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Met with client yesterday who tried to do own return on TT. Told her it needs amended and I need a copy. She emails me a pdf this morning and I am about to send it to the printer when I realize it is 106 pages long. Near as I can tell, there are two W-2s and 3 1099R's. 106 pages? Glad I noticed that BEFORE I printed it. Phone rings awhile ago - client needs some help with his online QuickBooks. He says, and I quote, "(female name) that was helping me get QuickBooks set up took a job with (one of the local regional accounting firms) and is working 6 days a week and I can not get ahold of her - so I am calling you." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Honest to God - I can not make this stuff up! Next call - local attorney's office (the ONLY one I have any respect for) calls. Went on line to the PA website looking for the PA20S and all that is there is the 2013 but they need the 2014. Well, I guess I can print a blank one - now I am in the forms supplying business I guess. After taking the time to close the client I am working on and open a new return and open the forms and print - I google the form. Guess what - it is there in pdf format ready to be filled in. REALLY? If I was at all sadistic, I would ask WHAT NEXT? But I know better. But good news - I have completed ONE return today!

I will be political about this. It shows how weak kneed Congress actually is. They will vote to expand the EITC, but not to fund welfare (AFDC) etc, because it is easier.... Its a PITA to go to the office every month, or once a quarter to prove eligibility for benefits. But, if all you have to do is file a tax return? And get a check? Sweet. And the destruction of the incentive to get lower income folks to get and retain work continues, and even expands. Crazy. Rich

I've been fiddling this morning, and I don't even play a musical instrument.

I've got one -- not even a client; a courtesy. Guy has a corporation and his dad is an out of state CPA who does the taxes but cannot e-file the MA corporate return. So I have been e-filing it for them, for years now. They pay me a token amount, for time and trouble. Well, *this* year, I cannot get the MA 355 Sch D to populate correctly to save my life (or my hair color). I have spent FOUR hours on this stupid thing so far and it's not ready yet! So here it is 2PM, I haven't had lunch yet, I am ROYALLY aggravated -- and have accomplished nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nechevo. De rien. Bupkis. Niente. My tea is steeping, and I'm gonna go eat and sulk. Then I'll take out my fiddle for a while. Once I've completely calmed down I'll come back and try to get those other three returns I wanted to finish right off, this morning, done instead.

Say, can you send me the link to that form? I don' do any PA work, but one never knows when it might come up some time and I want to be ready.

Copied from a NAEA Email: Karen L. Hawkins, Director, Office of Professional Responsibility, has asked us to get this information out to our members ASAP! "An email is being issued to tax preparers asking them to log into their e-services account and update their EFIN information. This email was not generated by e-services and the links provided in the email appear to be a phishing scam to capture their e-services username and password. If you receive any calls regarding this email, advise the caller not to click on the links provided, and disregard the email." Falling prey to the scam could (and probably would) cause a WORLD of hurt to the EA in question. So, stay safe, EAs! Gigi Thompson Jarvis Senior Director, Communications and Marketing NAEA

If you pay cash wages of $1,900 or more to any one household employee, you generally must withhold 6.2% of Social Security and 1.45% of Medicare taxes (for a total of 7.65%) from all cash wages you pay to that employee. You also must pay your share of Social Security and Medicare taxes, which is also 7.65% of cash wages. (Cash wages include wages you pay by check, money order, etc.) Unless you prefer to pay your employee's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes from your own funds, you should withhold 7.65% from each payment of cash wages made. If you pay your employee's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes from your own funds, the amounts you pay for your employee count as wages for purposes of the employees' income tax. However, do not count them as Social Security and Medicare wages or as wages for federal unemployment tax.

