Sunday, January 20, 2013

The approval process of yours applications.

 

HOW TO MAKE THAT YOUR APPLICATIONS AND REDETERMINATIONS FLY THROUGH THE APPROVAL PROCESS.

This is the process for approving an application / redetermination of income:
1-They receive the application / redetermination and put a date stamp.
2-In 10 days they review that the information is complete, the checks that have been delivered are consecutive and the last received on the given date. If any information or checks are missing, they should send a letter requesting the missing information and giving 10 days to complete it.
3-If in 10 days you deliver the requested documentation, they process the information. If you have committed part, but things are still missing, they send a second letter.
4-If in the 10 days after the information letter and pay stubs or employer certification are complete, they process the application, if it is incomplete they must deny it.
5-There are a maximum of 30 days after the date on which the application is delivered in order to approve or deny it.

If you make an application using the current form, IL 444-3455 (R-6-11) you can get into the search bar of internet IL 444-3455 to go to the Spanish form, or IL- 444-3455 to download the English form. They renewed the forms in June 2011, you must recycler the previous forms that you have and do not use its more. The DHS will require you use the current forms, not the old forms.

However, if you are making a redetermination, use the forms that the DHS sent to customers that they have to renew. If the client has not received the form, he/she has to go to the CCR&R and ask for one. If any information has changed don't use withe-out, enter the information in the specific area for changes. 


If the customer was approved in another county, the CCR & R need that you fill a new application. Don’t fill redetermination or change of provider. And be sure that you have canceled in the previous program, or in the new program they can’t approve or pay you.

The best time to present a redetermination is the second working day of the month that the approval ends. For example, if you custommer run out care in January, try to submit the redetermination on January 3.

The sons of 19 and 20 years living in the house must always to be count as family members. If they work, your income is added to income parents. If they are 18 years or if they are younger, we don’t need to add their income on household income. If they are 21 years or older, we can NOT count they as family members.

In the application and redetermination, where it says "other family members" never again put the parents and children you have already put, that's for others, like children for whom care is not requested, or grandparents no income living in the home .

The usual cause of delays is missing information. Be sure that every bit is full. If is not applicable, put N / A or streak. Don’t leave anything blank. This is too important to be left to the customer. The provider should review the application or redetermination before signing. And she should always take it to the YWCA, or send by E-mail, and have a confirmation that it was received and when it was received.

The parts that the most forget fill, are the first, the phone; and the last, the signature. Always put the starting date job, because if your client has "overtime" and it is reported in the accrued year, that payment must be split between the weeks worked in the year.

If it’s a new application be sure to completely fill the part of the provider, address, telephone, social number if it’s the first application delivery to  CCR & R, when it began or will begin to care children, license number, expiration date, license capacity.

If the parent doesn’t have a valid social identification, ask him identification in order to bring it to the CCR & R. If the children haven’t a valid social, ask the father / mother the birth registration of children. If you have valid Social, put it,  this save work to review your application. You can also put the number of the medical card.

Ask for a copy of the medical card. Be sure that the names of children and their birth dates are the same in the medical card. Too often, the parents give middle name, which is not used in the U.S., or a surname different from the card. Always put the first name and the last name of the customer and the children. Middle name, middle surname, is useless. If there is a difference between medical card information and the application eligibility, the specialist have to know which is the real, asking for social card copies, birth records, or talking with your DHS caseworker, and this delayed lot the approval process.

The name of the mother and the father, if they are in the house, must be as shown in the paychecks. If you work with a different name, do not bother to apply.

Do not put a P.O.Box as direction. The subsidy is only for families living in the state, and must be a real and verifiable address. They have the option of putting a site where they want to send them the correspondence, under his direction. However, a POBox is accepted if the mother lives in a shelter for domestic violence. If so make a note signed by the client explaining the situation. For example: "I put a P. O. Box because I'm living in Safe Place by domestic violence. You can check with my worker Ms NNNNN, who I have given permission to release information about my situation "

Child care hours must be within the limits of their license schedule. They can’t put that begin to care at 6:30 AM if your license begin at 7 AM. (And avoid care before or after yours hours of license, that may cause to lose their license).

If you are caring children who go to school, PUT THE REAL TIME CARE. For example: Juanito Garcia 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., 3 PM-4: 30 PM. And fill where they ask you the hours that the child is in the school.

