I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. Tax season hasn't quite crept up yet but it's on the way. The organizers went in the mail yesterday so you should be receiving them shortly.

As you may have heard, the due date on individual returns is April 17th. That is because the 15th is a Sunday and the 16th is Emancipation Day in Washington, DC. We would still like to get everything done by the 15th if possible.

Please note that we DO need copies of your property tax bills this year. The state is going to be tracking to make sure that we only deduct the portion of the taxes that is deductible, not the entire thing.

I went to a tax update seminar today and even though there are no significant tax law changes this year, I learned some interesting tidbits I thought I would share with you:

All sales that would be reported on Schedule D, Capital Gains and Losses must now be individually reported. I can no longer summarize those transactions. This may take some additional time in preparing your returns.

For those business owners that either sell online or have been paid by credit cards from their customers, you may receive a Form 1099-K for those sales. Those amounts must be reported as a separate line item on your tax returns.

If you hold any foreign assets, you must report those holdings. This does not apply to foreign securities held by a broker but does apply to all other foreign assets and accounts. There are severe penalties for not reporting these assets, even if they are not income producing.

If you purchased goods out-of-state or online that are used in California, you are responsible for paying use tax. If all of your purchases are under $1,000 each, I can use a table to compute your use tax or you can give me the actual amount of purchases you made. The table is based on your income and will compute the use tax whether you purchased anything online or not.

I hope that 2012 will be a happy, healthy and prosperous year for you!