Mine was yesterday! Wow! Never got out of this chair or room from 7:30 AM until 7:30 PM. My last client left at 7:30 PM; I had not eaten. Ran to the kitchen and truly gobbled down a bowl of mac and cheese as well as a can of beer. The phone had rung steadily through the lunch hour. What is WRONG with people? Today was much better. Finished the one return that I had started yesterday morning. It is filed, picked up and paid for. Have finished two more since. Boy, are we on a roll here. Now, if the cosmetologist who is trying to renew her license online would quit calling me for numbers, I might get another one done before my 5:30 appt. (new client) I also filed a WI online appeal this afternoon. Tomorrow will probably be a different story.

From the instructions for 1041: Trust The fiduciary (or one of the joint fiduciaries) must file Form 1041 for a domestic trust taxable under section 641 that has: Any taxable income for the tax year, Gross income of $600 or more (regardless of taxable income), or A beneficiary who is a nonresident alien. I would file a final return because the penalties for not filing a return are stiff. And excess deductions will pass out to beneficiaries.

Why do people like this get married? He is a tax thug criminal. Probably because he would get some benefit from the system, that he did not want to pay for by filing... Have her get the marriage annulled, and file without him. Rich

Treat them as one. The original W2 for the numbers that have NOT been corrected and the corrected W2 for the numbers that were corrected.

No loss. Expenses cannot exceed income. You are correct in your assessment.

Just use the corrected numbers and check the box indicating corrected. Do Not put both in.

From an email today --- You are receiving this email from the Social Security Administration because you have registered for a my Social Security account, and you may be able to use a new online service that helps people who receive Social Security benefits and Medicare have the information they need to file their tax returns. If you didn’t receive or misplaced your SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S, you can now use your online my Social Security account to get an instant replacement for tax purposes. You just need to go to www.socialsecurity.gov/signin and log in to your account. Once you log in, select the "Replacement Documents" tab. If you don’t remember your user name and password, we can help you. Just visit the link, select Sign In, and then select whether you forgot your user name, password, or both. After you answer questions to verify your identity, you will be all set. Even if you don’t currently receive monthly benefits, or you receive benefits and don’t need a replacement SSA-1099 or SSA-1042S, we hope you will take advantage of the many services available with your my Social Security account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount. Just an FYI as I did not know this --- until now.

According to J K Lasser Profession Edition, Musician have been allowed to deduct the cost of Formal Wear According to The Tax Book, Musicians have been allowed to deduct costumes which were not suitable for everday wear.

Or a 1099 Miscellaneous input screen........or an automobile mileage screen.......

Thanks. First one where I saw the W-2C showing only the corrected information. Any "other" corrected W-2's in the past were always just that --- corrected W-2's simply marked corrected. Overthinking (worrying) -- is worst for my mind than normal thinking ... Thanks again ---- back into easytax land now.

Sounds like a good plan.

Tell him it's not only 'required', it's to his benefit to close it out properly, so that nothing comes up to bite him later. He does not want to be getting something from the IRS about it several years down the road.

I think we've gone as far as needed, this is getting too political, even though I agree with most all of you, so I'm going to lock it now.

The IRS hasn't finished it yet.

MFS and without the daughter is her only choice at this time since husband is refusing to file jointly.

I bought for 2015 through the marketplace but am not taking any advance credit. If my income goes down I figure it's a bonus to help,with SE tax!

Not the snow. Well that too. But I just took another head count. There are 112 returns setting here waiting to be done. And I have 35 compilations to year-end finalize to get ready for returns. So I guess that is 147 returns in house. At one point today I was receiving info via email, through my client portal, through the mail, at the front desk and via a phone call. The door this morning was like a revolving door. Anyway - no complaints Just an observation.

Here's a good quote that should sum it up: "Section 61 of the Internal Revenue Code requires a taxpayer to include in gross income all income from whatever source derived. Taxation of the income from jointly-held property is determined in accordance with state law for deciding who is entitled to the income from the property. If each spouse has an equal right to the income from the property, the usual rule is that one-half of the income from the property is properly taxable to each spouse. Thus, each spouse is obligated to include in his or her gross income any amount which he or she received, either actually or constructively, as income from mutual funds and interest on bank deposits." Source: http://www.lifemanagement.com/fsa6.2.881/ So if the couple had equal rights to the joint financial asset, the only legal income split from the joint financial asset is one-half.

