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That means Drake rules for Drake users. It depends on what you need. Demo Drake to see if it's right for you.

Lion is right. I switched to Drake and really like it. That does NOT mean it's the right program for you.

You might be able to get a penalty abatement based on first time offense if that is the case. http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2013/jul/20137885.html You might get an abatement based on reasonable cause if you can formulate a plausible argument. I always take the approach of sending the CP2000 back to the IRS with the request for abatement attached and without payment. I request the IRS to send the client a corrected billing should the abatement request be approved and I tell the IRS that payment will be made post haste upon receipt of the corrected billing. Don't know if I am batting 1.000 with this approach, but very, very close to it for sure. Good luck!

Thanks for the sympathy, Catherine and others! I begin jury duty tomorrow for 'two weeks or until dismissed' and know it will be even more challenging trying to get answers and process that last return for 2 German citizens who finally got his ITIN last month. I really don't need this. So I will be in Boston again in September for a week and a wedding. Maybe we can have lunch again and I can see your new digs. Stay tuned! Hmm, the above should have been posted Sunday, somehow I goofed. Meanwhile, the attorney and I finally talked. Her advice was to provide the information from the irrevocable trust dates (grandfather July 2010, no cg, no tax; grandmother September 2013, small cg, no tax) and reiterate that, until the revocable trusts became irrevocable, beneficiary was only potential beneficiary and had no right to info prior. And she could call the attorney or engage a UK-US trust tax specialist and convince the trust attorney otherwise. Beneficiary is vacationing in Italy now so don't know when the fit will hit the shan! Once again, retirement looks better every day...

Synchronized. Think three-dimensional dancing. Synch swimming to Led Zeppelin

You can add the second person to the same efin thru e-services.

Just hide the update in Windows Update by right-clicking it and choosing hide update. Saw a thread on this in an IT forum I follow and the poor IT guy had employees getting popups everyday reminding them to install the update. His fellow IT guys were telling him to do registry edits and group policy edits and all kinds of techie things. I suggested he just hide the updates, like I did. Sometimes techies can't see the forest for the trees. I guess a lot of people have never hidden an update and might not even know it can be done.

Yes. The first RMD he is required to take will be in 2016, the year following the year of grandma's death. If he only wants to take the minimum out, he will use is life expectancy from the single life expectancy table for the 2016 year, and then subtract 1 year from that number for the subsequent year distributions and not go back to the table each year. There is no 10% early withdraw penalty for him because he is required to take these distributions, no matter his age. If he doesn't take enough of a distribution in any year to meet the RMD requirement, he is subject to the penalty that is 50% of the shortfall though.

"employer told them". Another indicator of employment insecurity for the employees, and full employment for those cleaning up the mess. I hear this type of thing daily, an employer is getting involved with an employees tax situation. "I want to make sure the employee does not owe at the end of year" is a good example. I sometimes try to suggest it is none of the employer's business and that offering tax advice can get them in liability, but I usually get rebuffed. As an aside, did you backup your data today? First call of the morning was from someone asking if I have a copy of their data as their computer went BSOD (blue screen of death). Folks, you can never backup enough since your income depends on it, and just as importantly, TEST your recovery process at least once a year. Backing up without testing is barely better than no backup at all.

The repayment will be reported in 2015. Since it is over $3k it can be taken as either a Misc Sch A deduction (not subject to 2%) or a Section 1341 Claim of Right. Here you recalculate the taxes for the previous year without the income that was later repaid, compare it to the current year's tax (without the deduction), and take a tax credit for the difference. See Pub 525. I had a client who had to repay so much leave time (employer kept paying her when paid leave ran out) that they had her repay it over 3 years. In two of those years the Claim of Right worked out better for them and they took the credit, the other year the Sch A deduction resulted in less tax.

Margaret -- I think a lot of us saw the post - but did not answer because we did not have anything to share but sympathy. Which is nice, but not useful. Lion has the best idea; have them talk to the attorneys. Getting the same "I can't tell you" offloads YOU from being "the bad guy who won't help us" - which all by itself should be useful to you. Good luck!

I tend to tell clients to contact lawyers, brokers, etc., knowing that they answer to their own confidentiality rules and will tell my client about the same that I'm telling her -- that I can't give out info. Then they whine less to me. She needs to deal with the trust lawyer and maybe her grandparents' lawyer. This isn't your job.

Thanks so much, Lion. She does have copies of HER trust returns for 2013 and 2014 in paper and electronic form and she has paper and electronic copies of the trust document. I was the trustee of the trusts and executor for the estates of the grandparents so of course have copies of all those returns. The estate was just under the federal filing requirement so only trust returns exist save the Ohio estate returns. I don't think she is entitled to copies of the grandparents' trust returns but have provided an extensive spreadsheet showing all income and payouts following the death of the second grandparent reconciling to the penny every account. Why would she contact the brokerage firm? I am fairly certain that they would not divulge information and, in fact, may no longer even have it as all accounts were closed as of March 2014. I think the best bet is the trust attorney and I do wish she would call me back! I will leave another message and may well suggest that the beneficiary contact her directly. They did meet at the service for the last grandparent at least. Thanks again! I am done with all these trusts in 3 more years but may well resign before then...

The total boot paid is $14,337.00, consisting of cash $2,000 and loan of $12,337.00.

I haven't had any issues either, and I run another depreciation program for more detailed analysis of fixed assets for my business clients that require financial statements. The calculations have been accurate with both programs arriving at the same figures. One thing that Drake's depreciation does not do is that it doesn't automatically carry amounts to the Form 4684 for casualty and theft dispositions. I think it tries to put it on the 4797, so the user must make those entries manually on the 4684. I haven't had one of these to enter yet, so I'm not sure of how the entries would be made. One of my clients had damage and theft of copper wiring, etc from outside a/c units, but the entire replacement wasn't completed until 2015, so I attached the statement to defer that since the gain/loss wasn't determinable as of the filing date. I'll have to deal with that next tax season.