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I like this new math. Maybe I'll stay in the tax business after all.

Yes, plus you also get to deduct the difference between what you COULD have charged and what you DID charge. Just like the guys with empty rentals do. And the gals with hair do overs do.

What? You're saying I have to report each tax prep fee even if it's under $600? But don't I get to deduct the value of my time from what I report?

Absolutely correct. I would have no income from tax prep if the first $599 from each payer was not income.

I just hope nobody takes our advice. We all forgot to (s).

Draft Tax Forms................. https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/draftTaxForms.html

I believe the $600 amount is only for the issuer of the 1099. The recipient of less than $600 is still required to claim it as income. Ha!

Well, while the PAYER has a $600 threshold, the RECIPIENT has a $400 threshold for SE tax, remember. Unless this truly is a one-time activity never at all likely to be repeated, I'd put it on the C-EZ because while it might not be his PRIMARY business, it clearly was "work, for compensation" and thus is "self-employment income".

Well, when Franklin came up with the idea it made sense, because illumination was really the only thing effected, because they were not heating with electricity or cooling with anything, really. So it's a solution that has out-lived it's usefulness. Of course, governments almost never kill a program for such a "silly" reason.

Maybe we do need a really special sarcasm emoji

Oh, OK. That is such a relief !

I know we have a couple of folks here with double hats (tax and law), and maybe they have an answer for me. Trusts created by grandmother fbo grandchildren, in her state, formed under her state's laws and with situs in her state. No problem so far. Trustees of trusts live in two other states. Still no problem. What happens when grandmother dies? Are those trusts still sited in her state? Or does situs automatically move to the states where the trustees live? Or where the new funds custodian (moved out of grandmother's bank to an investment firm) has principal offices? Everything I can find online states what is needed is a positive decision by trustees along with 60-day prior notice to beneficiaries. Nothing automatic. If that is correct, situs is still grandmother's state unless and until the trustee(s) choose otherwise and so inform beneficiaries. Yes? No? Other?

I think the advice of an attorney in the grandmother's state is not out of line here, though.

3. Rules If You Do Not Have a Qualifing child.Table of ContentsUse this chapter if you do not have a qualifying child and have met all the rules in chapter 1. This chapter discusses Rules 11 through 14. You must meet all four of those rules, in addition to the rules in chapters 1 and 4, to qualify for the earned income credit without a qualifying child. You can file Form 1040, Form 1040A, or Form 1040EZ to claim the EIC without a qualifying child. If you meet all the rules in chapter 1 and this chapter, read chapter 4 to find out what to do next. If you have a qualifying child. If you meet Rule 8, you have a qualifying child. If you meet Rule 8 and do not claim the EIC with a qualifying child, you cannot claim the EIC without a qualifying child.Rule 11—You Must Be at Least Age 25 but Under Age 65You must be at least age 25 but under age 65 at the end of 2014. If you are married filing a joint return, either you or your spouse must be at least age 25 but under age 65 at the end of 2014. It does not matter which spouse meets the age test, as long as one of the spouses does. You meet the age test if you were born after December 31, 1949, and before January 2, 1990. If you are married filing a joint return, you meet the age test if either you or your spouse was born after December 31, 1949, and before January 2, 1990. If neither you nor your spouse meets the age test, you cannot claim the EIC. Put “No” next to line 66a (Form 1040), line 42a (Form 1040A), or line 8a (Form 1040EZ) https://www.irs.gov/publications/p596/ch03.html

I think you are correct, it does require both positive action and notification to change it.

Return was accepted last night, thanks for the tip.

And put that advice in writing, even if it's just an email. Just to CYA. Clients can get VERY forgetful, if they make a choice that comes back to bite them.

ATX and the IRS allow 2012, 2013 & 2014 e-files to be submitted until Nov. 21.

Might be. I was able to e-file a 2013 Form 1040 with ATX last week.

Sch C or C-ez. Trust Rita! She's right!

Nuance PowerPDF Standard can do it. It integrates with Windows Explorer, so you can right-click a pdf file and choose convert to word doc or excel. BUT the reason I bought it is because it will convert the PDF to a fillable PDF. Unfortunately, it's not a batch process so you have to do one file at a time, but it does it quite quickly. If you buy it, tell them you want version 1.0 because it does a better job than 1.2. You can probably find 1.0 on ebay or amazon if you don't mind having a license that the support has expired on. I needed 5 copies so I bought one from the company and 4 on ebay. It's $69.99 from the company and I paid between 29.99 and 34.99 on ebay for the other 4.

It all makes perfect sense; the program was started as a way to *save* energy. Since it does the opposite, instead of scrapping it they expanded it. Typical government program action. (That is NOT meant to be a political diatribe, but rather a snarky snipe at bureaucracies and how they make decisions in general. How many times to we see the exact same "methodology" in every bureaucracy we deal with... too bleeping many!)

Well - for us that have chosen this industry it only messes with our sleep once a year. The other clock change (the Spring one) we are all either not sleeping anyway or in a total sleep deprived condition anyway that we don't notice any affect of the change. At least as far as sleep is concerned. But most of us do grumble about losing an hour of work time.