Client is the only employee and is a service business. He didn't realize what the guy did until he got the W-2 form. He wants it fixed to reflect accurate wages/withdrawals. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it.

I just had one of those myself today. Actually, one I had forgotten about; that's why I have the WIP spreadsheet! Opened the scanned docs, everything was there, looked at the handwritten notes, and badaboom badabing done. Emailed them asking if they want to come in or have me mail a package.

1. As far Schedule E, the deduction of expenses are limited to income ( No Loss ) because of the facts you cite.

I was caught up until my assistant came in today and started downloading the portal, plus dealing with all the ones that came in Saturday and yesterday. I did call a client today who thought there was something wrong, and I'm like, no it's just done! Yours was one that had all the info & I had no questions less than a week turnaround.

It might depend on who the charity sells it to. There is a different handling if the charity sells it to a needy person at an amount greatly below its value. Here's the IRS pub specific to donors of vehicles that explains each of the limitation regarding donated vehicles: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4303.pdf

I have a client that returns every year....he smells like Fritos. Not entirely unpleasant...just very odd

If the daughter provided more than 50% of her own support, she cannot be claimed as a dependent by the mother.

I am not trying to be political about this. I agree that getting huge refunds when you have paid NOTHING in is a mis-use of the tax system. I am just curious as to how much effect that has actually had versus the changing income structure in this country, and a longer trend line would show that. I am also curious as to how the actual income distribution over the same period of time has changed. I think that the negative refunds are not the ONLY cause of those trend lines.

My undone piles...

The entire marketplace system is/was a disaster. To expect the marketplace numbers to match reality is a fantasy. This is our government at its finest.

Go to the exchange website and enter the same salary as last year and see how much they have to pay and see how much they actually paid. You are right, maybe the website was too generous last year.

I'm confused too. Taxpayer did work....but didn't get paid in money. Got services instead. I'd do s C .....and expense it all as "barter expense". Or...issued in error. We can't take the value of services as charity....babysitter should not take the value of her service as an expense.

I'm not sure I understand the whole situation. TP 'worked' for babysitter. Babysitter borrowed money from TP. Babysitter paid TP back (not with money) but with free babysitting. What is this work TP did for babysitter? You said TP worked in exchange for babysitting, but you also said babysitter owed TP money and paid back with free babysitting. Was it a job with a W2? Then did boss borrow from employee? And boss pay back loan with free babysitting? I'm wondering if boss (babysitter) issued a 1099 to try to run through expenses on his/her business? Like others said, maybe it is a barter. But it doesn't sound like the 1099 should have been issued. If it was just a loan, what's the difference in paying loan back with money or free babysitting. No 1099, just a loan payback.

According to a webinar I just watched, IRS has new Direct Deposit limits: - Can deposit a maximum of 3 tax refunds into 1 account per calendar year - Only made to accounts in taxpayer's name -- cannot deposit into preparer's account as payment for services -- cannot use Form 8888 to split between tax payer & tax preparer FWIW, this may be the reason ATX now requests the account holder name on bank info sheet.

Amen to that! If I hit that lottery I would definitely hire someone else to do my returns. Let them have all the fun they can stand. Heck I might turn into a day trader. Imagine the fun with that!! Had a client today that would rather pay the penalty. What can you say? I gave them all of the information available to me regarding the penalties next year and so on. So... let them choose. Not my job to sell insurance or force them to be compliant to some ridiculous pile of crap like the ACA.

If I hit that 500m lottery, I sure as heck won't be worrying about clients, the ACA, or repair regs and the 3115 ever again. Maybe I'd even hire someone else to prepare my returns.

And I agree with both of you: I just am not willing to tell them that it makes sense for them not to have insurance. I prefer to point out the facts on both sides of the argument IF ASKED and let them decide what if anything they should do. i am not going to tell them it makes economic sense to forgo insurance when I have not got a working crystal ball.