You can put children going to school and only need care when the school closes, then make note explaining. Please note that this child has in its capacity as well as a child going all day.

The children may receive a child care subsidy until the last day of the month in which they turn 13. For DCFS a child under 12 years does not count license capacity. But they will deny the child care subsidy if the subsidy number of children is more than your licensed capacity. That's no problem if you have private clients or in different programs.

The eligibility specialist needs to verify all information that seems questionable or false. For example:
• Parents of school-age children who work in the afternoon and asked for their children full time. In this case add to the application a certificate from the employer of your work schedule.
• People who work in a restaurant, McDonald, but say that they work Monday to Friday, when these people usually work Saturdays and Sundays. In this case add to the application a certificate from the employer of your work schedule. If the client works Saturdays or Sundays, put them in working hours although do not care these days.
• Excessive travel time. Explain in a note why they need so long, as the temporary office gives them transportation, they use public transport, walk ...
• Care time not coincides with the working time plus the travel time. If the heels show 30 hours of work per week, but put that works from 8 AM to 4 PM (8 hours per day) and asked 47 and half hours of care (8  work hours plus half of lunch, and half-way by go and back from work), they can NOT approve you. You have to ask them to present check for 40 hours, or to change the application. If the checks show an average of 30 hours of work, put a work schedule of 30 hours. If you always work 40 and just these two weeks worked 30 requests a certification from the employer.

And always, always ask the customer to pay until they have the approval in hand. There is always the risk of denying the application. For example, a customer sent an application, but before they approved, he lost his job and was denied.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

simpler option for calculating the home office tax deduction

As part of ongoing efforts by the Administration to reduce paperwork burdens, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today that it is providing a new, simpler option for calculating the home office tax deduction, allowing small business owners and employees who work from home and who maintain a qualifying home office to deduct up to $1,500 per year.

The IRS also expects taxpayers to save more than 1.6 million hours per year in tax preparation time from this simpler calculation method.

The new option allows qualified taxpayers to deduct annually $5 per square foot of home office space on up to 300 square feet, for as much as $1,500 in deductions. To take advantage of the new option, taxpayers will complete a much simpler version of the current 43-line form.


However, normally, care providers should not use this option, they can deduce much more in the way IS DONE SO FAR, calculating the percentage of space used only for child care, adding the percentage of space occasionally used to childcare, multiplied by the hours that it is used in the year and divided by thetotal hours of the year, and divided the sum by the total area of the CASA. This number, which we call the "FORMULA SPACE/TIME”, is used to calculate the percentage that is deductible as a business expense of devaluation of the house taxes and interests paid for the house, and cost of the bills.

Make sure the person doing your taxes correctly calculates that percentage.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

New Year's tips: EIN, Receipts, incomes




New Year's Tips: EIN, Parent Receipts and Reporting Income
By Tom Copeland. Published with permission.

5090583336_0526005727_z"Should I get an EIN or give parents my Social Security number?"

"Do I have to give parents a receipt for what they paid me in this year?"

"I received a check on January 1st for care I provided the last year. Is it income for the last year or for this year?"
These questions always come up in early January as family child care providers respond to parents who want to claim their Child Care Tax Credit.

Answers
Here are the answers:

I strongly recommend that child care providers get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) instead of your Social Security number to parents. Giving out your Social Security number increases the chances of identity theft. I wrote an article, "What to Give Parents: Social Security Number or EIN?" that describes how you can get your free EIN in 15 minutes online.

You are not required to give parents an end-of-year receipt indicating how much they paid you for the year. I think it's a good idea to give a receipt to parents so they can properly claim their Child Care Tax Credit. You can use IRS Form W-10 for this purpose, the Redleaf Press receipt book, or any receipt you create. I wrote an article, "The Truth About End-of-Year Parrent Receipts" that discusses this issue in detail.

IRS rules state that you must report income on your tax return in the year you receive it, not the year you earned it. So, if you got a check from parents in January for care you delivered last December, this is 2013 income. If the parent gave you a check in December and you didn't deposit it into a bank account until January, it's income for the last year because that was the year you received it.

As always, I'm happy to answer your questions by email (tomcopeland@live.com) or by phone 651-280-5991. It's free.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com