual directly reports the tips.
“Qualified tips” include voluntary cash or charged tips received from customers, including shared tips.
Maximum annual deduction is $25,000.
For self-employed individuals, deduction cannot exceed net income (before this deduction) from the trade or business where tips were earned.
Phases out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income over $150,000 ($300,000 for joint filers).

Who qualifies
Individuals who:
Have a Social Security number (SSN)
Claim itemized or non-itemized deductions

Who doesn’t qualify
Individuals who are:
Self-employed in a Specified Service Trade or Business (SSTB) under Section 199A
Employees of an employer in an SSTB

01/21/2026

Senior Tax Credit for those 65 by 12/31/25

Effective 2025 through 2028, individuals age 65 and older may claim an additional $6,000 deduction.
This is in addition to the standard deduction for seniors available under existing law.
Applies per eligible individual (or $12,000 for a married couple if both spouses qualify).
Phases out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income over $75,000 ($150,000 for joint filers).
Who qualifies

You must be age 65 on or before the last day of the tax year.
Available for eligible taxpayers (both itemizing and non-itemizing).