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Thanks Lynn and Margaret. Sounds very interesting. I will certainly checked them out.

I have been using Drake Portals for several years and it has worked fine for my needs. However, I am considering moving to a different tax software provider and looking for alternatives for secure sharing of tax data with clients. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have a small tax practice so cost effectiveness, ease of use and of course security is important.

Just took a look at their site and the offerings I see range from $295 to $695. Just curious what are you getting for $999?

Client got married in 2023 and filed joint return with new spouse. Fed refunded shorted by $25---processing fee?? Spouse made quarterly payments electronically under her SSN. All payments cleared the bank for the amount submitted. IRS transcript matched the return as filed showing refund $969 but only $944 was directly deposited in their bank. No correspondence from IRS. No outstanding balances on prior years accounts. What gives?? Spouses CO estimated payments also sent electronically under her SSN was refunded to her by check with cover letter stating "the direct deposit refund was converted to the enclosed paper check per our fraud prevention measurers". However, the refund requested per the return was $2295 and the refund check was only $407, the amount of the estimated tax payments. Assume the balance of the refund will eventually get direct deposited?? Have not seen the issues before. Any other ideas?

Complex trust document allows trustee the discretion to pay corpus (principal) out of the trust for the sole beneficiary if he deems it necessary to meet her support and maintenance. If there are capital gains from the sale of investment assets in the trust can the trustee decide to pay out only a portion of those gains to the beneficiary and have part of the gains remained and taxed in the trust if she only needs a portion of the gains to meet her support and maintenance or is it an all or nothing situation?

No. Just farm land.

Correction: This was a revocable trust. See below: Got confirmation that no gift tax return or estate tax return was filed in 1982. The wording in the trust is as follows: Mr. X (father) as "settlor of this trust, hereby declares that from after the date hereof he shall hold and administer as "Trustee" the property described in Schedule A (farm ground ect.) and any other property which may be added to the trust as follows: FISRT: As long as Settlor is acting as Trustee, he shall have power to withdraw any part or all of the net income and principal of the trust. I would take that to mean he could have pulled the farm ground out any time he wanted as part of the principal. So until he died he in effect had control over the assets in the trust. Would need to run this by the attorney to confirm. Anyone have other thoughts?

Farm land from father was put in irrevocable complex trust in 1982 with distributable income going to him and his wife as beneficiaries; capital gains is taxed in the trust. They continued to operated the farm until he died in 2002. Farm continues to operate under the trust with DNI going to widow and capital gain taxed in the trust. Trust sold part of the farm land in 2023. My take is the there is a step-up in basis for the FMV of the land when father died in 2002. Agree??

Thanks Lion I did not realize that!

For 2023 client had $227 FTC but was not needed as tax was computed using Capital gains rate which was zero. Regular tax per tax table was $1800. Drake did not show any carryover of FTC. This does appear to be correct. Am I wrong on this

Thanks for the confirmation. These situations always confuse me.

Single taxpayer is sole support for live in girl friend (not related) and her 13 year old son. Girl friend has no income. She and her son lived with the taxpayer all year. Father of the 13 year old is incarcerated. Can taxpayer claim $500 credit for both the girl friend and her son? Taxpayer also has an adopted daughter age 3 who he fully supports and lives with him all year. So HOH status?

Clarification: the parents have been appointed by the court as personal representatives.

Client's son (single) retired from the military in June 2023 and passed away in July 2023 suffering a fall while helping a friend do roof repair. The parents have power of attorney to handle the son's affairs. They have been unable to get the son's military W-2 as it is only available electronically and they do not have access. They have tried numerous military agencies, but no luck. They are now contacting their US Congressman for help. Can I get Power of Attorney to access the son's records with the IRS through them? Never run into this situation before. Any suggestions?

That was my thought as well but had not run into this before. Just wanted to get someone else's input to confirm. I was only concerned that in Drake that is not on their list, just had to use Other as relationship.