According to a paper published by M. J. Kotchen at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, the most likely effect of DST is to cost us energy. Using data from Indiana when they changed over to DST statewide, residential energy use actually increased overall. From the paper published: We find that DST results in a 1% increase in residentialelectricity demand, and the effect is highly statistically significant. We also find that the effect is not constant through-out the DST period. In particular, DST causes the greatest increase in consumption later in the year, with October estimates ranging from an increase of 2% to nearly 4%. Consistent with Benjamin Franklin’s original conjecture, our simulation results show that DST saves on electricity used for illumination but increases electricity used for heating and cooling. Both the empirical and simulation results suggest that the latter effect is larger than the former. Moreover, we find that DST costs Indiana households an average of $3.29 per year in increased electricity bills, which aggregates to approximately $9 million for the entire state. Finally, the social costs in terms of increased pollution emissions range between $1.7 and $5.5 million per year. The entire text can be found at http://environment.yale.edu/kotchen/pubs/revDSTpaper.pdf Really makes it seem worthwhile to screw up our sleeping habits twice a year, doesn't it?

Thank you. I will check out some of these suggestions. I have an employee who is very tech savvy, but sometimes, his tech talk is hard for me to wrap by head around. It helps to know what others in our industry are doing. The challenge is to find the right balance between productivity, profitability and security.

I would put in on Sch C or Sch C-EZ. It is income from work. Just like if he worked at McDonald's for a week or a month, never worked there before, and never will again. He would not get a refund of SS/MC tax. We never think anything about short stints with employers; I don't think we should with subcontractors working, either. I think the spirit of the law, so to speak, for line 21 is really "other" income, like awards, cancellation of debt, etc. You know, where there was no work.

Agree with JohnH. If there is any chance he will do the work for them again, add SE. Use Schedule C-EZ for simplicity.

jmdaviscpa.....Why is this a UK site? Seems.... odd. It is simply a media site for.... https://checkpointlearning.thomsonreuters.com/ Which is a dot com site offering CPE PACKAGE's.

Just about any recent-ish version of Acrobat will password-protect files. I buy not-the-most-recent new, never used, licensable versions from ebay (which is usually good for 2 or 3 computers; perfect for a small office). Since it is not the "latest and greatest" it's usually less than half the cost of a new version. Since I don't need any of the fancy high-end features, there is no sense in paying for today's latest. But I do want a valid license. Citrix File Share *is* more than a bit pricey, as is their e-signature program. CPaperless has a much less expensive (per-signature only, no monthly fee) e-signature program that I like. They also have an add-on to Acrobat called Tic, Tie, and Calculate that I also very much like and use. File portal: someone will find a problem with ANYTHING you try to use. I have had trouble getting folks to use the "Secure Send" feature on my web site so I put the link in as part of my email signature. More now see it, at least... pdf995 also has a suite of products that either run in a sponsored mode free (ads with each use) or to license cost roughly $9.95 each (one of them is $19.95) and those are a good alternative if you don't want to try to find/install Acrobat.

It doesn't matter what solution you choose, some clients will have a hard time with it. We don't use a portal. We password protect PDFs and email them to clients. My favorite response is, "I can open the file but there's no place to put the password." You just can't help some people.

LOVE it -- and you are right. Too elegant and too simple ever to be implemented.

Properly worded we could probably get a grant in sufficient amount to allow most of to retire to study the impact of such a simple and elegant implantation suggestion. Anyone on board?

One of the first things I do on a new computer is turn off automatic updates. I set it to just notify. I always wait at least a week before installing and then search for articles on the latest patches to see if problems have been reported.

My solution to DST is change the clocks permanently by half an hour. It's too brilliantly simple and elegant to ever be implemented. You're welcome.

I let the previous post time out before I finished. If your client is working part-time, he should probably have his church(es) designate all payments to him as Housing & Utilities allowance. That gives him the ability to exclude it from income, but only up to the smaller of the amount actually designated, the amount actually spent, or the fair rental value of his home (including utilities, fully furnished, and with all maintenance & other expenses paid).

Yes. All housing allowance is subject to SE. Any housing allowance amount greater than the fair rental value of his home is also subject to income tax. The fact that he is part time does not affect how these are calculated.

I changed the clocks and stayed up an extra hour. My kids got up at their usual time. Extra hour of sleep, my ass.

I did hear one neighbor say that she is glad we are back to "normal" time. Seems that during the months the clocks are set ahead, the extra hour of daylight is killing her roses.

Judy: Thanks also for those links. One of them I already had, but the other two were new to me. I'm not comfortable making a recommendation to the client, simply because I know IRS has an agenda and they often interpret their own rules to suit their objectives. No way I'm going to be in the middle of a disagreement over a couple of hundred unfiled 1099 forms. For now, I'm telling the client I can't recommend not filing the 1099's,even in light of the information we have on hand, but they are free to make whatever decision they wish.